I am looking forward to my yoga over the next month. I have extended use-it-or lose-it vacation time between now and the end of the year so I will not be restricted to the availability of yoga in the evening at Thrive. I can pick my classes throughout the day (at least, when I am not being called into the office to finish off last-minute essential work). Although Christmas and New Years wipe out two days, and other days have reduced schedules, I can still fit in a session, almost every day.
What's been frustrating is that since the Brian Kest workshop, I have not had an opportunity to build up momentum in my practice. My brother's funeral, a week-long business trip and the weeks preparing for it, my daughter's move back home and upheaval in the household, working late, family matters, Christmas parties and receptions at work, the Metro Red Line making it unpredictable as to when I'll get home, have all contorted my yoga routine into fits and starts. At most, I manage to get in three sessions a week, not enough to allow me to get into a rhythm.
I have not been disciplined enough to have a home practice. At most, I fit in some meditation, perhaps, some pranayama. It's those days away from class when my body backslides: any extra range of movement is shrunken by disuse, any skill at swinging into handstand does not set into the muscle memory. A home practice does not have to be elaborate. I could work one theme, say, hamstrings, and focus on that for a week. I know I have areas that need systematic work over time to show a breakthrough -- the back, shoulders, hips.
Another intention is to keep it simple. I've been steering myself to exclusively vinyasa 2-3 classes, except for Susan Bowen's Saturday morning class. I usually take Marylou McNamara's Hatha yoga classes. Lisa Johnson's classes are along the same line. I've taken Dana Cohen's vinyasa flow all levels on Tuesday, and she has fairly accessible style that does not demand master skill levels. I also took her yin yoga workshop and it required a lot of discipline and mental stamina.
So What's my point? I am trying to keep my practice simple. I don't want to overreach or impose my A-type yoga personality and sets goals and targets that may keep me striving for excellence, but not be aware of what other rewards yoga can give me. I keep telling myself: relax and don't work so hard; it's the ease and grace of the practice that will carry me the farthest.
Oh yeah! And Desirée Rumbaugh is coming back to Thrive Yoga on January 15-17 for a weekend workshop: The Heart Stimulus Plan (four sessions of 2-2.5 hours). The last time I took her workshop, I really muscled my way through many new poses -- and tore the meniscus in my right knee. So I want to be ready this time, with healthy knees, a body that shifted into a gear appropriate (building on conditioning, strength, strong fundamentals, all guided by mindfulness) for the workshop, and the right attitude. So I have four weeks to prepare myself for the challenge, and much better chances of accomplishing than with the Kest workshop due to personal issues.
Dana Cohen has returned to Thrive Yoga, sadly for a brief stay before heading off to Asia. She will be taking over some of Susan's teaching load during the Holidays, but she will also be starting up Yin Yoga classes. On Saturday, there will be an extended, 3-hour workshop that will expose participants to the approach of targeting connective tissue, specifically ligaments and tendons in the joints and spine, in holds that last 3-5 minutes. This approach differs from the emphasis on movement in a vinyasa/Yang Yoga practice. In both cases, breathing is still central.
During December, Dana will be leading Yin Yoga classes in the normal schedule of classes, and Michelle Fry will be continuing them in January. I took a Tuesday evening class with Dana this week. She made several adjustments in my Downward-facing Dog pose that really helped me focus on accessing the right combination of muscles in the alignment. Amazing what a few gentle touches can do for awareness.
Dana has been out on the West Coast, grabbing lots of opportunities to practice her Thai yoga therapy, give classes and play with fire:
Washington Post Va. yoga instructors sue state on plan to regulate training:
The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia requires certification of all sorts of vocational training programs, including bartending schools, dog-grooming schools and the Ballroom Dance Teachers Academy. Certification requires a $2,500 fee, audits, annual charges of at least $500 and paperwork. Yoga teacher training had long fallen below the council's radar. Then, late last year, a state employee conducting school audits noticed an advertisement for it.
The skirmishing between state bureaucracies and yoga teachers continues. I am not sure if I am comfortable with the Libertarian slant to some arguments against regulations, on top of the muddled perspective of whether yoga has a religious nature and therefore should remain outside the reach of the State. Yoga teacher training is definitely small fry in the vocational training business. For that matter, only a handful of "graduates" actually end up teaching more than a few classes a week. Who's making a living off of yoga? How many students feel cheated by substandard teaching?
Also see the Cato Institute's blog, which in turn points to the Institute of Justice's case report, this You Tube video and this editorial in the Richmond Times Dispatch. An AP wire story. And Reason's Hit and Run blog lends moral support.
The Mid-Atlantic regional yoga competition sponsored by Bikram Yoga is December 6 in Baltimore at Bikram Yoga Baltimore. More information in the Washington (Post) Express article.
I know, contests seem to be the antithesis of yoga's spirit, but it may bring some people to the mat. Bring your own towels.
And this news should be accompanied by this NY Times article: Is the Spirit of Competition in the Soul of Yoga?
This past weekend, I participated in the multiple-session workshop of Brian Kest at Thrive Yoga. I had made a commitment to Susan Bowen, the studio owner, that I would take photos of the sessions, and I was really looking forward to the event. As it turned out, my brother died on the eve of the workshop. Since the funeral was not until the following Friday, I decided to attend. As I told Susan when I showed up on Friday evening, I wanted to celebrate my brother's life on the mat, just as I have included him as my yoga intention for the year.
