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Yoga Class at a Gym (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Every time I do a yoga class through YogaVibes I find myself thinking I should review it–you know, keep track of which classes I’ve done, what they were like, and whether or not I liked them. I lose track pretty easily, and sometimes find myself going back to one I’ve already done, not realizing until I’m five or ten minutes in that it seems a bit too familiar to be entirely new…and that I didn’t like it when I did it before. Today, I’m turning thought into reality! I just finished Exhale Slow Yoga: Focus on the Hamstrings, what better time to write a review?

I’m not really sure why I chose this class. While browsing, I picked out a different practice, and was all set to do that one. At the last minute, I changed my mind. That Forrest yoga will have to wait for another time! I’ve had a chest cold for the past few days, so I was looking for something that wouldn’t be too strenuous, but I was also in the mood for something that would challenge me a little bit. As it turns out, this Exhale class was a good fit in that regard. It’s an hour long slow flow class, and I managed to get pretty sweaty. Stefanie Eris, the teacher, gets right into things and structures the class around a few sun salutation variations that open up into poses like warrior III, parsvottanasana (which, translated, is something like intense side stretch–very catchy), and what seems to be yoga’s pose-of-the-moment, hanumanasana. She also manages to work standing splits, crow, and whatever complicated name you want to call this pose. So it’s not a practice for the lighthearted. Although, I have to admit that it wasn’t until I started looking through the guide on the ‘Yoga Journal‘ website that I realized how many pretty solid poses were in this practice. I mean, the experience didn’t scar me or anything. I realized at the time that it was challenging, but I guess looking back on it I’m now realizing *how* challenging. It wasn’t something that I got hung up on during the practice–that’s a good thing in my book! Also, I think it’s important that you know that when I do those poses, I look exactly like the ‘Yoga Journal’ models. In fact, I’m not sure why they haven’t contacted me to do some modeling for them. (By the way, ‘Yoga Journal’ people: my rates are very reasonable.)

Although my overall feeling about this class is a positive one, there were a few things that I could have done without. First of all, Stefanie Eris definitely has a Yoga Teacher Voice, and the combination of that and the wireless mic that she used throughout the class were a bit much for me. I don’t know, am I the only one who doesn’t really like the microphone thing? I get it–your class is big, projecting can be draining, etc. But…meh. There’s just something about the mic–the inevitable popping and cracking? the amplified breathing? the fact that it makes me feel like I’m in the congregation of a mega-church?–that bugs me. Occasionally, the teacher would move the mic aside to talk to a student she was adjusting, but the sound would still be picked up, and she was speaking totally normally. I think I would have preferred that over the loooong draaaaawn ouuuuut vooooowel sooooouuuuunds (okay, I’m exaggerating…a little) of the Yoga Teacher Voice that she used while addressing the entire group.

Ultimately, though, the practice was well structured and had a good flow and rhythm to it. I feel really good having done it, and the positive things about it far outweigh the negative things. Would I do this one again? Yep!

The take-away:

pros: challenging practice, good length, logical flow from one pose to another, and good variety of poses

cons: Yoga Teacher Voice, megachurch microphones, occasional confusion about what pose I should be in (this might have had more to do with my chest cold-induced brain fog, though)

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English: The western ramp and pylon of Brooklyn Bridge, New York City (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’m thinking of joining a running club. This isn’t the first time–I had a brief flirtation with the Dashing Whippets a couple years ago, and I’m a member of Team LUNA Chix NYC Run (but we only meet from May-October)–and it probably won’t be the last. This go-round is brought to you by a running rut. It’s starting to feel like I’m just always in one. But that’s another story for another time. Anyway, while I was looking at some Brooklyn-based club possibilities, I came across this little gem, about increased security at races throughout the city:

PPTC’s very own Steve Lastoe, the founder and driving force behind NYCRUNS, the organizer of the Verrazano Festival, urged runners not to bring bags to the races, if at all possible. Organizers are “reserving the right to search bags (and will search oversize [sic] bags) and throw unattended baggage into the river,” he said in an email interview. [emphasis mine]

I understand security concerns. I’m sure most people do. But I’m not sure how this qualifies as increased security…it sounds to me like it’s just littering. And as such, it’s unnecessary, damaging, lazy, and irresponsible.

Yes, unattended and unclaimed bags are a concern. (And technically any runner’s bag is going to count as unattended while they’re running the race, so I’m not sure if this means that bag check will just be on a big boat and that once the timer starts volunteers will just throwing things overboard or something.) But rivers aren’t your trashcan. And I don’t understand what justification anyone could have for just dumping a bunch of stuff into a river–the stuff doesn’t disappear once it flots out of sight. But I guess that once “race organizers” can no longer see it, they stop caring. I don’t think we need a floating garbage patch in any NYC-area river–we’ve got more than enough of them in other parts of the world already.

Is there really no better way of disposing of unclaimed baggage?

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yoga (Photo credit: GO INTERACTIVE WELLNESS)

Today in my yoga class, I held my headstand for a good minute or so. Maybe longer! This is the second time I’ve held the pose that long, and while I had my feet in the air I found myself thinking about all the things you hear about inversion poses: they bring new blood into your joints, women shouldn’t do them while on their “cycle” (I don’t know, I think we’re all always on our cycles? But that’s another post for another time), they’re good for depression…when I came out of the pose, I was met with an overwhelming sensation of feeling, well, sweaty. Really, I sweat more in that headstand than I had at any point during the rest of the practice. What is that about? I don’t know that I felt any “new” blood coursing through my veins, or that my mood had been improved.

