This week's challenge: Standing splits

So I've decided to put Iyengar's asana sequences aside for the moment. Instead, I'm following the Yogamazing podcasts in the mornings (click here), going to the gym twice a week for their BodyFlow class (see previous post), and I'll be starting a yoga class at my community center next week. That should keep me busy and should give me lots of things to talk about.

Every week I'll be working on a different asana, slowly working my way through them all. I'll be basing my information out of Light on Yoga and what I remember from my classes.

This week I'll be working on standing splits a.k.a. Urdhva Prasarita Ekapadasana.  
Iyengar suggests to hold the pose for 20seconds. This pose is meant to tone the leg muscles and reduce fat around the hips - sounds great!


How to get into the pose:
From Mountain Pose (Tadasana), exhale and bend forward hinging from the hips. Place both hands on the floor slightly in front of you and transfer your weight onto one foot, I always start with my right foot. Lift your left leg as high as you can without opening your hips to the side.
You can stay here or try for the full expression of the pose. With your left hand, take hold of your right ankle and try to connect your chest to your thigh and rest your forehead or chin on your right knee.
In the picture, the girl is holding her left ankle with her left hand so I guess you ca go with what ever feels best for you.

For more information about this pose, ask your teacher or visit Yoga Journal.com by clicking here.

You can practice Standing Splits using a wall.  I'll be doing this all week. It's practically the same procedure as the regular pose except you get to rest your leg on the wall. By slowly moving your foot up the wall you get a great stretch. This also helps with regular splits. I was told that if I practiced this pose everyday for two weeks I'd be able to do a split. I'm up for the challenge, I'll keep you posted on my improvements.


Namaste.

Body Flow, Taking Yoga at a Gym

As an answer to my frequent complaints of not being active enough and yoga studios being to expensive and too far away, I recently received a membership for my local gym. I had a couple years ago now started my yoga journey through a gym. The teacher was an older man with a body of steel and a funny little accent. He was brilliant, I found out later that he gave a basic Anusara class. He definetly spiked my interest in yoga. This however was in Montreal.

I'm in the suburbs now and well, the classes are very different. My local gym offers Bodyflow, a fitness class described as follows :

''BODYFLOW™ is the Yoga, Tai Chi, Pilates workout that builds flexibility and strength and leaves you feeling centered and calm. Controlled breathing, concentration and a carefully structured series of stretches, moves and poses to music create a holistic workout that brings the body into a state of harmony and balance.''

The class starts out with a fastforwarded Tai Chi inspired workout, followed by sun salutations, standing poses, balacing poses, hip openers, throws in some pilates to work the core, adds a few twists, and ends with savasana. It's quite a workout but I didn't leave me with the peaceful feeling I get after a REAL yoga class. It might be because it was my first time so I'm going again tomorrow morning and Thursday night to try out their different teachers.
Another thing that sort of bugged me was, if I understood correctly, each Bodyflow session - which consists of a couple months, has it's own defined routine created by Jackie Mills. Meaning that if I were to take another class this week, it would be the same sequence repeated along with the same music. Bikram yoga also uses predetermined sequences which, I guess, allows you to really master every pose.  I'm just used to having different classes, each time focusing on a different part of the body.
 
Overall not too bad but nothing compared to the classes I used to take at Oceanfront Yoga in Virginia Beach, now those were the days.
 
Namaste.

Fun with Yoga

My Mother found this wonderful children's page in The Montreal Gazette all about yoga. You learn about yoga, some poses you can work on and they even encluded likke yoga themed games. I thought it was so wonderful I had to share.

How fun. This same week I read a post on Yoga Journal about Yoga being recognized as a valid physical activity in British-Columbian schools­.

Namaste!

Yogamazing podcast

Hi all,
I've been feeling a little under the weather these past few days so I haven't started or even given much thought to the third sequence proposed by Iyengar. Instead, I've been looking into other sources for yoga practices. This week, I'll be trying out various podcasts available for free on iTunes.

This morning I tired Yogamazing with Chaz. I selected a random episode based on time restraints and it ended up being yoga for the hangover-interesting concept.
The video quality was good, the sound and the insructions were clear. The sequence was very soothing and perfect for the morning. Chaz, as a teacher, is laid back and positive. He has a nice voice and tries a couple of jokes during the practice. He seems to have a good relationship with his viewers addressing many comments within this episode.

In yoga for the hangover, Chaz concentrated on twists to cleanse your inner organs of toxins and gentle stretches to waken your body. What I particularly enjoyed was the breathing exercise he started the practice with to help you with a hypothetical headache.

Overall it was a nice experience and I'll be trying out his other videos. You can find this video on iTunes or on Yogamazing's website by clicking here.

Depending on my schedule, I will try to post the third Iyengar sequence this week. I'll also try to take a moment to tell you about the Restorative Yoga class I took last week.

Namaste!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Quote

“For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.” -Audrey Hepburn-

Second Asana Sequence

According to the calendar this is Day 20 on my journey through the teachings of Iyengar. Truthfully, I have skipped many days, life just gets in the way sometimes. I think on average I practice 3-4 times a week.

Last Monday, I started the second sequence but failed to post in online so here it is :

*Triangle Pose
*Side Angle
*Warrior I&II
*Revolved Triangle
*Pyramid Pose
*Wide-Legged Foward Bend (Prasarita Padottanasana I)
*Shoulder Stance
*Plough (Halasana)
*Savasana

Very similar to the first sequence. I decided to keep Tree Pose because it makes me happy. As usual I start with gentle stretches in an easy seated position (generally cross-legged on my mat). This week I've decided to work the sequence as Yoga Flow (one breath, one movement). I started with a simple sun salutation to which I gradually added the target asanas and held for 5 breaths. Evidently, because I chose to do sun salutations, I added down-dog, plank, yoga push-ups, cobra, and up-dog which were not on the to do list.
It ended up being quite a workout that took about an hour on average.

I'm sticking to this sequence this week and hoping to leaving pyramid pose aside for a little while with the next sequence coming up next Monday.

I've managed to find a nice yoga teacher in my little town and should be signing up for classes (once a week) starting in April. Should be fun.

Namaste!

Budokon

Wow, time flies when your having fun.

Last Saturday was «Montréal, Nuit Blanche», an entire night filled with free activities all over town. It's a blast, I go every year with my friend and we try to fit in as many activities as possible.
This year, Spa Zazen offered a free yoga lesson. I jumped on the occasion to introduce my friend to my yoga (I also thought DJ Yogi was going to be there but it turned out that I had missread and it was yoga with a live DJ, it was really cool anyway.) We showed up at 10pm and the yoga class turned out to be an introduction to Budokon. Budokon, is awesome, but it's not yoga and it's pretty intense for a first practice. We survived but let's just say that our arms were in pain for the next couple of days.
Budokon is a blend of martial arts, yoga and meditation. In addition to the traditional asanas, they include sequences inspired by animals such as lions, gorillas, and jaguars (I think, anyway it was another big cat). Like ashtanga yoga, they like to include floating between poses. This mean that you control your jumping movement, when your good it looks almost like slow motion.

You can watch a demo by clicking HERE.

In other news, still working on pyramid pose and the first sequence from Iyengar. New sequence next Monday!

Namaste!