sun_salutation | Recent Entries

For your enjoyment, a clip of an 80s yoga video... definitely catering to the "female gaze". *cough* May not be safe for the average office or the unfunky. Also, definitely NOT a "beginner's cooldown".

( Embedded video here )

rydra_wong

Just wanted to link to this excellent, snarky and incisive piece in Hyphen Magazine on the "yoga debate" started by William Broad's NY Times article:

The Yoga Debate: An Existentially Challenged Desi Chimes In by Kirti Kamboj

On the pro-yoga side was expert Rebecca Greenfield. She held positions such as: "When done right, yoga is a sweaty work-out. And, no, we're not just talking the 'hot kind.'" And, "Admittedly, yoga attracts some of the worst people on the planet: The image obsessed girls mentioned above, super-hippies, and self-righteous spiritual types. But any human that's obsessed with a type of exercise is generally intolerable."

I found these points both illuminating and disturbing. Before, I was under the assumption that I'd been doing yoga all my life. Yet things I believed to be the core of yoga -- yama niyama ideals, body awareness, breath control, etcetera -- have no place in it at all. When done right, as Greenfield points out, yoga is a series of sweaty contortionist work-out poses.

So all this time, I've been inadvertently lying, saying that I do yoga, when weeks can pass without me striking even one sweaty contortionist pose.

(Mod, could we have an "articles" tag, please? And/or a "meta" tag?)

muck_a_luck

I came across this guy's article the other day. How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body. Also, he is selling a book.

It is certainly a valid point that one should practice with care and non-violence toward self.

Not sure what else I think about this, though. Discuss?

rydra_wong

Since it's the time of year (for those of us in the northern hemisphere) when everyone has colds and flu and clogged sinuses, let's talk about neti pots.

Who's got one, who's using one, who recently improvised one out of a squeezy travel-size shampoo bottle and feels much better for it? *g*

Advice, tips, experiences?

threeringedmoon

I've suffered from a combination of achilles tendinitis and plantar fasciitus in my left foot for five years or so. I've had physical therapy for it twice, but because the effects of PT don't last very long after I stop I was reluctant to go back for another try. This past year it has been about a four on a scale on 1-7 where 7 is as bad as it has ever been.

In November, I started yoga in a small class setting with an instructor I really like. I think she is pretty good, though I don't have any basis for comparison, except physical therapists. She is very good about helping me work around my physical defects, which includes a bad shoulder.

This morning I had to stop and pick up a few groceries on my way home. I was expecting a phone call, so I was feeling a bit rushed. I realized I was walking like I did six or seven years ago, briskly, and with no limp. I felt like I was walking the way I did when it was normal for me to take a three mile walk several times a week. Considering there were times a year ago I was considering using one of the motorized carts provided for the disabled when I had to shop it feels miraculous.

Yoga is the only change I've made in the past two months to account for the improvement. I am so pleased.

vass

[crossposted from my journal]

From the iPhone app YogaRelax, narrating the Paschimottanasana pose: "Lean forward and grasp your feet with both hands or ankles."

At least this time it made me laugh, instead of just confusing me as to where all my limbs are actually supposed to be. So, can anyone recommend a good yoga app? Or should I just use YouTube?

muck_a_luck

This Christmas was yoga-light, but I did get myself two new DVDs.

1. Janet Stone: Ananda Vinyasa. Loved it. If you are trying to decide how to invest some Amazon gift card money and you like vinyasa/power type yoga, I cannot recommend this DVD highly enough. 75 minutes unlike any 75 minutes I have done with a DVD instructor before. Very fresh and flowing. The grace and fluidity of Shiva Rea at her best, with the fire-in-the-belly focus of Sadie Nardini, and the soothing calm of Rodney Yee. There are postures here I will not be doing anytime soon, but for me they did not disrupt the flow - I just stopped at the stage of the posture I could do and waited for her to get back to me. There is an awesome wrist stretch and even more awesome - passive shoulder stretches! I wish I had more time for yoga in my schedule, because I would love to do a

just_ann_now-style 30 day run with this DVD, but at 75 minutes, it will probably only fit on my weekends. I cannot wait til I can invest in a couple of more from Ms. Stone.

2. Shiva Rea: More Daily Energy. I got this because the first Daily Energy DVD is so useful to me. I fall back to it even though it does not thrill me because it has solid short practices I can do then move on with my day, even though none of them are really my favorite. More Daily Enegy might turn out to be different. I really enjoyed the three-segment practice I put together. Looking forward to exploring everything it has to offer and maybe finding something to love.

kaethe

I'm about 22 weeks pregnant and have recently had a flair-up of plantar fasciitis (hope I spelled that right). Walking for exercise isn't happening right now, so I'm hoping to use yoga to help build my core strength and otherwise prepare for labor.

