Friday Q&A: Timing Your Yoga Poses

Q: You sometimes suggest staying in a pose for about 90 seconds. Is there a way you tell that it’s 90 seconds? Sometimes 90 seconds is a long time and sometimes it is fleeting.

I don’t want to stare at the second hand of a clock – which seems to negate many of the benefits. I set my cell phone alarm when I mediate but I don’t want to reset it every 90 seconds for this purpose - again, there goes any peace.

While I don’t want to obsess about time, I don’t want to stop at 20 seconds when I can do more. I’m not talking about working through pain or discomfort. It’s not my body as much as my mind.

I’m having difficulty articulating my question clearly; I hope it makes sense to you.

A: Fortunately, there is any easy answer to your question! If you don’t want to use a countdown timer to time your poses, you can count your breaths. This is not only simple but has the added benefit of focusing your attention on your breath, making your practice a more mindful experience.

The first thing to do is to figure out how many breaths you take per minute. Since the number of breaths you take per minute varies with the type of pose that you’re doing, you should take about three measurements. Using a timer set for one minute, count your natural breaths in:

1. a simple seated pose
2. a comfortable stretching pose
3. a vigorous standing pose, such as Warrior 1

Once you’ve established a one-minute count, you can then use that number to estimate a given length of time in a certain pose. For example, if you take 16 breaths per minute in a comfortable stretching pose, 90 seconds would be about equivalent to 24 breaths. Of course, this is just approximate, but there is no need for precision in these situations. The only reason we give fixed times for holding poses (rather than numbers of breaths) is because everyone’s breathing patterns—along with their physical abilities—are so different. You may even find that your own breathing patterns change over time, but you can always re-test yourself.

When you want to increase your endurance in difficult poses, counting your breaths is a great way to time yourself. Each month, for example, you could add one more breath to your count, and over time you would quite gradually be increasing your time in the pose and building your strength.

For restorative poses, where you are going to hold the pose for several minutes, you may prefer to use a timer. But it’s completely up to you.

—Nina