10,000 Vinyasas

Is it time for me to consider a daily yoga practice? Almost every teacher I respect believes in practicing yoga daily, and I’ve been practicing myself enough to realize the benefits of more practice. The key for me, I think, lies in Mike Matthews’ suggestion that one doesn’t have to start with the full Ashtanga primary series every day–just doing Suryra Namascarya is sufficient. Since it may not always be possible for me to make a full practice session, because of scheduling, I really think I should attempt to develop the habit, and now may be the right time.

More yoga notes: attended an excellent workshop this weekend, taught by Andrew Eppler. As always, his low-key style created an atmosphere where one could feel encouraged to try to exceed one’s previous capabilities. It’s also inspiring to connect with other serious practitioners. I got some good hints on rehabilitating my knee this weekend.

I hurt my knee last week; I don’t know how. I suspect it had to do with the many yoga practices and classes I taught, but there is no one event that I’m aware of. At any rate, my left knee has serious pain when I fold it into the direction of lotus. “Comfortable cross-legged position” is a misnomer. Not trying to be depressed here, but its becoming clear that it will not heal quickly. I also am most aware of how much of my Ashtanga practice depends on lotus and rotating that left foot inwards. I was planning to attend most of an Astanga workshop this weekend, but I will certainly have to modify things in order to participate. I’m actually thinking this will be of some benefit to my teaching, since I will have to experience my classes and personal practice with less mobility.

Tonight, I had the opportunity to sub for my first yoga teacher. It was an incredibly satisfying experience, more so because it made me completely appreciate how much I’ve progressed in the last 2 1/2 years, and also, because, of course, it just seemed so symmetrical, like I had returned to the beginning. I was first encouraged to try yoga through the recommendation of someone in a cardio class I was attending (and still attend), and this teacher’s gentle, low-key approach was the ideal way for me to start, given that I had very little ability in yoga. As I’ve said before, yoga has a way of making you quite aware of your shortcomings, and I did have many. At first, I was satisfied to complete one yoga class per week, but after a few months, I began trying other classes, and making more progress. After my first power yoga class, I remember thinking that I could really become strong if I kept going once a week…how little did I know. I actually “outgrew” that class later on, and in my search for more intensity, came upon Ashtanga, which to me was the most fearsome and forbidding style I could practice. I was lucky, I think, to connect with a teacher who presented the style in a very non-threatening and accessible manner; as we know, not all teachers are suited for conveying this style to beginners. Of course, the benefits of practicing Ashtanga are now clearer to me: it makes you very strong, very flexible, and you begin to glimpse the power and the serenity of yoga. It inspires you to continue to practice and learn. I am so grateful to my teachers of yoga; I’m sure this sounds maudlin and ordinary but it is not. If there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that yoga has multiple levels, mentally, physically, and even perhaps spiritually, and these are revealed through time and effort. Once again, namaste!

Ps. I should also mention that one of my peak experiences in yoga has been when I persuaded my first yoga teacher to attend my Ashtanga teacher’s class. A strange quirk in space and time allowed the two to be facing each other, with me observing closely on the side…it was, well, interesting.

As you may know, I’ve been practicing Ashtanga yoga once a week for over a year now. My first teaching experience at the local gym got listed on the schedule as Ashtanga, for some reason (I haven’t inquired why), and it caused me to reflect on the difficulty of introducing this style to beginners. An ancient style of yoga, Ashtanga was originally developed, in my understanding, for teenagers, and this is probably true, since it is a physically demanding, aggressive style that requires quite a bit of flexibility and strength. Hence, the difficulty of introducing it to adults who are new to yoga, and indeed, may not be in the best physical condition to begin with. In the first series (primary series), there are multiple poses and multiple variations of poses, particularly seated forward bends and twists, along with standing balance poses of ferocious difficulty, headstands, backbends and binds, interspersed with vinyasas requiring jumping into seated and jumping back into chaturanga. Some poses require full lotus to fully attain, and really can’t be modified to include a beginner’s more limited range. The other day, I asked my Ashtanga teacher how to teach beginners in the style. His response was that there were, in fact, two different schools of thought. The traditional way was to start at the beginning of primary series, and stop when a pose could not be achieved, work on that one until mastery, and then proceed to the next one. The second approach was to work out a modified set of poses from the primary series and build up strength until more poses could be added. In my opinion, the first method is actually more suited for a traditional yoga environment (a studio or ashram) where, by self-selection, you have a group of highly motivated students who are not going to be discouraged by the repetition and difficulty at the beginning. In teaching at a gym, in contrast, students are not as motivated, overall, to keep trying to attain proficiency in a style which may appear forbiddingly difficult at first. It’s this reasoning which led me to adopt the second approach in teaching my first class. I had seen firsthand the unsuitability of trying to force a fast paced aggressive style on a beginning mixed level class, and I thought I could design a routine which would incorporate the spirit of the primary series while allowing someone who had little or no experience with yoga to be successful. So far, I’ve gotten good feedback on this approach, so I suppose I would call it a qualified success in the environment I’m teaching in.

More yoga notes: I bit off more than I could chew this week, by agreeing to sub for someone the day after I had a trial setting. 99% of the time these settings don’t go anywhere, but this time I ended up having to start the trial and had to get a sub for the class I had agreed to teach. It was quite stressful to deal with both of these situations at the same time, but I did find another sub at the last minute. I’m eager to get more teaching experience now that I have a more demanding power yoga class to teach–the expectations are a little higher. Been hearing better things about the bad yoga teacher, so maybe all the feedback she’s gotten has caused her to change…perhaps I was too quick to judge.
Update (4/18/2009) Was able, for the first time, to achieve PINCHA MAYURASANA (headstand with forearms to floor) at the wall, just for a few seconds, but still…progress. In the mail today also was a check for teaching my first two yoga classes–an entire $46.00. Of course, the money is really kind of irrelevant; I’m doing this for love of yoga, not money.