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Jara van der Ham | Backbends & Flexibility | Yoga teacher

@jarafelicia

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The idea for an online course started in April 2025, and I thought it would take a few weeks.

It turned into months of planning, filming, rewriting classes, changing the structure, testing everything, filming again, editing... and occasionally questioning all of my life choices, but creating this thing has actually been SO fun.

More than 20 incredible students joined the first version and helped me shape it into what it is today.

And now it’s finally finished.

The Backbend Series is officially open.

It’s 8 weeks, 25+ classes, over 16 hours of practice, and everything I wish I had known when I started forcing myself into backbends and wondering why they never felt good.

Whether you’re working towards Wheel, Camel, Dropbacks, King Pigeon, or you simply want to understand your body better, this program is designed to help you build strength, mobility, confidence and trust in the process.

Thank you to everyone who has followed this journey, cheered me on, tested classes, sent feedback, and reminded me to keep going when I was overthinking everything.

The launch price (€149 instead of €197) is available this week only.

The link is in my bio. by @jarafelicia

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3 months ago

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9 months ago

Get of the couch to do your couch stretch girlies (bet no one’s ever made that pun before) 🫶 by @jarafelicia

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4 days ago

Coocooooooooo 🕊️ (spoiler alert the answer is BORING af, but I get this question WAY too much 🫶) by @jarafelicia

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7 days ago

Kapotasana B is my nemesis, but @claireyogaparis never let me get out of Kapotasana A, where the hands are grabbing the heels and the forearms are on the floor, without passing through Kapotasana B first. And also, one of the biggest lessons she taught me, the way you get out of a posture can teach you just as much if not more than then the way you get in, so never rush, don’t collapse, take care of your exits. So I’m not necessarily saying that Kapo B is easier, it’s just a great way of building strength and control BEFORE you go further. That being said, in this class I actually use it as an introduction to drop backs. Link’s in my bio if you want to try it 🫶 by @jarafelicia

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12 days ago

Also guys is Christy Turlington even real?

🤯

And you don’t even really have to journal about it (also yes total thigh burner)

Come as you are wear pajamas let the practice meet you where you arrrrrrrreee 🌈

Like it’s not at all the same as it was before yet we STILL practice asana that’s crazy

Period

You think you’re resilient? Go to yin.

Regardless of if you can do a handstand or not

They say breathing is automatic but is it really

This flexion based society 🙄

🪐

There’s also a lot of stuff I don’t like about yoga and the way we practice it today like the commercialization, the culty shit, THE ABUSE OF POWER 🤮, obsession with aesthetics, etc etc. Loving the practice doesn’t mean we have to romanticize the culture around it or stop questioning it. Anyway. Still really fucking love yoga by @jarafelicia

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13 days ago

Portugal diary 🌿🌊🌅🏄🍷💕🌝🐎📖☕️ taken in Algarve, Portugal by @jarafelicia

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16 days ago

We often scroll through instagram and only see the end results, but don’t be fooled, deep backbends need deep preparation. Which of these postures are you currently working on? Let me know in the comments I’ll send you some lil tips & tricks 🩷 by @jarafelicia

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a month ago

Ngl I am blessed (or cursed depends on how you see it) with long arms and a tiny upper body so binds are relatively easy for me, but you can totally loop a strap around your foot (or around both of your feet and also add block under your bum for more support while you’re at it, because you make your own fkn rules babe!!), to make this king pigeon variation more accessible. I have so much to say about king pigeon, but the asymmetry in the hips is definitely one of the bigger struggles in this posture for most people, and actually not super great for the body when repeated over time. Dropping the head back makes it hard to notice if you’re dipping into one side, so the half bind is really not just to show off (even though it’s a nice and impressive posture if you ever want to impress the people I’m not gonna judge that). If you want to learn more about king pigeon and flip grip, I have an entire module based on it in the Backbend Series, available through the link in my bio 🫶 by @jarafelicia

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a month ago

Ngl first time I did a drop back I thought I was gonna die. Because, let’s face it, even if you do take your arms out of the equation by walking the hands down the backs of the legs, especially when you’re learning you end up with a little jumpy part where you release your hands and kind of throw yourself into it. So, to make that jumpy part less scary, this is the best way I could find.

If you want to learn more about the technique I use to learn drop back, check out some of my previous videos. I break it down step by step.

And if you’re ready for deeper, safer and better backbends, you might want to check out the link in my bio 🫶 by @jarafelicia

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a month ago

Don’t rush your backbends friends. Full class available inside the Backbend Series 💖 by @jarafelicia

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2 months ago

If you feel like king dancer is never gonna be possible for you, actually so did I. And it’s true that a LOT of different difficulties come into play with this posture, we’re talking flipped grip technique, asymmetry, balance etc etc etc), so I’m not gonna promise you that you’ll get it the first time you try. But with the right warm up, the right understanding in the body and just a couple of hacks here and there, you can definitely do more than you actually think. I give away everything I know about this posture in a long and juicy king dancer class that is part of the flipped grip focused module in the Backbend Series. The link’s in my bio if you want to take a look 🫶 by @jarafelicia

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2 months ago