In a way, the physical demands of the Kest workshop were just what I needed. The need to reach beyond my normal edge in my yoga practice meant that my body's messages overwhelmed the emotional pain of my grief. I had no time to dwell on his death, and when I got home, I had no problem sleeping. Yesterday, I felt so drained and fatigued that I did not go into work, and today, I am dragging again, but I believe it's more because of my grief and pain from my brother's death. Last night I could not get to sleep until 4 am.
Because of these considerations, I have not had a chance to comment on the workshop itself. It was just too difficult to focus on putting ideas down on paper. I don't think I can do more now than jot down some initial ideas and then come back later with something more substantive. Kest leads a physically demanding yoga practice, based on Ashtanga yoga but evolved over 30 years of his own experience. Susan had to wait a full 18-months before she could book a date for him, and we had many people from outside the Thrive Yoga community coming in for the workshop, some as far away as Florida. Many of the participants were repeats, either having taken a class, workshop or retreat previously. His most memorable line was "Some people bring their shit to yoga, and turn yoga into shit."
As mentioned last week, I've been trying to get back into a rhythm of practicing and running so that I could step up my condition and deepen my yoga. But something seems to be working against this intention, starting with the four days in a row of cold rain and drizzle that removed any desire to fit a short run in the evening.
On Friday, I wanted to catch a late-afternoon yoga session at Thrive, but my wife picked me up from work (after her doctor's appointment) and we got slowed down by DC traffic and did not get home until late. But I did end up going to the gym to fit into 30 minutes on the stationary bike and another 30 minutes on the elliptical trainer. On Saturday, I was eager to get to my yoga 2/3 class because I expected it to really test my edge. When I walked out into the rain, I was confronted with a flat tire. I tried to fix it, but the lug nuts were on too tight for me to loosen up with the puny tire iron that comes with my car. I called for roadside assistance, which arrived 90 minutes after my call. So much for my Saturday yoga. I was dragging the rest of the day from the aftereffects of my gym workout and sleep deficit.
Today, I made to the morning hatha yoga class at Thrive, but the usual instructor, Marylou McNamara, had mistakenly thought that this weekend was the Brian Kest workshop (it's next weekend) and her class had been canceled. Susan Bowen had to improvise by combining her Fundamentals class with the hatha yoga class. Susan tried to keep it simple for the beginners (hip openers was the topic of the class) while still provide challenge for the more experienced students.
I've decided that I have to take the approach of accepting whatever comes my way: if there's a suitable yoga class available on workday evenings at Thrive, I should take it because I never know if something will come up later in the week to prevent me from attending my preferred classes. Getting on the mat is more important than calibrating the level of intensity or sophistication of the instructor. Even after my "easy" class, my muscles feel sore and my joints stiff. When I'm accessing deeper layers or combinations of muscles for long holds, I am still getting something out of the practice, even if I'm not breezing through a couple dozen vinyasas or Sun Salutations.
By the way, the Smith clan celebrated my mom's 90th birthday today so there really was a milestone this weekend.
Gaiam has been one of the pioneers of yoga merchanising, and has a strong cast of yoga instructors: Rodney Yee, Patricia Walden, Shiva Rea, Seane Corn, Jill Miller, Suzanne Deason, Nicki Doane. But Gaiam has broadened its scope to a "Life Style Media Company" so it sells household furnishings, appliances and green living, plus other offerings like travel, online education and even a dating network.
In a way, the Trudie Styler's Warrior Yoga is a blend of fitness and green life style, plus the media recognition associated with rock star Sting and Styler. The bonus material on the DVD include interviews with Sting and Styler and a feature on their Tuscan estate Il Palagio featuring the green technology they're using to be as friendly to the environment as possible. They are pitching their yoga, life styles and even environmental and humanitarian causes (a portion of the sales will go to a UNICEF drinking water project in Ecuador - read more about the plight of rainforest and natives).
Level -- Intermediate: Although there is nothing exceptionally difficult in the poses in the routines, the DVD does not give detailed instructions about the poses so I would not consider it appropriate for a beginner. D'Silva gives good audio cuing as a voice-over so once you've gone through the routines a couple of times, you'll have no problem following up. But if you are a novice, it would be a challenge to make the transitions from pose to pose. Plus, there are a few poses Styler and D'Silva make look deceptively easy because of their years of practice and discipline. That's not to say that a beginner couldn't take shorter segments and work with them until he/she is comfortable. There are two sessions: a 50-minute practice and a 20-minute "express" practice.
London-based fitness empresario James D'Silva clearly takes the yogic lead. He builds his practice with relatively long sequences of poses (like 10-minutes) that focus on one side of the body, and then the sequence is repeated on the "other" side, even though there are many poses that are "neutral" -- facing forward. These long sequences are a lot more than just a Sun Salutation, but less than any of the Ashtanga series. This approach at first seems repetitive. At one point, I had the sensation that I was seeing a video loop, paying over again. But this repetition is really functional: you go through movements and poses repeatedly, each cycle a little deeper.
