BandhaYoga has brought out a second volume of its eye-popping Scientific Keys series on yoga anatomy, this one entitled The Key Poses of Yoga: Your Guide to Functional Anatomy in Yoga. As with the first book (The Key Muscles of Hatha Yoga), the unique perspective on the details of muscles and bones is an imaginative tool for developing a better understanding of what goes on when practicing yoga. The full color illustrations are very useful for teachers and students alike. You can also purchase both books and save $7.00 over the list price ($97). These are not inexpensive books, but given the printing and paper costs, the price is worth it.
As you will see on this site, I am a member of www.BandhaYoga.com's affiliate program, in which I get a small percentage from book or poster sales resulting from visitors to this site clicking on the ads and then purchasing a book. Let me tell you, it's more an endorsement on my part than a revenue source.
Labels: reading, yoga_resource
If you are scheduling your calendar around the growing number of yoga-focused events, you can block off the whole month of September, which a coalition of yoga personalities, media outlets and service companies has declared "Yoga Month." It is "a year-round awareness campaign and will peak September 2008 with millions of health and socially conscious individuals practicing yoga at thousands of yoga studios, businesses, parks and homes around the globe." The campaign will highlight the health value of yoga in dealing with obesity, hypertension, heart disease, breast cancer, menopause, chronic back pain, asthma, arthritis and depression, among other illnesses and conditions. So far, there is no event or affiliate from the Washington, DC area.
Labels: dc_yoga, health, yoga, yoga_resource
The DC area yoga page has become the second most popular page on this site so apparently someone finds it useful. As an additional feature, I have done a little online research and determined which studios offer teacher training and certification. This training component is a sign of a studio's professionalism and scope of services because it takes a substantial investment of knowledge, resources and energy to pull off a 200-hour (or 300 or 500 hour, or pre/post-natal) accredited training program.
Teacher training does not have to be just for those who want to become a teacher. Anyone who wants to deepen his or her understanding of yoga can take a course. My daughter took teacher training last year at Flow Yoga and only a handful of the 20 students are currently teaching. Another way of doing yoga intensive is the 108-hour Anusara immersion program, like the one at Willow Street Yoga.
Finally,
my main yoga shala, Thrive Yoga, is starting a teacher training program in affiliation with Alan Finger and ISHTA Yoga. Two weeks ago I participated in a weekend workshop and was really impressed with Alan Finger's depth of knowledge of yoga, tantra and ayurveda. He's an ol' school yoga guru who traces his lineage back to his teachers: Paramahansa Yogananda (author of the classic book Autobiography of a Yogi), Swami Nishraisananda, Swami Venkatesananda, and Shuddhanand Bharati when they frequented Alan's father's home in South Africa. This is a tradition that is different from the Krishnamacharya branch of the yoga tree (B.K.S. Iyengar, Pattabhi Jois and T.K.V. Desikachar) that predominates in the States. Finger came to the States in 1975, founded Yoga Works in LA and then came to NYC and founded Yoga Zone/Be Yoga. His participation in the Thrive ISHTA program sets it apart from most teacher training offerings in the Washington area.
The Finger workshop had a strong emphasis on the underlying universe of knowledge that supports yoga. Alan also integrated pranayama and meditation into the experience. He explained how the chakras related to the whole energy system and why they were essential to understanding yoga. He encouraged questions from the participants and let their interests guide the discussion. His laughter was the mantra of the workshop, punctuating his self-deprecating humor and joy of living.
Most people came to the workshop expecting to work up a good sweat with a vinyasa practice. Instead, we really had to exercise our minds. In the lone vinyasa segment during the workshop (I attended Saturday AM and PM sessions, and went to the Sunday session to take photos), Alan gave two adjustments that helped me correct some bad habits: in downward-facing dog, I was not maintain the curve in my lower back; and in twists, I tended to lead with my head and neck, over-exerting, when my head should be the last element to come into play. In other words, I was trying to hard to get into poses.
Labels: dc_yoga, website, yoga_resource
I finished reading the Sharon Begley book, Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain (Ballantine Books, 2007). Actually, I finished it more than 10 days ago, but have not had a chance to write about it. Now, it's hard to remember what I wanted to do. I probably should have been writing as I was reading. Actually, I was traveling during some of that time so I could not post to my blog. Lots of excuses, lots of things keeping me busy, lots of yoga and meditation that take first priority.
In brief, the book firmed up my own sense of hope about where we are headed in the brain sciences. The leap of knowledge and understanding over the past two decades has been huge. And we are only beginning to reformulate theories of the mind and its workings. Freud as the great navigator of the ego and id has been left behind. Even the chemistry of Prozac and Valium seem to be the psychological equivalent of alchemy.
The narrative ran out of gas in the last three chapters. Begley depended on psychological studies and interviews of researchers for the meat of her content. That formula can be dry reading once it is repeated over 250 pages. Even the literary ruse of making the Dalai Lama the focal point of the narrative can squeeze only so much drama. Begley probably could have spared us some of the dry details and gone straight to the conclusions of each study.
Other takes
I was struck by the large number of podcasts that are available on the book. Blog Critics (March). National Public Radio (NPR) has two programs: Diane Rehm Program via Odeo and Talk of the Nation. Dr. Ginger Campbell Brain Science Podcast, Psychjourney Podcasts and Healing the Mind. I have not had a chance to listen to all of them.
Earth and Sky, Psychotherapy Networker The Wonders of Neuroplasticity, Discover: Rewiring the Brain, Brain Technologies and Dana Foundation.
