Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center
Online Yoga
05:15 every morning except Monday — practise with the centre's teachers from home.
Practice that does not depend on the weather
Hanoi's winter does not make the practice harder. It makes getting to it harder — the drizzle that starts at four in the morning, the cold that settles over Tây Hồ in January, the twenty minutes on a motorbike before you have even unrolled a mat.
The online class removes that twenty minutes. The same teachers, the same classical sequence, the same hour of the morning, from your own floor.
When it runs
05:15 to 06:30, Tuesday through Sunday. The centre takes Monday off and the online class does with it.
It is an all-levels class, taught in Vietnamese. Seventy-five minutes: long enough for the full sequence without rushing the relaxation at either end.
What an hour and a quarter contains
The Sivananda sequence has not changed in sixty years, and the online class follows it exactly as the room does.
Initial relaxation. Pranayama — kapalabhati and anuloma viloma. Sun salutations to warm the body. Then the twelve basic postures in their fixed order, from headstand through to the standing forward bend, each one followed by rest. Final relaxation in savasana.
The order is the point. Each posture prepares the body for the one after it, and the rest between them is not a pause in the practice — it is part of it.
What you need at the other end
A mat, or a folded blanket on a hard floor. About two metres of clear space — enough to lie down with your arms out and to come up into a shoulderstand without meeting a wall.
Practise on an empty stomach; that is why the class is at 05:15. Something warm to put on for the final relaxation, because the body cools quickly once it stops moving. A wall nearby helps if you are still building up to the inverted postures.
Who it suits
People who cannot reach Quảng An at five in the morning, which in winter is most people. People who travel for work and do not want to lose the thread of a practice. Parents who cannot leave the house before the household wakes.
Beginners are welcome. The sequence is taught, not assumed — the teacher names each posture and gives the modification before the full expression, so a first class is followable without having been in the room.
Joining a class
Message the centre on Zalo at 0339904698, call 024 3996 3339, or write to [email protected]. The centre will confirm the joining details and the fee, and can tell you which morning is the easiest to start on.