Does anyone have any suggestions for yoga videos (online or DVD, either way) that are good for pregnancy/labor preparation? I've looked at Amazon, but there are so many it's hard to know which ones are worth the money.

As for my experience level, I'd say long-term beginner. I've done yoga off and on for about two years, but stuck to beginner-level DVDs.

Thanks in advance for your help!

julad

This relates a bit to the question below from

elliemurasaki.

My local studio is offering a special course soon, where you do a fairly intensive run of yoga for a month. It's not an "advanced" course, it's open to every ability, but it involves about five classes a week plus some seminars and such. There's a variety of classes and some are definitely more challenging than what I'm used to.

When I first saw it, I thought it was something I'd love to do in future, but not now. I currently do one class a week and that's it (I rarely practice at home), so jumping to five classes a week, including more intensive classes, didn't seem like the right thing for me.

But now I'm reconsidering. I think the course might be a good opportunity to kick start me to better and more consistent practice, which is something that I want and haven't been able to do on my own yet. I usually respond well to the structure of a course, and I always get a lot further when I do a course than I do by self direction. The studio does a great job of mixing their classes for all ability levels, so I do trust that I could get something from the more challenging classes and not feel pressured to overdo it. But I'm definitely not sure if making such a big jump in practice in a short time will be a good idea.

My question is, does anybody have experience with doing a sudden increase in frequency and intensity of yoga? What happened for you?

elliemurasaki

I am...back to square one with yoga. Again. New Year's resolution: fix this. I'm looking for an achievable-soonish goal, an achievable-mediumish goal, and an achievable-longish goal. Thoughts?

Thanks!

foxfirefey

So, if you're the kind of person that benefits from the structure of a class but have trouble getting to a studio or it's too expensive for you to go very often, there's a site that does classes-for-download in audio and video. They're currently having a holiday sale until tomorrow and you can buy access to any of their on-site classes (as opposed by ones made by content partners) for one year for $50. There's a lot of stuff you can preview before making your decision--lots of shorter classes for free to download. And after you download any classes, you get to keep them.

muck_a_luck

I was doing a little Kundalini this morning.

And there I was, lying on my belly (read flat on my face) "resting" between something and something, a couple of sets of Frog-whatsits behind me, just finished the standing-up-and-sitting-down thing (which KILLS) and my blood is pounding, and I'm trying to get in as much breath as possible before they make me do breath of fire again and all my muscles are shaking and the instructor says, "Feel rivers of light flowing through your veins."

Or there's the other time, when I'm working on some seated hip openers, and I'm trying to acheive getting my knee behind my shoulder and my hamstrings are making me respect them, and Ms. Rea advises, "Drink your breath."

"Inner smile." "Enjoy the asymetry."

And you know, one part of my brain is laughing hysterically at these concepts, but another part of my brain gets it. I do feel the rivers of light, and understand the nourishment of breath, and relax into the inner smile.

My yoga experience today.

muck_a_luck

Gah. I had a ghastly morning. I am trying to get back to exercising every day, mostly yoga, and after two days of hard work that left my arms asking the rest of my body, "What the HELL are you people doing?!", I was going to cut loose with trance dance today. And I had medicre sleep last night, and just a bad morning all over and I was going to go back to bed. I had my feet bare, and literally decided to put my socks back on, then not to, then to go back to bed, then not to, probably in half a dozen iterations before I took a deep breath and thought, "It has to be done." And I made the right decision. I don't think a 40 minute nap could have given me the feeling of calm and relaxation I have now.

So today, I showed up for myself and made it all the way to the mat and ended up in Savasana.

How was your yoga day?

panda

When I don't do yoga for a while, I forget how absolutely amazing it feels. Even if I just did mountain pose/forward fold for a while, my day would be so much better. I did 20 min of a restorative practice from a DVD, and mm.

Question: does anyone else have a problem with being dizzy and slightly ill when they get up from savasana? I get up veeeerry slowly, first rolling over to my side and then pushing myself up super slow, but I still feel like I've just got off a tilt-a-whirl or something. I do have chronic migraines, so I sometimes have problems with inversions, but the past couple times I've done savasana, it's just been ... belugh. The actual pose itself was restorative and lovely, but when I get up, I feel like I've been run over by a train, which kind of negates all that restorative loveliness. Any thoughts/suggestions?

rydra_wong

HANDSTAND. I CAN HAZ.

A few minutes ago, I kicked up into handstand about 20cm away from the wall, and instead of landing my feet on the wall, somehow I stopped at vertical. And stayed there. Only for a second or two, but long enough to be amazed.

Oddly, it seems easier to go straight into it than to kick up into a handstand against the wall and then get off the wall.

