How about a December Resolution Instead

On January 2,  the owners of Yoga studios,  fitness studios,   cross fit studio and assorted other sources of outside exercise wring their hands with glee as the masses join their emporiums to fulfill their New Year's exercise  resolution.   It's black Friday for these owners.      What they are banking on is that by February,  80% to 90% of those who signed up in January have already abandoned their fitness goal and they can just bank on the long term contracts that were so eagerly signed in January.

I am a firm believer in incrementalism.   What I mean by this is that small steps taken lead to bigger and bigger steps as time goes on.    A small success today leads to a bigger success tomorrow.    When many of us throw ourselves wholeheartedly into an exercise routine,  go to crowded classes or gyms,  see temptations of life around us, and do not get the big goals we set for ourselves quickly,  we quickly lose impetus and fall back to our old ways.   Would it not be better to make a small resolution now and build upon that? This type of goal is more obtainable than the big "This year I get into shape" goal that we put forth for ourselves.  We get small satisfactions that leads to bigger ones.  

The holidays are almost upon us.   We are now entering the time of food,  drink, more food,  more drink,  dessert, more food, and even more drink.   Would it better  cut back a little on the excess of the season?  Try not to have two desserts or that piece of candy (or two) in the break room at work.  It would be good to a long walk around your park or your neighborhood.    A winter walk is a beauty all of its own and not many take advantage of it.    A few walks may lead to a regular walking routine,  and walking sure is nicer and a lot less money than a gym membership.   You can build a lot from just walking.    The time to start is today, not on January 2.

For those of us whose resolution is to start a Yoga practice,  I suggest just going to one class each week between today and the New Years and then perhaps adding a class or two each month after that.   Yoga is challenging and your body needs time to work into it.  Your muscles will be doing things that they have not done for a long time or maybe have never done.    A six month or one year membership may be too much to start.    Perhaps just buying a 10 pack of classes would be a great start and incentive enough to practice.     Just starting is the key, and making it to class is the goal. 

Ho Ho Ho and Namaste.

Easy 20 Minute Flexibility Focused Yoga Flow

After a long hike or walk,  I usually do not have the energy nor the need to do a full Yoga flow practice.  I often just practice with a simple, easy and effective approximately 20 minute flow series.    All of the  poses are accessible to the average person and I generally hold them for 10 slow breaths or about 1 minute. 

Enjoy and Namaste.

Knee to Chest: Both Sides

Half Pigeon.  Both Sides

Supine Twist.  Both Sides

Side Stretch.  Both Sides

Wide Legged Forward Fold

Wide Legged Shoulder Stretch.

Cows / Cats   10 Times

Calf Stretch. Both Sides

Down Dog.  5 Breaths

Do this with Half Split  and Lunge Twist on One Side then the Other Side.

Do this with Low Lunge and Lunge Twist on One Side then the Other Side.

Do this with Low Lunge and Half Split on One Side then the Other Side.

Do on Both Sides.

You Earned Your Savasana

Yoga Teacher Training Is Over

Yoga class training is now over.   18 weekends of training is completed.  180 hours of learning and practicing.   Many hours of reading, studying, and preparing.

It seems like yesterday, on a somewhat cold February morning,  that I first met with 15 other strangers nervous about what we were getting ourselves into.    Its has been a challenging road,  filled with many stops of learning along the way.    I learned that I love anatomy but, for some reason, that I struggle to remember Latin names for muscles.  I have learned  that we become better Yoga teachers every time we get in front of a class, that our voice and style carries a lot of weight when we are leading a class, and that I have just scratched the surface of what I can learn about myself,  the human body, movement,  exercise,  breathing, and  teaching Yoga.    I am more than glad to have the experience and I am sad that it has ended.   I really enjoyed the company of my classmates. 

I still have a final exam to complete,  along with some other incidentals, but I now have every other weekend back.    I will miss the camaraderie of my fellow students and the great pleasure it is to sit and and learn  (with lots of Yoga breaks) .  I forgot how wonderful it is to learn in a class setting.  This, however,  will not be the end of my Yoga education.

The last four weekends,  our class has gone through several rounds of practicums where we teach each other in 20 minute blocks and are evaluated and receive constructive criticism.    It was stressful  (most of us taught four times) and necessary.   What was taught ranged from a quiet meditative  to a fast flow to holding hard poses for several minutes in a strength focused practice.   Each student brought their own imprint into what they taught.  It was beautiful to see and wonderful to be part of.  

