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I did a class today where we spent about a minute in each twist pose. I think that's far too long and it didn't make me feel very good acutally (I can still feel my sides and they hurt). So is there an optimal time to stay in a twist? In most of my classes we tend to do 3 breaths, so I was a bit shocked when it was so much longer? It actually made me feel quite angry at my teacher. I thought it was quite irresponsible.

If your sides hurt they sound like very strong twists, so share the gory details as to which poses you were doing.

In an earlier post on loosening emotions with poses I wrote:
"Many find that twists can literally wring out the emotions too. For years I found that a simple seated twist (like Ardha Matseyandrasana) would automatically reduce to me to deep tears of some unknown grief quite spontaneously."

So twists are well known to bring up (raw) emotions which is neither a good or a bad thing. You just let the emotion run through your body or system without attachment if you can.

How long is too long?
Well as soon as your breath gets ragged, or you shake or you feel pain, is too long, and that may be 3 breaths or 30 breaths....like so much in yoga it depends.
In my approach, if you are really hurting, you should exit the pose immediately, regardless of whether the teacher is still holding it for the rest of the class,even if that is embarrassing and takes courage to do.

Maybe there was a particular theme or intention to the class and that was why he/she held the poses so long?

Hope your sides improve soon
T/Boy

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Qi Yoga

I'm not into twists, I find it hard to breathe and when my teacher says relax it just makes me mad . We've done a whole practice doing twisted versions of each pose (it wasn't my greatest moment). There is something about squeezing your insides which as you say TantraB wrings out emotions, but mine don't seem to be the good kind .