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.