For additional background, here's Sharon Begley's Newsweek bio and the Richard Davidson's personal page at the University of Wisconsin's Lab for Affective Neuroscience.
Labels: meditation, reading, yoga_resource
The Thrive Yoga website has undergone an incremental revamping to make it a better resource. The biggest change is that Susan Bowen has decided to start blogging. Her opening salvos have been riffs on the Yogi Sutras of Patanjali. That's a pretty tall order, to turn those sometimes cryptic, frequently insightful refrains into meaningful nuggets for modern-day yogis. She says that other Thrive teachers will be chipping in with blog entries. The blog will also be open to comments, so hopefully it will become a sounding board for the community. There are not many studios that have blogs so this initiative is breaking new ground. Kudos to Susan for being open. Elsewhere on the site, feedback from Thrive students tell how yoga has changed their lives.
Labels: class, reading, yoga_resource
I've heard a lot of nice things about Triangle Yoga in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It's a bit out of the Washington, DC area, but I know of two instructors who took intensive classes there. I ran across this interesting demonstration of combining music and vinyasa on YouTube, while wasting time during lunch.
Rhythmic yoga flow does require a command of the asanas and breath that most beginners don't have. I'm not even sure that I could get it at first try.
Labels: yoga_resource
Thanks to Daily Cup of Yoga, I ran across a recent audio interview with Krisha Das on CBC Radio. I've commented before that he's kinda been the soundtrack of my yoga practice. The lengthy discussion centers on his spiritual practice that parallels his experience with kirtan music. It really gave new insight into his music. I'll Krishna Das speak for himself.
Labels: music, philosophy, yoga_resource
For those who like to peek in on other people's practice, check out the photographs at Yoga is Youthfulness, a San Francisco-area Ashtanga studio.
Labels: photos, yoga_resource
Here is a reason why it's almost futile to assemble an overwhelming inventory of links: Terry Slade's Ashtanga Yoga Links. In a simple format, Terry brings together a huge number of online resources — yoga studios, videos, books, web sites, all with abundant commentary. As with most large collections of links, there is the web rot, hyperlinks that are broken because sites disappeared or pages were moved to new locations. But it's still a cold mine for yoga-centric content. Don't miss Terry's favorite story.
Labels: yoga_resource
For those who are frequently looking up references to yoga poses, Yoga Journal has just put online a new pose finder, with bright new photographs and additional information beyond the straightforward instructions. There are many more sites that have asana photos and instructions, but Yoga Journal tends to be an easy, authoritative reference.
Labels: yoga_resource
I have completed my 30-day challenge of blogging, starting on April 6. Because I had a double entry yesterday, I came out one ahead of the standard count. There might have been a few days of fluff because I came home late after a practice and did not have a lot of creative juices left in me. I don't think anything, like an injury or violated secret, has happened to me because of this increased posting. Another milestone is that it's my 300th posting, but my other blog, La Esquina del Movimiento, has 2,067, since November 10, 2000, compared to April 2004 for this blog.
To prevent this from being pure fluff, I am including a pointer to a site of yoga videos, Channel Yoga. It also has forums, interviews and a Google News ticker. I believe this is the inspiration of Kyra Rider, who has a blog, a yoga demo site and a yoga studio in southern California. I chanced across her network of sites before and forgot to mention them.
Labels: website, yoga_resource
Labels: yoga_resource
I have always been amazed at yogis (and yoginis like Ana Forrest) who can accomplish amazing feats of balance and strength even though they do not appear to be overpowering in strength. This morning I chanced across a YouTube video of an example. I had seen Mark Giubarelli's website years ago when he just had flip cards of poses. Big difference now.
I am running into more and more videos of yoga online, from highly polished productions to the equivalent of a webcam pointing to the back of a room. Just put Ashtanga into a YouTube search, and it brings up scores of video on which you can waste your time instead of practicing yoga. Then again, when you're trying to crack the secret of getting into handstand from crow, it's great to have a video demonstration because it so immediate, direct and palpable. It would take hours of reading instructions to understand it. On the other hand, the written word is great for revealing things that are not evident to the eye -- where should your drishtri be focused.
Labels: edge, inspire, yoga_resource
I have just taken out a year subscription to the premium content at Yoga Basics. I had always remembered it as having a solid, straight-forward design, solid content and bringing out a useful newsletter. But I did not come back regularly until now. As a paying customer, I see a lot more and I especially like the posture section. Tim Burgin has started a new series of posture photographs using a Flash photo applet and maintained stylistic consistency by using a clean, white background that removes any visual distractions. He also gives several angles on the pose so you get a three-dimensional image of the posture. The only drawback is that I cannot link directly to all the poses because most postures are in the premium section and/or in Flash. The standard version uses small format photographs, only 100 px by 100 px. A use of frames makes it hard to use direct links to those poses fully available publicly. In any case, finding a formula for financially supporting a valueable online service is tough so I can appreciate some of the web design and access decisions made. It's just $25 a year.
Another website worthy following to see how it develops is iHanuman.com. It calls itself "the monkey bridge between students, teachers and the ancient wisdom of yoga" and an "online community of yoga teachers dedicated to serving the yoga world." It has audio and video mini classes and interviews. It will have the YogaDancer Asana Index available once the owner recovers from a hosting switch. Yoga Dancer has had the widest collection of photos of asanas, but the quality is uneven. Among the teachers signed up in iHanuman.com are Erich Schiffmann, Suzie Hurley and Angela Farmer.
Labels: yoga_resource