Grace in movement: D'Silva draws strongly from his background in classic and contemporary dance to give the sequencing a dance-like quality in which poses are strung together in smooth succession so that one asana blends gracefully into the next. I thought his use of the arms, especially the archer-like movements in warrior II, was a stroke of inspiration. D'Silva gives good cuing for breath with movement, and I never got the sense of being out of sync. Since the poses are held for several beats, there is always a chance for you to catch your breath. The pace is moderate and controlled. On the other hand, D'Silva's phrasing (and accent) is different (he's British, dah!) and I noted a couple of pose names that did not jive with asana names used in the States.
For some American yogis, it may take some time to get used to D'Silva's style because it is so studied and choreographed. Compared to most vinyasa sequences, there are few jump-backs and jump-forwards so it seems less athletic.
I've been referring to D'Silva too much. It's Styler's video and she gives a more human stance, compared to D'Silva's near perfection. She modifies some of the poses to a more accessible form. For a woman who's in her mid-50s, she shows that a regular yoga practice has its rewards.
As might be expected from an experienced film producer like Styler, the production quality is superb. In addition, the filming takes place at Styler and Sting's Tuscan villa Il Palagio so there's some extraordinary settings for each practice. Warrior Yoga takes place in the garden, with manicured lawns, trimmed shrubbery and stately trees. Camera angles are varied and interspersed so you get multiple takes on poses, sometimes focusing on Styler or D'Silva, or both of them together. Did I mention that Sting provides background music? Just the right tone for the practice.
What I did not like: the meditation segments. There are two six-minute versions with the same script. The voice-over (Styler in one and D'Silva in the other) is giving instructions throughout the whole segment, no silence, no break, so when exactly are you supposed to meditate? I guess Styler and her team thought they had to give a nod to meditation as the ultimate goal of yoga. It's overkill.
In the end, I think this video would be a great change of pace if you are looking to shake up your habits on the mat, and break out of standard fare of Americanized vinyasa calisthenics. The DVD was being released today. Trudie Styler Core Strength Pilates and Trudie Styler Cardio Dance Flow will be coming out in early December, just in time for Christmas. Yoga Warrior has lots of teasers to give you a glimpse of what the future ones will contain.
Full disclosure: I received an advance copy of the DVD at no cost. The final retail version may be different. I did not receive any compensation for this review. (Drat! It was hard work.)
Labels: life style, teachers, videos
The Globe and Mail Trouble on the Om front - Some Toronto yoga instructors go to the mats with as little as two days training. That's left students bent out of shape reminds us that yoga practice incorrectly can lead to injuries and a contributor to this risk is the inexperience of instructors who are not adequately trained to be aware of and adapt to the needs of each student:
Mr. Canning, who originally trained in Bikram, or hot yoga, in Los Angeles, has seen firsthand how important teacher programs are in ensuring a safe and inspiring environment. After ending up with two excruciatingly painful herniated discs in his spine from an aggressive teacher-training program that was "push, push, push," Mr. Canning built a studio devoted to a practice where instructors focus on listening to the needs of their students. And he mandates that they have a year of training behind them.
"That 'push' attitude - we all moved away from that," says Mr. Canning. "If anything, yoga should heal."
ChicagoNow's BreathBodybalance blog reminds us in A Closer Look at Yoga Chicago Magazine that local magazines or newsletters like YogaChicago don't have to try to replicate Yoga Journal to be of value:
It started at eight pages and this year it's 72. People use to come to me with ads and stories on a disc until the printer was like, you gotta go digital! (laughs). I write and edit a majority of the stories then send it off to a professional editor, Ellen Bernstein. Besides teaching three times a week, this is my full-time job. Ads pay for everything, but I try to keep the fees low because I know most studios don't make a lot of money. I even trade some articles for ad space.
CNN Prison inmates go Zen to deal with life behind bars is abou the Prison Darma Network:
There is no group tracking the number of inmates converting to Buddhism or engaging in meditation practices. But programs and workshops educating inmates about meditation and yoga are sprouting up across the country. Meditation can help the convicts find calmness in a prison culture ripe with violence and chaos. The practice provides them a chance to reflect on their crimes, wrestle through feelings of guilt and transform themselves during their rehabilitative journey, Buddhist experts say.
Labels: health, meditation, news, reading, teachers
I've been asked to review a new yoga DVD that Gaiam will be releasing later this month: Trudie Styler's Warrior Yoga. In case that name does not sound familiar, think wife of Sting -- you know, the rock star who "practiced yoga so that he could have tantric sex with his wife for hours on end" and earned a spot in mainstream consciousness (Well, Sting actually waffled on that claim, something about being drunk at the time, or something like that, because the story seems to change over time, but he and his wife do practice yoga; that part is true). Trudie Styler is an actress, producer and environmental advocate in her own right, as well as being a fifty-something mother of four, so I guess she does have a "warrior" quality about her. This DVD seems to be about more than just yoga for (sexual) fitness's sake. In fact, Gaiam's advance work seems to highlight life style choices and environmental sustainability as much as yoga styles.
