Hi Anne. I am glad that you are using props to help your students. I am sure they are grateful. Your flow sounds nice, if not a bit full, but since you are going for shorter holds initially, it should work. Let’s see: for the spine you have flexion, extension and twists. Only thing you are missing is lateral (side) flexion (like Bananasana) but you could add that to the Shoelace pose: have them do a side bend while holding the hips still.
For the hips your flow has external rotation, flexion, extension, abduction, and adduction. If you wanted you could offer some internal rotation (add twisted roots when you do the finishing twists, maybe.)
But, overall, you have the main movements: you don’t have to do all the hips work if you are focussing on the spine, and you don’t have to do all the spine work if you are focussing on the hips.
Thank you for that reply!
You were right. I had too many poses!
Especially for a first class where I spent some time on each poses considering the body and potential use of props.
In the end we did
Butterfly
1/2 butterfly
Shoelace (with a twist, but next week I will try a side bend)
Caterpillar
Then low dragon directly to sleeping swan
(Which worked well as a few chose to go to their back and did one knee in and figure 4)
Child's pose
Sphnyx
Arm pidgeon
Supported bridge
My plan is to now use this same sequence and add 30 seconds to each pose each week until we get to 5 minutes.
Hopefully they will continue to be receptive to props as the time goes longer. There were a few who insisted they didn't want them...but could probably have benefitted from them.