Nat and I frequently have this little argument where I tell him that specific yoga poses are good for specific purposes. “Oh, yeah, a lot of emotion is stored in the hips, so hip openers can make you a little crazy!” I recently told him. (Note that “a little crazy” means “somewhat emotional” here.) His response was, in so many words, that this was bullshit. He’s said the same thing about twisting poses being a good way to detoxify your organs, shoulder stand stimulating the thyroid (or something, I don’t remember exactly what), and just about everything else that’s vaguely medical that I’ve ever brought up in the context of yoga.

Personally, I don’t know what to think. When I come out of an inversion, I do usually feel pretty good. Inversions are hard, and when I do them, it makes me proud of myself. So technically, they do help me with depression because they give me something positive to focus on. I’ve lost weight doing yoga, but I can’t say for sure if that’s because I’m stimulating certain glands or just because I’m exercising and developing more muscle. And for some reason lately I’ve done way too many detoxifying practices–my stomach has been upset for a while, maybe trying to work out all those toxins I wrung out of my organs while holding twisted chair pose?

I’m a pretty scientific person, and a big time skeptic when it comes to anything that’s even vaguely mystical. I can understand where Nat’s coming from when he calls BS on all my yoga remedies. But deep down, I think I kind of believe they’re true. And I also think that believing they’re true makes them true.

Or maybe I’ve just spent too long in headstand, and all the blood in my head is clouding my judgment.

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light bright (Photo credit: JonathanCohen)

I’m not gonna lie, it’s been a difficult weekend. Of course, weekends have never been my strong suit, but this one has been particularly rough. The past two days have been of the sort that leave you feeling like you need to take an iron to your life–things need to be smoothed over, all the wrinkles pressed out. You have the sense that everything is running in different directions, always slipping through your fingers, impossible to get a hold of or slow down even for a second.

Days like these always make me wish I could somehow shed my skin and try on someone else’s for a while. I’d love to just slough everything off and move on, the way one might step out of a shower feeling refreshed and renewed. But because these things are virtually impossible to do, I instead end up with a frantic, nagging sense that I should be making resolutions, finding ways to change everything, make over my entire life into something better. I’ve wasted much of my day today regretting the things I didn’t do, mentally running through an endless stream of shoulda, woulda, couldas, and beating myself up because of missed opportunities. Countless times I’ve caught myself making plans for the coming week: I’ll go running every day! I’ll do everything according to a strict schedule! I’ll change the way I’m eating! In other words: I’ll make a series of changes that won’t do anything to address any of the underlying issues that are contributing to how I’m feeling, and hold myself to a standard that will probably end up leaving me discouraged.

It wasn’t until I sat down to do yoga this evening that I realized that the weekend is over and I can’t change what did or didn’t happen. The only moment I have any influence over is the one I’m in right now, and I don’t stand to gain anything by worrying about the past or the future. And because that’s far easier said than done, I forced myself to let go of all my negative thoughts and focus instead on the points of light from the past two days (also easier said than done). No matter what happened over the weekend, things did not get so bad that there’s nothing to be grateful for. And to prove it, here’s a list of what I came up with:

1. Meditation and mindfulness practice
2. Yoga
3. A nice conversation with my mom about Buddhist philosophy
4. A fiancé who continues to love me even when I’m at my most unlovable
5. Even the smallest gestures of support from friends
6. Giving myself the time to sit down and write a blog post
7. This video, in which a fan of the team–a 7-year-old boy with brain cancer–runs 69 yards down the Nebraska football field to score a touchdown during the team’s spring scrimmage game. I defy anyone to watch this video and not feel a bit better about humanity.

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Image via YogaJournal.com

It’s no secret that I love yoga. And since January 1st of this year, I’ve made an effort to do a little bit of yoga every day. So far, I’ve only missed a few days–I think about three or four in all. Even though it’s only been a little over a month and there are days when I don’t do more than a 20-minute practice, I’ve already seen a lot of improvement. I’m stronger and more flexible, and able to get into fuller expressions of poses that used to elude me. It’s a good feeling. But in spite of all my progress, it’s hard for me to shake the idea that there are some poses that I will just never, ever get. One of them: standing split, or urdhva prasarita eka padasana.

Balance poses are a mixed bag for me. I could hold tree or eagle for days, but ask me to go into half-moon, dancer, or warrior III and it’s more than likely that I’ll fall flat on my face. Before I do, though, I’ll manage to show you some approximation of the pose–something that will make you say, “Oh yeah, I see it.” You might only see it for half a second, but you’ll see it. Standing split? Not so! And just in case you were wondering, see that picture there? To the left? That’s not me. When I attempt standing split, I look more like a cat, flailing around after having been thrown out a window–limbs everywhere, no real sense of where things should be in relation to anything else.

The frustrating thing about standing split is that it’s so close, but so far. It’s not like peacock pose or crane pose which I can look at and immediately recognize as something that I am nowhere near doing. Those poses don’t even come up in the practices I do because they’re so far outside my realm of capability. But standing split comes up all the time, and usually in a really casual way, “Now, from warrior II, plant your palms on the ground and transfer your weight into your right leg. As you straighten your right leg, lift your leg into standing split…” Oh right, of course. No problem. Except for the fact that my right leg is straight and my left leg is just sort of dangling like a useless appendage over which I have absolutely no power. Why, left leg? Why?!

Hoping to enlighten myself, I sought the advice of YogaVibes. They have a couple video explanations of how to go into standing split, but oddly they don’t really do much to clarify how you get there if you are me. And YogaJournal has a list of postures to do to prepare for standing split. The thing is, I can do all of them just fine. My hamstrings are pretty open. I can bring my forehead to my knee. But how does that translate into successfully getting into standing split? There seems to be a piece missing here. Namely, the one in which I do a forward bend with my forehead to my knee and then raise one leg into a split. Can someone explain this to me? Am I the only one confused about this?

Seriously. I don’t get it.