Styler herself does not claim to be a yoga instructor, more a yoga evangelist. For yogic inspiration, she has recruited James D'Silva, a Pilates-slash-Yoga-slash-dance instructor who was borned in Gao, India and moved to England young. He has become London's version of "trainer to the stars," helping the likes of Madonna and other celebrities. He has a wellness center, Bombay Gymkahana, in London. He has been working with Sting and Styler with their private practice for more than five years.
A portion of the proceeds of this DVD is being donated to a UNICEF Drinking Water Project in Ecuador for rainforest residents whose water supply has been polluted by petroleum exploitation.
Once I've had a chance to view the DVD with care, I'll provide my take on it.
Postscript: As a blast from the past, here is a Yoga Journal article from December 1995: Ganga White interviewed Sting. It's not laid out well, but it's still readable. More recently, White wrote a book, Beyond Belief: Insights to Awaken and Deepen Your Practice, and Sting contributed in Foreward. It confirms that Sting and Styler have been involved with yoga for the long haul.
Now that Yoga Month has come and gone, we can get on with our regular practice. Shiva Rea is coming back to the DC area in October 9-10 at Flow Yoga. This will be one of the largest mega-classes this year because Flow will probably hold the event in an outside site to pack as many yogis, shoulder to shoulder, into a limited space. Sign up early (if you still can) and go early.
I will be looking forward to the Brian Kest workshop at Thrive Yoga on October 23-25. A leading advocate of Ashtanga yoga on the West Coast, he has been a symbolic bennchmark for me. When I started out doing yoga five years ago, I used to watch the free yoga workouts on my cable service. For a while, it was one of Brian Kest's videos. But they were so demanding for me that I could never get beyond the opening sequence before pooping out. The cable service rotated the video to other yoga instructors so I never got a chance to catch up with Kest's pace. Of course, it took me a couple of years to just make it through a full vinyasa session.
Now I think I can handle it. That's pretty amazing considering that I turned 60 last week. And I look at the coming decade of my life as even more challenging and fulfilling than previous ones because I am a more whole and healthy as a person.
Los Angeles Times Yin yoga: yang-style's less aggressive counterpart explains the payoff in doing less, citing Paul Grilley, Sarah Powers, Kelly McGonigal, Dina Amsterdam, Via Page and Molly Lannon Kenny:
Yin yoga's proponents say the physical effects can have a profound emotional component as well, by teaching practitioners how to handle discomfort and strong sensations. For that reason, yin yoga is being used in some addiction and trauma recovery programs.
Labels: health, mind health, news, teachers
Washington Post Pursuing Rapture Without Regulation, Yogis Take Position Against Va. Policy is about the Virginia state government waking up to yoga teacher training and laying down the law about registration.
The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia recently declared that studios offering yoga teacher instruction must be certified. That involves a $2,500 fee, audits, annual charges of at least $500 and a pile of paperwork.
Yogis, in an unlikely departure from their usual mission to foster harmony and balance, are pushing back. They launched a letter-writing campaign to Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) and state lawmakers and started a "Virginia Yoga Teachers" page on Facebook to organize it. Even Sen. Mark Warner's former private yoga instructor said she asked his office to back their effort.
CharlotteObserver.com Mary Lou Buck's yoga journey:
Buck, now a petite 72-year-old with silver hair, would become one of Charlotte's pioneer yoga instructors. After teaching and studying for years, she opened the city's second private studio, Yoga for Life in Dilworth, in 1998. Phyllis Rollins opened the 8th Street Studio believed to be the first, in 1993.
Who says you can't start something new late in life? Buck founded her studio in 1998 when she was 62 years old, but had already been teaching since 1980. She still teaches even though she just sold the studio. Even more intriguing, Buck lives in North Carolina, not one of the hotbeds of yoga in the country so she was a pioneer in a region where it was not trendy to take up yoga.
Be sure to take in the accompanying photographs of Buck's class.
At Thrive Yoga, Dana Cohen was substituting for Susan, the studio owner, so I got a double dose of Dana's hybrid style, vinyasa flow 2/3 on Saturday and vinyasa flow all levels today. I don't think I could really tag Dana with a specific yoga brand (Iyengar, Ashtanga or Anusara). Or maybe she draws on multiple sources, both from yoga and beyond (Thai massage, for instance). Both classes were about the same intensity, but today's pace was a bit slower since we were working on opening up hamstrings and hips. The constant in both classes was that Dana reserved a good 15 minutes to savasana/meditation at the end. Of all my teachers, she is the most reliable for fitting in that cool down phase.
Labels: class, meditation, teachers
I was following John Friend's twittering and came across a link to this shot. Twitpic has several other shots of massed yogis in formation. Awe-inspiring gatherings that project channeled prana. Friend is on tour, currently in Canada, putting on workshops for Anusara yoga teachers.
As a hack photographer, I am fascinated by shots of yoga practice, both the group sync and the individual pose. John -- or his people -- have many opportunities. It's a lot harder than it looks because the photographer has to capture the instance of grace in poor, indoor lighting, and frequently in movement.
