Mix and Match Yoga

image courtesy of ant217 on flickr
I have had a fun time in the last 24 hours practicing yoga! Yesterday I taught two classes for a client, and today I get to teach one in the opposite part of the state as well. After I got home yesterday I was going to hit Bikram at the studio but it was so beautiful outside! I thought of writeouschick on twitter who practiced outside recently and thought to myself, hey that sounds like a great idea!

I brought my mat and little dvd player outside to the deck, along with some ice water. First I did the lower back therapeutic sequence from my Gary Kraftsow Viniyoga DVD. I'm trying to treat some pain I have with this sequence, because I think one of the best ways to become a therapist is to practice on oneself. Feeling relaxed and loose after that, I changed gears.

Shiva Rea's Yoga Shakti Solar Flow 2 sequence was next. I'm really trying to work on my upper body strength. Thus, I need to get my sun salutation/vinyasa strength up. Bikram is great, but the returns I'm getting are more in the fine tuning area. However when I do a vinyasa based practice, I feel so much work happening for my upper body, a place where I'm notoriously lacking in strength. It's hard to move a body that's overweight through sun salutations. Well, it is if you want to keep your hips up off the floor as you transition to upward facing dog. Shiva Rea moves so fluidly while breathing so easily. Her breathing pace is way different from mine - I'm breathing about twice as fast as she is to do the same amount of work, which throws off the vinyasa rhythm a bit. However, working through handstand (only did setup and some kicks, I didn't want to kick through one of my windows!) some really nice backbend prep work and full wheel variations, etc.

I was hoping to do some backbending up and down the wall after that but ran out of time. I'm hoping tonight is the night for beginning that practice. Coming soon next week... I'm off to New Orleans for a week! Yay!

Back to work.

Yesterday was a long day... but a rewarding one. After four days in NYC visiting friends and drinking champagne, it was back to work. I knew I'd want to do a little something in the morning so I hooked up my yoga closet and did a class with the bikram cd. I didn't blow it out at all, it was just a way to get moving - I'd say I did about 50-60% effort. In the winter in New England it is impossible to get my yoga closet above about 90 degrees (unless I leave space heaters on all night long). So it's more of a gentle practice when I do it at home these days. It's weird to do bikram gently and with pants on, but whatever - it feels better than not doing it!

So then I realized we're moving to the new schedule and there was going to be a 4pm class for me to take before I taught the 6pm class. Woo hoo! Today I woke up feeling... well not really... but I got the sensation that I had done something nearer to a double than anything I've done since training. Class last night was good, I didn't blow it out too much because I didn't know what it would be like to teach afterwards.

It was fine! In fact, there was no time to second guess and recheck my pranayama dialogue (not that that is a bad thing to do in general). Just practice, then change quickly and check people in, then teach. Wow. I continue to listen to my recorded dialogue in my car... and I work with different poses on repeat to beef up dialogue. So teaching was fine, class timing was totally cool. We lost our big clock (it was old) so there's only a handheld clock to check. I didn't check much but hit the floor somewhere between 52 and 54 minutes. It's still a challenge to get the whole floor series in but I did it, only ran over by 2 minutes.

Practice... well... I'm committed to practicing extremely regularly, and just experiencing my body in the poses. I still feel all whacked since training. Head to knee is better (for me) but still of course I dream of the days when it really improves. Probably in another year or two it will be rock solid. Standing bow - my form is beautiful and balance is abysmal. This is one that if I were to fret - I would fret about my continuing lack of balance in this posture. It's like I know standing head to knee is hard for me, and I accept it. But I can't accept as easily where I find myself in standing bow.

Sigh ;) Really I just like to practice and be in the room practicing. It's just flat out easier for me. Like I could stress out like I used to, but I also have that off switch for the stress and I just chill and practice, knowing that it's years that make the difference, not days. I have nowhere to be. It's not like I'm going to "finish" bikram.

On New Years day, I was asked by two friends to lead a class at a friend's apt. I taught a vinyasa style class (with a few bikram poses thrown in for fun). It was great fun. I noticed how much Bikram is so command based - I had the chance to talk more about experiencing the poses during this class, but I didn't take up that opportunity much. I did end with a nice meditation and reading and I liked that.