Now comes the hard part.  I have to take what I learned and try to see if I can teach.   I would like to be able to volunteer my time to bring Yoga to those who may not have access to it and I for certain want to share the benefits of a Yoga practice with those in their middle age years and beyond.  I am volunteer teaching one time a week now but I would like to add to that and make it something more permanent.    I could always try to teach in a studio,  but I am not certain I want to go that route.    I do not look at Yoga as a way to earn money,  but rather as a way to help people get healthy.  

So the future holds a good amount of what ifs.   That, however, is the nature of life.   As the teacher who worked with us on meditation asked "Whose life has unfolded to be exactly they planned it to be".     As I have said in earlier posts,  I will practice Yoga until I cannot breath.   The same will go with teaching.

Namaste.

Yoga and my darn knee.

When there is enough light in the evening,   I like to walk a 4.5 mile loop  (7.2 km) loop in a park near my house.   During the summer,  I sometimes walk the loop four or five times a week and it feels great for both the exercise and to enjoy the warmth, breeze and being out in the world.     A few days ago,  I got caught in a sudden cold and windy rainfall and the temperature dropped about ten degrees (from 70 F to 60 F) very quickly.   I was about two miles from my car,  dressed for nice weather,  and pretty wet so I decided to run back to my car instead of walking.   It felt good to run but as a result of this escapade,  I now have a recurrence of my Runner's Knee (pain on the outside of the knee).  Runner's Knee was one of the reasons I started practicing Yoga as I was looking for an alternative form of exercise that had less impact on my body.

I am now nursing knee pain for the past few days (including two days of Yoga instructor training) and somewhat regretting that I ran.    Life, however,  can only be lived forwards.  I  cannot take back those two miles and the joy and pain they brought me. 

This recent knee pain has made me think about how great Yoga is for an aging body.  Because a practice is best built around the needs of the individual, we can adjust our practice to how our body is working and changing.    For myself,   the beginning of my Yoga practice was all about headstands, working to get into challenging arm balances, and going to hot classes and sweating and moving.   As I age,  my practice has become slower,  I am more focused on holding poses for longer,  I devote less time to "Instagram" poses, and I am more mindful about the form of the poses I hold and my breath while holding them.    I have adapted Yoga to my needs.

I was able to work around my knee pain by practicing a Yoga series focused on long restorative holds.   While I did not sweat  nor had any aerobic impact,  the practice worked to release tension in my lower back, hips,  abductors, shoulders and upper back.    It was also quiet and restful and I felt great and peaceful afterwards.    If Yoga was not in my life and my exercise was limited only to running or walking,  then I would have no activity for three or four days and I would have been tempted to run or walk because of inactivity.

As we get older,  our exercise needs to reflect that fact that our body needs more time to heal,  cannot absorb impacts like running as easily as it once did, and needs to become more flexible.    Yoga, because of its myriad of styles and thousands of poses, can be modified to the individual needs of each of us.   While I personally think that Yoga needs to be combined with an aerobic activity like walking or hiking,  it is the keystone for my exercise life.    I will be practicing Yoga until my next rebirth. 

Namaste

Advice for New Yoga Students.

Thinking of Trying Yoga? Here are some tips for you. 

Don't worry if you think you are not flexible enough. Yoga will help you with flexibility.

You get the same benefit out of Yoga as your super bendy friend. Its a personal practice.

Don't compare yourself to the person on the mat next to you. Your Yoga practice is the few square feet of your mat. You are there for the benefits to yourself.

Remember to breathe.

Honor your body.

Be present on the mat.   Leave the past and the future off the mat. 

Basic Yoga poses give you the best benefits. The hard Yoga poses are only useful on Instagram.
Get some basic pose knowledge before you venture into a public Yoga class. Look for beginner classes. There are also multitudes of beginner yoga videos on YouTube.

Pride will get you hurt. Humility will get you healthy. Practice Yoga within your comfortable and safe range of motion. The mentality of pushing it can cause injury.

You can achieve more than you think.  


 Namaste... 

Teaching Again..

Weeks 13 and 14 of training are now in the past.     The classes are now focusing Practicums  (where we teach the each other as a group and are critiqued) , practical items such as ethics and business, class sequencing,  and some final Yoga topics like teaching back bends.   With only four weekends to go,  the ending of training will be soon upon us and I will be unleashed to the world.    