This article in the Boston Globe, Yogi Bikram Choudhury likes the finer things in life, is a short piece with a big photo. Post data: And this article, Yoga Fever: Bikram Choudhury's 105-degree workout is a hot ticket, came out on Sunday in the same paper and is a much longer feature piece that focuses on some of Bikram's ego-centric rants and commercial hyperdrive. Tenley Woodman, the columnist, ends her piece with her own personal experience in a Bikram class: "The last 20 mintues of class leaves me feeling nauseous and exhausted. I begin to question my sanity. My heart races, my knees shake from fatigue. I swear I will never, ever submit myself to this torture again." But she does. The article is accompanied by a nice photo gallery.
To compensate for this fluff, here is a more substantive article about a woman taking a Bikram class from the Everett (Wa.) Herald.
Catching up on the news about Pattabhi Jois's death, I pulled together more obits from major media: The Economist (a good article), Guardian,Times (UK), Examiner (this chain of suburban tabloids has a lot of yoga articles because many local editions have independently contributed articles.).
Indian newspapers seemed to give less space to his obit than international media: rediff news Deccan Herald The Hindu with a nod to Churumuri for the Indian links.
New York Times He Rocks, They Flock: The Yoga King is Vinnie Marino, a former drug addict and New Yorker:
Mr. Marino leads challenging classes of nearly 90 people, six days a week, twice a day, at the Yoga Works studios. His class fuses different types of yoga that incorporate flowing from one pose to another (vinyasa and Ashtanga) and holding certain poses for a long time while focusing on alignment (Iyengar). The sweat alone makes it seem closer to a high-impact aerobics class than a discipline with a meditational aspect.
In many ways, this piece runs though the usual clichés of personality profiles of yoga/spirituality teachers, whether he/she's a street-smart Buddhist or a business tychoon on a mat. But you always learn something new. For instance, Marino teaches the actor Robert Downey Jr.; somehow, I knew that Downey's turn-around from drug- addled trouble-maker to elite actor would have a different twist.
A global yoga pioneer has died, as announced on SHRI K. PATTABHI JOIS ASHTANGA YOGA INSTITUTE:
May 18, 2009 Guruji passed away today at 2:30pm (Indian Standard Time). Thank you for all your condolences and prayers. Please kindly refrain from contacting the family directly at this time.
Sad news for anyone who has been touched by his work. Below, I am posting the best articles and tributes that I come across:
- New York Times: Krishna Pattabhi Jois, Leading Expert in Yoga, Dies at 93 (nice piece, not just a news wire story)
- Guardian: Yoga Guru Dies
- USA Today: Major yoga figure dies
- Hawaii Health Guide: Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois- Ashtanga yoga legend passes
Seane Corn was the focus on a Speaking on Faith feature on Yoga: Meditation in Action in September last year (How I missed this, I don't know. I suspect it was because I was absorbed by my injured knee). I've mention her before in the blog because of her yoga outreach program, Off the Mat, Into the World. There is a podcast or you can listen online, but there's a lot more to explore that goes beyond the radio program. As a teaser, The video that follows is from Yoga Journal's Yoga from the Heart and was recorded at a conference. Seane mentions that she practices as a prayer for her father fighting cancer, and that touched me because my brother is going through the same struggle. I was in awe of Seane's control and pace during the Sun Salutation.
Seane Corn Demonstrates "Body Prayer" from Speaking of Faith on Vimeo.
Labels: audio, life style, practice, teachers, videos
When I bought my camera last week, I had a twinge of hesitation, even reluctance, and it was not just because it was almost four hundred dollars more on my credit card. Getting into serious photography means that I have to devote time to learning how to use the unique technology encased in SLR cameras. Sure, with default settings, I can take dramatically better photographs than with a point & shoot camera, like my Sony Powershot A630. But when I get into more challenging shooting environments, like inside studios, then it becomes more complicated to get the right settings. I've been winging it so far, and then hoping to correct any flaws in lighting, hue, contrast or saturation while retouching the digital photos on my computer. That brings me to the second cause for reluctance, learning how to manipulate digital photos in Adobe PhotoShop (for serious professionals) — or Corel Paintshop Pro (for amateurs who wanted a full-featured application) in my case, at least for the time being — without turning them into garish reflections of the real thing.
I don't think that it's exceptionally hard to get the basics of photography: it just requires setting some time (hours, days, man-years?) aside to read the manual, supports sites, photography blogs, etc. and then apply the skeleton of a knowledge system while the ideas are still fresh in the head. I frequently will do the research, but then not find the time to apply the tips and tricks soon enough to consolidate the lesson. With a number of pending projects and to-do lists, I don't need another major task, but it looks as if I have done just that.
This became apparent to me after my latest round of shooting yoga poses at Thrive Yoga. Using my son's Nikon D90, I was able to shot more richly detailed photos and not have to worry about being out of focus or poorly lit. But once I got back home and worked with the material, I began to see shortcomings and flaws. First, rather than using the built-in flash, a separate, stronger flash bounced off the ceiling would have produced much better lighting. Second, another lens or two would have allowed me to have more variety in my angles and scope. Those two points can add nearly $350-500, minimum, to the price tag of this "hobby."
As to the initial hurdles of getting on firm footing with manipulating the digital files, I probably should have a couple of chats with my son, Matt, who has gone well beyond the initial steps of mastering digital photography.