There's also something shifting in my understanding of the alignment; practicing the other day, I had a sudden sense of it as standing on my hands, just like standing on my feet in tadasana, rather than as a balance or inversion. If that makes any sense at all, which I'm not sure it does. But that's what it felt like today when I held it.

panda

I fell off the daily practice wagon. In fact, I haven't done any yoga in about a month. But this morning I did the 17 min Rodney Yee's Yoga for Beginners rejuvenating practice, and it was exactly what I needed.

How about you all? Managed to fit any yoga in lately?

muck_a_luck

After a couple of weeks devoted to meeting writing deadlines, I am trying to get back to the mat every day.

Yesterday, I SO did not want to do it, but I put one task in front of the other. Dress for yoga. Move furniture for yoga. Sweep floor for yoga. Pick yoga DVD. Then I STILL almost didn't do it. Played video game. FINALLY, did the sun salutations from Maral Hadidi's Vinyasa Flow Yoga. I was glad I did.

Today, it was not such a battle, and I did a longer, more strenuous practice: a 47 minute set from Sadie Nardini's Total Body Yoga Sculpt.

I need to review both of these DVDs. They are both great, though Maral Hadidi's DVD is probably for the intermediate practitioner (as is actually stated in the DVD's full title). And I was again reminded how FANTASTIC Ms. Nardini is for coaching core. Her instruction is full of reminders of what to do and how to do it to engage core and support and respect the spine.

How have you been doing these last couple of days?

v_angelique

Well this is somewhat of a misnomer, since I'm not going to jump right into daily, but I did want to participate! As I said earlier, I had a wrist injury but I think it's finally healed. I'm starting very slowly--I did one gentle hatha practice last weekend and this morning I did Yoga for Strength from YogaDownload, which is my favorite for when I'm afraid of my own motivation (it goes by very quickly so it's good for building confidence).

Unsurprisingly, I'm very tight, so I'm trying to be gentle with myself. I only move forward a few inches in forward bends, and I'm keeping my feet very close together in warrior poses. I noticed that my calves and feet were especially tight in warrior poses, which are some of my favorite poses, so I hope that remedies itself quickly. One of my biggest challenges for sticking with yoga is that my hands slip in down dog and I get very frustrated. I read the recent post about this but I'm nervous about shelling out money when it might not work. I've tried putting my hands on blocks and on a guest towel that's pretty thin, and neither of these really work. The towel will work at first but then I'll start sliding steadily along. So annoying!

I'm going to shoot for every three days for the next couple of weeks, and then drop to every two.

lizw

Sivananda is the style of yoga taught by the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers and Ashrams, which were founded by Swami Vishnudevananda, who was sent to teach yoga in the West in 1957 by his guru, Swami Sivananda Saraswati, and named the centers after him.

Sivananda is a form of hatha yoga. Teachers tend to pride themselves on staying close to the original teachings of both Swami Sivananda and Swami Vishnudevananda as well as to their Hindu context. Asana practice is set firmly in its spiritual context; students are not pressured to adopt any spiritual practices themselves, but students who are interested in yogic spirituality will probably be more drawn to Sivananda than those who are not. Yoga is presented as a holistic lifestyle and as a set of techniques which can be used in conjunction with any form of religious practice in a student's personal life, but for classes and communal gatherings, Hindu symbolism is used by default. Students who are not comfortable with attending (even passively) ceremonies of other religions may therefore find that this is not the style of yoga for them.

Classes use a consistent basic sequence of twelve asanas, each one typically held for six to twelve breaths, with a short savasana after each asana or cycle of asanas to allow the muscles to recover and the breathing to return to normal. Sivananda can therefore be a useful style of yoga for students with disabilities, injuries or chronic illnesses. Weight loss talk, tight-fitting clothing and competitiveness in asanas tend to be discouraged, which may make it a good fit for those with body image issues.( Read more... )

openscarf

In the last day or so, I've gone very deeply into my practices. I've done a lot of extra shoulder and back stretching and twists and it feels as if my ribcage and heart area have so much space around them now. Such a good thing, The resulting feeling always makes me imagine wings sprouting on my back.

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Sun Salutation

If you don't have time for any other yoga in the day

Recent Entries

A little light yoga... humour.

The Yoga Debate: An Existentially Challenged Desi Chimes In

Mr. Broad's Critique of Asana Practice

Neti pots!

I can walk!

That must be the advanced version

Two DVD mini-Reviews

Yoga for pregnancy recs?

Increasing frequency and intensity

(no subject)

YogaDownload.com Holiday Sale

The poetry of the last ounce of strength

Showing up

daily practice + question

INVISIBLE WALL

daily practice

Daily Practice

Daily Practice

Style/School: Sivananda

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January 2012

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