From my perspective,  200 hours of training just scratches the surface of what there is needed to be learned.   The amount of information is enormous  and it is difficult to synthesize all of it.  I have been taking time to review anatomy as remembering all of it is very difficult.   I also have been working on a creating booklet of standard poses with steps to get in and out of the pose and cues while in the pose as a way of making sure I have a good mastery of each pose that I plan on teaching.  I see now that learning about and teaching Yoga is a lifelong experience, and I have been putting a half an hour aside each day to learn something new. 

I am starting up teaching free classes again.   I am excited to  teach and I am preparing as we speak.  I will focus on introducing students to a number of poses,  get them comfortable with those poses and then build on from there.     I have been working on how to introduce people to harder poses while still allowing them to be safe and in control.  It takes a great deal of time to build your first practices and I am really enjoying the work.    I am very happy that I took the teacher training plunge.   It was a great decision on my part.

Namaste.

Yin Weekend... Week 12 of Teacher Training..

2/3 of training is complete..  Only 6 more weekends to go.  Training, like life,  is speeding by and before I know it,  we will be taking our group photo and going our separate ways.

Week 12 was a two day Yin Yoga focused class.  In Yin Yoga you hold poses longer and allow gravity and not active muscles to stretch in the pose.  It  gets deep into the fascia and ligaments in addition to your muscles.  All poses are generally either seated or lying down and while many poses are shared with more active Yoga types,  there are differences in how they are held and how some cues are given.   There are also some poses that are pretty much Yin only. In my own practice,  I hold most poses for three minutes but some for five minutes and a few for only one minute. 

I have been practicing Yin for a long time,  so the poses that we were taught in the class were mostly known to me though we did some poses that I was not familiar with (mostly subtle ones) . Our instructor provided a booklet with a number of poses  that will be helpful along with my Yin book that I bought years ago.   I love Yin and posted a sequence a few years ago here.   Link to Older Post
 
We spent a very long time working on the concept of compression verses tension in the body.    This concept was one of the greatest things I got out of my training.    Basically,  we are limited by poses either by tension (tightness in muscles) or compression  (bone pressing on bone).   If a person feels stretching in a pose (tension) ,  then they have room to progress in a pose.   If a person feels compression in a pose (meaning bone is hitting bone),  chances are they can never progress in that pose.   While this may not a complete axiom  (Did he just use Axiom in a sentence?) ,  it is good information to know when you are teaching a student.     You can ask a student what they are feeling and if there is compression  (for example in a forward fold they can feel their hips compressing and not tightness in their hamstrings),  then they should not go so deep in that pose.

We also discussed what makes one person able to do a pose, while another cannot.    For example,  look at the photo below.

These are Femur bones.  The ball on the top left of each bone go into the Pelvis  (the hip socket   known as the Acetabulum).    You can see that the person on the left has less of an angle along the head of the bone and that the spur along the top right (known as the Greater Trochanter)  is more pronounced.     This photo shows that despite us being human,  there is a range of difference in how we are structured.   The person on the left will have a lesser range of motion when widening their legs than the person on the right and thus will be limited by their Femur construction in what is called abduction poses.     The person on the right will be more able to do a split than the person on the left due to this difference.   This is due to the fact that the person on the left may hit their pelvis with their legs abducted before they hit the limit of their muscle flexibility.

Another good take away from this class was how to approach a student in regards to how a pose should be done.   Because Yin is a deep practice,  a class could be varied in how deep each person can go into a pose.  Because of age, injury, muscle flexibility, bone structure etc.,  we are all different and this effects how a person can do a pose.    We need to ask a student where they are feeling something to determine how to adjust them.   Are they feeling compression or tightness or pain?   We need to be able (and learn how) to provide props and other adjustments to allow them to experience a pose.    This is something that we have been learning all along but in the example photo below,   you can see two modifications  (on the left) and the part of a person (on the right) who has gone deep into a pose.   The person on the right was so deep into the pose, that he actually had to be adjusted to go deeper into it. 
 

What was interesting for me is that I have a limited external rotation of my legs  (meaning how far can I rotate my feet out with my heels together before I hit compression) but I am able to do a full lotus (legs crossed over each other) and I can do a lying lotus (legs on the floor, crossed with my back flat on the floor).  The human body is pretty amazing.

Overall,  a great learning weekend.    Probably the best one so far.  I have to give credit to the teaching capabilities of the instructor.   He did a great job explaining the points he wanted to get across.

Namaste.