Flow Yoga Center is sponsoring additional activities on Monday, January 19, taking advantage of the presence of two leading yoga teachers, Shiva Rea and Seane Corne. Seane will have a two-hour session from 10-12, followed by two sessions (1-2:45pm and 3-5pm) with Shiva. The third session has already filled up. All yoga sessions will be held at the Washington Ballet facilities. Remember that January 19 is a holiday so you may have some free time to take in a day session. You can sign up at the online store. These events lead into the evening Chant 4 Change: Inaugural Kirtan Festival. There may be other events taking place around the inaugural so you may want to check with your local yoga studios. You also have the Yoga Day USA the week after the inauguration.
NYTimes.com Yoga Classes Play Up the Lighter Side opened the year with a chuckle about the use of laughter in the yoga studio:
"I do think there's a trend toward lightening up in the yoga community," said Kelly McGonigal, 31, the editor in chief of the International Journal of Yoga Therapy (found at iayt.org). "Mostly around the rigidity and humorlessness of doing things 'the one right way' &emdash; always having to get better, feeling like every yoga practice has to be one big self-improvement project."
I was struck by the lameness of some of the attempts at humor cited as examples of a trend in this article. I really had to search for some text to pull out in a quote. I suspect that the context gives more meaning to the words. The point about yoga being taken too seriously is right on target; I am guilty of it myself.
Labels: life style, news, teachers
My daughter, Stephanie, has been awarded her 200-hour yoga teacher credential by the Flow Yoga Center teacher training program. It's taken her a while, in part because she is so conscientious about fulfilling all the obligations and mastering the material. She took it very seriously. For about six months, she has been volunteering yoga classes at one of the House of Ruth's shelters for battered women. Now she's going to be looking for more teaching opportunities.
Great going, Estef!!!
Labels: life style, milestone, Stephanie, teachers, yoga
I went to Thrive again this evening, after giving myself 48 hours to recover from my first yoga session in four months. Tonight's class was with Elizabeth Pope, a new teacher for me, who joined the studio after I hurt my knee. She's been exposed to a range of teachers, from Kasthaub Desikachar to Ana Forrest. It was a good solid class for all levels so I modified most of the poses to concentrate on my knees. Where I really felt it was in my shoulder and upper arms: all the chararungas in the vinyasas were punishing me for wimping out during my convalescence and not maintaining my core strength. Elizabeth confirmed this conclusion by making us do multiple sets of abdominal exercises that left me barely able to lift my head and neck off the ground. I sweated profusely and had to take child's pose on several occasions because my conditioning has lagged far more than it should have, especially in the last few weeks when I was struggling with resistance to going to the gym and the studio.
Labels: balance, class, conditioning, core, injury, teachers
Back in late June, I mentioned that I had been offered a chance to join Gaiam Yoga Club. After a slow start due to a hectic schedule, I have started to follow the program on a daily basis and have now finished up my third week. Rodney Yee and Colleen Saidman are the teachers in this intensive yoga immersion program. The core is in three formats:
- Videos of demos: these are Flash videos with very high production values, both in terms of visuals and audio. I've seen a good number of yoga DVDs. These are up there with the best ones for beginners. Each week's material is divided up into 10-12 segments that can be viewed independently. Yee and Seidman take turns demoing the poses and vinyasas. They provide a huge volume of insight and tips into the poses. It reminded me of all the good hands-on workshops that I've taken in the past two years (Beryl Bender Berch, Jordan Bloom, Alan Finger, Desiree Rumbaugh) because all the good teachers pound away at reinforcing the fundamentals and the details of the poses, even with experienced practitioners. You can come back to these videos repeatedly to review the instructions, see the adjustments that Yee and Seidman make to each other, and catch something new that you had missed the first or second time around.
- Audio podcasts: you can listen to these daily practices, either in your browser, in an audio application or downloaded and save as a podcast to be played in your MP3 player. These sessions, narrated by Yee or Seidman, are 20-35 minutes long and follow up on the points made in the video sessions. The audio is useful because it makes me focus on my body, rather than peeking up at a computer monitor or TV screen.
- Visual sequences of each daily practice: these are photos of Yee and Seidman in the poses of the sequences, which gives visual queues to those who may not know the Sanskrit names of all the poses yet or may be unsure about all the components of the pose.
As I've mentioned before, a rep from Gaiam Yoga Club invited me to test their program free of charge for 13 weeks or about three months. The way I'm going, I won't finish the whole "12-week" program because I have skipped a week or a night of checking into the web portal to take the next lesson so I've fallen behind. The Gaiam Yoga Club cost about $65 a quarter ($5 a week, as they like to describe it).
Chicago Tribuine Bikram: The McDonald's of yoga? interviews Bikram Choudhury about his brand of hot yoga:
"On some days, I can see why Choudhury’s tightly controlled empire of 500 certified yoga studios and 6,000 yoga teachers—with new locations planned for Evanston, Oak Park and Chicago’s Andersonville—is growing, because the structured routine is exactly what I crave. I know I will sweat when I walk into a Bikram studio, whether it’s in Scotland or Naperville. I know the teacher will tell me to 'lock my leg like a lamppost' because the dialogue is scripted. And I know I will feel clear-headed and energized afterward."
