Ten days of yoga
Jan. 6th, 2014 11:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mekyriaThis is a practice post for the Dutch item that will appear on my blog somewhere soon. These past three weeks I did happen to paint a lot of woodwork in our new house, slept in the new house for the first time and had a blast with Mr.R.. What I also did, was spend roughly 30 hours on yoga and the last activity is what I want to write about. And since it was Christmas time, I'd like to call this post 'my ten days of yoga' as a wink to the popular song.
On December 16th I bought a daytime card for ten classes and attended the yoga basic class. It was good, slower then I expected but we went through a coupel of moves thouroughly.
December 17th: Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga, aso known as poweryoga. I did this form and I really liked how it made me feel. I also remembered that I hate downward facing dog as it is one of the moves that I struggle with most, due to a closed upper body and I have tyrannosaurus rex arms.
December 19th: another Ashtanga Vinyasa class. Things started to feel slightly better. The teacher is a good one and has a good sense of humor. You're supposed to do a vinyasa between moves (plank, cobra, downward dog, jump to sitting) but at the end of the class he mentioned that if you don't feel like it, decide for yourself. After all, it is your practice.
December 20th: Ashtanga Vinyasa but with Ingeborg Timmerman. A different experience, still good, but different. The fun thing is that since the moves in AShtanga yoga are in the same seqence every time, it is easier to see the differences between the teacher, the instruction and how you feel that day.
December 21th and december 22th- between 10.00-17.00 we had our in depth training course. All the things you don't learn in class were talked and practiced, including correctly going through the key poses of yoga, the breathing, mulah banda (Bellydancers like to call this 'engaging the lower abs' but it included lifting the pelvic floor slightly), how to structure your own practice, different types of yoga like yana yoga (the art of gathering knowledge) and the more meditative form of yoga. It was an interesting and fun weekend.
December 27th: Ashtanga Vinyasa class with Ingeborg. It was nice to be moving again after Christmas, and to not be working on the house for a change.
December 30th: Iyengar yoga. A slower form that works with getting into a pose helped by props (blocks and bands), focused on getting in the correct alignment and staying there for a while. I liked the focus on alignment as I tend to pop my tailbone outward and my shoulder tend to hunch a bit. I can see how useful this would be if I did it once every week. Someone remarked that Iyengar yoga worked better for then physical therapy.
January 2th: Yin Flow yoga. This is a restorative yoga, focused on healing the body and improbving the energy flows in the body. This class went slow, but poses were held for 3-5 minutes each. Never knew how hard it is to relax into a pose and contemplate wheter you can stand it for the whole 3-5 minutes. We worked on the kidneys, and as far as I can tell it felt good and I did have to pee more then usual in the next couple of hours.
January 3th: Mysore Ashtanga class. For this one, I slept in my old place because the class starts at 6.30 in the morning. Yes, that is right, I got up on an ungodly hour for yoga and much to my suprise I liked it. The idea about a Mysore class is that every student goes through the same sequence (this sequence is longer and slightly more complex then a led Ashtanga Vinyasa class). You practice all the moves in the sequence that you can remember and finish with the closing sequence that includes backbend and handstand moves (the hardest ones for me). You chose the version of the pose that suits your current level.
I suck at remembering things. Lucky for me, there was another beginner and we both stumbled through our first Mysore class with equal unease. The teacher walks around and gives private feedback, which was very helpful for me. When you are through, you are through. I finished around 8.15 and drove back home, feeling rejuvenated and strong.
My initial idea was to see if yoga is a suitable form of movement to learn from as a belly dancer. One of my flisties mentioned that yoga can be an addittion to a belly dance class, but should never be expected to be a standard part of the class because bellly dancers are not yoga teachers. I agree with this because the logic is sound (don't expect A in class B, because A is not B) but I found a second reason why belly dance and yoga are vastly different. I have looked into the learning system for yoga and I think I can say that most belly dancers in the Netherlands have far less practice in teaching skills, anatomy and keeping people safe while moving then yoga teachers. And here's the real hoot: the yoga community comments on the internet that the 200 and 500 hour teacher training are churning out teachers that do not know how to teach.
I wonder how they feel about belly dance teacher that start teaching after a couple of classes?
Yoga makes me feel good and a lot of work has gone into structuring the learning system of yoga. I'd like to prepare myself for the teacher training this summer (three weeks of 6 days + two weekends). In essence, you need to have your own practice for 1-2 years before enrolling in the teacher training. Meaning that you have to make yoga part of your life (6-10 hours per week) for 1-2 years before enrolling.
My plan is to practice Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga three times a week plus one Mysore class every other week (always starting at 6.30. Ugh). For the next six months, I will spend a lot of time with my mat. The tricky bit is that as a teacher, you have to maintain your practice NEXT TO the classes that you teach. Translated to belly dance, it makes sense that your personal practice as a dancer is different from preparing and teaching class. I realized that I have been a bit off my game in the last months with my classes and I want to stay on top, so there is enough work to be done to keep me busy for a while. Structure my own practice, improve my classes, that kind of thing. I might post a yoga update every two weeks or so, as I go along and tag them accordingly.