You will find the full text of the interview Talking with "hot" yoga founder Bikram Choudhury. There are some great photos of Bikram leading a huge number of people in a mirror-walled room, which just amplified the impression of regimentation.
I've been taking some class of Forest Yoga from Christine Peterson at Thrive Yoga. So I was bouncing around my usual surfing points and came across an audio interview with Ana Forest herself at Yoga Peeps. I listened and was impressed by her life story and attitude towards yoga (I was already impressed by her yoga performances). She is exploring the depth of yoga by bringing the optics from her Native American heritage and her own physical handicaps:
"What I've been found, no matter what age we are, we can build healthy muscle tissue or we can rot. And the choice is always ours. And I'm not into rot."
Forest Yoga classes are intense and physically demanding, focused on physical core strength and body integrity. They hurt, but I know that they target areas that I need to strengthen to get to the next level. I find it a nice counterbalance to vinyasa classes that emphasize ease of movement, balance and flexibility. There are not many instructors that are certified to teach Forest Yoga, so probably the easy way to incorporate some of her techniques is to her DVD Strength & Spirit at her website. If you want to read articles and interviews, she has an exhaustive selection.
Labels: life style, practice, teachers
Desiree Rumbaugh
Anusara Yoga teacher
I wanted to sketch out some ideas about the Desiree Rumbaugh workshop at Thrive Yoga this weekend. You would think that 13 hours of yoga spread over three days would generate a lot of grist for the mill, but there's been little opportunity to clarify my mind. Friday night after the first two-hour session, I was involved in family affairs (my mother-in-law arrived from New York City and daughter spent the night on her way to Philadelphia for the weekend.) until late.
Last night, I went straight home and ate anything to give me some quick energy. I thought about doing something useful, but I was too tired to write anything about the workshop. In the end, I went to bed. The next morning, I dragged myself out of bed, served myself a bagel and a cup of coffee and made it to the studio by 8:45. I wondered if I had made the right decision: my hips, thighs and calves were all stiff and felt like dead weight. I felt flat and a bit burned out. But once the yoga started moving my limbs, my energy got better. By the end of the last session (Yoga Therapy), all I could think of was to get more fuel into my system.
Kathy Donnelly, Desiree Rumbaugh, Suzie Hurley and Susan Bowen welcomeall the Anusara aficianados to the first night of the workshop.
First finding: all-day yoga workshops make it hard to get adequate meals. I did not want to overeat at breakfast and lunch for fear that it would interfere with the yoga. But all the energy consumed during the sessions means that a late dinner just makes you want to go to bed. If I had taken just one session a day, it would not have made much of a difference, but double sessions are grueling.
Second finding: Anusara yoga has a strong foothold in the DC area. Desiree drew workshop participants from as far away as New York, Pennsylvania and even California, but many current Anusara teachers from the DC area (and their students) renewed their relationship with Desiree. Lots of hugs and kisses before and after each class: Willow Street Yoga, the Yoga Center of Columbia , Inner Reaches Yoga, and probably a few others, were all present. Friday night and Saturday morning, not another mat could have fit into the expanded room (maybe 70 in all). The other sessions still had slots available, but there were a lot of new faces. That's pretty good, considering that the workshop fell in the middle of summer. Thrive's owner, Susan Bowen, says that Desiree will be back soon.
Desiree demonstrated how to get deeply into cobra pose.
Third Finding: Desiree Rumbaugh is an exceptional teacher, and it's easy to see why she's gained such a great reputation. She has a knack for driving home the Anusara message of proper alignment, joyful attitude and balanced action in asana after asana, spotting the necessary adjustments to more fully manifest the pose in her students, and enthusiastic narrative that intertwines her own self-discovery and healing through yoga and the principles of Anusara philosophy. She's really able to break pose down into pieces that can easily be digested and enacted. And it's the details that make the difference in the asana.
These "findings" are the low hanging fruit that I can easily pick before going to bed. More considered remarks will come later, with at least one good night of sleep and a day without yoga under my belt. Plus, I've got photographs of the sessions.
Donavan Wilson and I have been exchanging e-mails for a while, ever since we both attended a master Ashtanga class at Thrive Yoga and did not introduce ourselves to each other. He has sent me his comments on taking yoga classes at Bally's Total Fitness, two locations, four teachers. Since gyms are where many people get their start with yoga, I thought it would be helpful to include his remarks here. In fact, he's so positive about the experience, I'm tempted to try them out. So this is the first experiment with an outside contributor on this blog (not counting the comments that crop up once in a while).
Bally's Total Fitness, Gaithersburg, Maryland Sherry Rubin and Mireille "Mimi" Lafontant
Mimi: Tuesday and Thursday at 7:30 pm
Mimi's offers a very demanding Yoga class. This class combines elements of Pilates, Power Yoga and Hatha Yoga. She begins each class by asking each participant, "What would you like to work on your body today?" She adjusts the class accordingly to the needs of her students. Mimi's emphasis on core training is consistent from week to week. She pushes her students to there limit, by holding postures very long time. However, with each posture Mimi offers options and modifications for beginner, intermediate and advanced students. Mimi's passion for pushing her students and developing their strength is very clear. You will work up a sweat in this class.
Sherry: Wednesday and Friday at 9:30 and Sunday at 10:00 (all morning)
Ms. Rubin has four years of teaching experience. Sherry's teaching style is a blend of different styles of Hatha Yoga. Rubin injects humor and pleasant outlook into her classes. Unlike Mimi, Rubin does not push her students as hard.She offers modifications depending on the experience of each student. Also, Sherry is very good at correcting students regarding their form. This reviewer can tell that Ms. Rubin has spent years in a Yoga Studio as practitioner. Rubin often demonstrates new postures before students attempt them. Rubin is very user friendly and outgoing instructor.
Bally's Total Fitness, Wheaton, Maryland Peter Gibbon and Diane Brown
Peter: Saturdays at 11:45-12:45
An instructor and Co-Director of the Peaceful Path Yoga Studio in Silver Spring, Maryland, Gibbon has a background in Kripalu Yoga and has 500 hours of certification as an instructor. Gibbon's Saturday Yoga class at Bally Total Fitness at Wheaton is a mixed-level approach. Gibbon covers the traditional postures (Warrior I, Triangle and Plank). Gibbon is walking across the aerobic room to check the form and posture of each student. Also, Gibbon is in front of his class demonstrating proper form. For individuals looking for traditional mixed-level class in a gym setting, I highly recommend Gibbon. Throughout the course of the class, Gibbon injects his brand of humor with a very thick New England-Massachusetts accent.
Diane: Thursdays at 7:30
This review can not capture or describe Ms. Brown's joy for teaching and life. Brown incorporates both Yoga and Pilates into her class. Brown is often wearing a smile and talking up a storm to distract students, in her efforts to push them. Brown's energy and enthusiasm is contagious. She does not push as hard as some instructors. What Brown lacks in pushing, she makes up in an interesting blend of Yoga postures and Pilates moves.
Back at Thrive Yoga for a vinyasa flow 2 class with Christine Peterson. She has been assisting Ana Forrest, the widely respected West Coast yoga teacher, which says a lot about Christine's capabilities. (If you've never seen Ana Forest's peformance at Yoga Journal Conference in Boston in 2006, you owe it to yourself to see how far yoga can take you). As far as I know, this was her first class at Thrive, and there were more than a dozen students so the word had definitely gotten out.
In a few words, Christine gives a mean class (and this was a vinyasa class, not Forest Yoga): I took a small hand towel to mop up my sweat; I should have taken a beach towel. Aside from some work on inversions, which was really more prep work, there was nothing really beyond a 2-level class. But she hit a couple of areas in which I am really weak and tight, and then doubled back and hit them again. Shoulders, especially in Dolphin pose and other preps for getting into Feathered Peacock Pose (Pincha Mayurasana). Core, core, core. This blog entry isn't long enough to mention all the poses and sequences that hit my core muscles.
Christine will be giving a 1.5/2 hour class on Friday, July 4 and then have several classes on a regular basis (when she's not assisting Ana Forest on tour). I will make a point of picking them up as often as I can.Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. My experience Monday with more open hips did not turn out to be a fluke. Today, I came very close to getting into Double Pigeon pose (Agnistambhasana). I didn't want to push it too hard because of the stress the pose puts on the knees, but I was closer than I ever dreamed I would be mid-way through my fourth year of yoga. I also went more deeply into One-Legged King Pigeon pose (Eka Pada Rajakapotasana). It's as if I stopped clenching my muscles and that loosening of tension allowed my hips to open up.
On Monday evening, I went to a vinyasa 2 class at Thrive Yoga to make up for missing my normal Sunday class. I was met with a teacher substitution: Mary Lou McNamara was replacing Lisa Johnson because of vacation travel. Both followed the Anusara style so there was an underlying continuity between the two. I was breezing through the class without really being tested to my edge when we moved into the seated practice and I was hit by an unexpected breakthrough: Mary Lou asked us to get into Lord of the Fishes pose (Ardha Matsyendrasana). Almost without thinking, I slipped into the pose, which requires me to fold one leg under as a kind of base and the other leg is placed over it, with the foot on the ground -- it requires that both sit bones be on the ground. In the recent past, this kind of contortion was beyond my reach: one hip would be torqued up in the air and I would be completely out of balance. I'd have to extend the bottom leg out before me or put a lot of blankets under one hip. Well, this time, both my sit bones were firmly planted on the mat and my spin could sit squarely over my hips, allowing a smooth even twist when completing the pose. We quickly moved on to other poses, and I could not fully appreciate what had happened.
Let me say that I have not made Lord of the Fishes pose as one of my goals, like full or half Lotus pose. I only practiced it whenever it rarely came up in class, unlike say half pigeon pose that almost always gets thrown into the mix. I recognized Lord of the Fishes as another manifestation of my tight hips, and some day I would move beyond this corporal legacy of sitting in chairs and slumping over keyboards.
Ironically, since coming back from vacation, I have been grousing about how hard it has been to regain my stamina in jogging. My legs seemed dead weight and fatigued. Well, part of this muscular fatigue is probably because the connective tissues between my legs and hips are having to move in new and different ways, while tolerating a lot more range of motion in my hips. As I've said here before, I often feel as if I am teaching myself to run all over again.