On December 16th I bought a daytime card for ten classes and attended the yoga basic class. It was good, slower then I expected but we went through a coupel of moves thouroughly.
December 17th: Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga, aso known as poweryoga. I did this form and I really liked how it made me feel. I also remembered that I hate downward facing dog as it is one of the moves that I struggle with most, due to a closed upper body and I have tyrannosaurus rex arms.
December 19th: another Ashtanga Vinyasa class. Things started to feel slightly better. The teacher is a good one and has a good sense of humor. You're supposed to do a vinyasa between moves (plank, cobra, downward dog, jump to sitting) but at the end of the class he mentioned that if you don't feel like it, decide for yourself. After all, it is your practice.
December 20th: Ashtanga Vinyasa but with Ingeborg Timmerman. A different experience, still good, but different. The fun thing is that since the moves in AShtanga yoga are in the same seqence every time, it is easier to see the differences between the teacher, the instruction and how you feel that day.
December 21th and december 22th- between 10.00-17.00 we had our in depth training course. All the things you don't learn in class were talked and practiced, including correctly going through the key poses of yoga, the breathing, mulah banda (Bellydancers like to call this 'engaging the lower abs' but it included lifting the pelvic floor slightly), how to structure your own practice, different types of yoga like yana yoga (the art of gathering knowledge) and the more meditative form of yoga. It was an interesting and fun weekend.
December 27th: Ashtanga Vinyasa class with Ingeborg. It was nice to be moving again after Christmas, and to not be working on the house for a change.
December 30th: Iyengar yoga. A slower form that works with getting into a pose helped by props (blocks and bands), focused on getting in the correct alignment and staying there for a while. I liked the focus on alignment as I tend to pop my tailbone outward and my shoulder tend to hunch a bit. I can see how useful this would be if I did it once every week. Someone remarked that Iyengar yoga worked better for then physical therapy.
January 2th: Yin Flow yoga. This is a restorative yoga, focused on healing the body and improbving the energy flows in the body. This class went slow, but poses were held for 3-5 minutes each. Never knew how hard it is to relax into a pose and contemplate wheter you can stand it for the whole 3-5 minutes. We worked on the kidneys, and as far as I can tell it felt good and I did have to pee more then usual in the next couple of hours.
January 3th: Mysore Ashtanga class. For this one, I slept in my old place because the class starts at 6.30 in the morning. Yes, that is right, I got up on an ungodly hour for yoga and much to my suprise I liked it. The idea about a Mysore class is that every student goes through the same sequence (this sequence is longer and slightly more complex then a led Ashtanga Vinyasa class). You practice all the moves in the sequence that you can remember and finish with the closing sequence that includes backbend and handstand moves (the hardest ones for me). You chose the version of the pose that suits your current level.
I suck at remembering things. Lucky for me, there was another beginner and we both stumbled through our first Mysore class with equal unease. The teacher walks around and gives private feedback, which was very helpful for me. When you are through, you are through. I finished around 8.15 and drove back home, feeling rejuvenated and strong.
My initial idea was to see if yoga is a suitable form of movement to learn from as a belly dancer. One of my flisties mentioned that yoga can be an addittion to a belly dance class, but should never be expected to be a standard part of the class because bellly dancers are not yoga teachers. I agree with this because the logic is sound (don't expect A in class B, because A is not B) but I found a second reason why belly dance and yoga are vastly different. I have looked into the learning system for yoga and I think I can say that most belly dancers in the Netherlands have far less practice in teaching skills, anatomy and keeping people safe while moving then yoga teachers. And here's the real hoot: the yoga community comments on the internet that the 200 and 500 hour teacher training are churning out teachers that do not know how to teach.
I wonder how they feel about belly dance teacher that start teaching after a couple of classes?
Yoga makes me feel good and a lot of work has gone into structuring the learning system of yoga. I'd like to prepare myself for the teacher training this summer (three weeks of 6 days + two weekends). In essence, you need to have your own practice for 1-2 years before enrolling in the teacher training. Meaning that you have to make yoga part of your life (6-10 hours per week) for 1-2 years before enrolling.
My plan is to practice Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga three times a week plus one Mysore class every other week (always starting at 6.30. Ugh). For the next six months, I will spend a lot of time with my mat. The tricky bit is that as a teacher, you have to maintain your practice NEXT TO the classes that you teach. Translated to belly dance, it makes sense that your personal practice as a dancer is different from preparing and teaching class. I realized that I have been a bit off my game in the last months with my classes and I want to stay on top, so there is enough work to be done to keep me busy for a while. Structure my own practice, improve my classes, that kind of thing. I might post a yoga update every two weeks or so, as I go along and tag them accordingly.
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no subject
Date: 2014-01-07 04:37 am (UTC)In the US, I think the same thing is true about belly dance teachers and yoga teachers. The safety issue I'm guessing is more important in yoga in some respects; the head and hand stands seem a lot more dangerous than most things that are taught in belly dance.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-09 07:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-09 10:20 am (UTC)Yes, reasons for safety issues are more obvious in yoga but the risk of belly dance is that our community promotes it as a fun way to move for anyone at any size. It is true, but only if the moves are done correctly. Ten years of doing bellydance while overstretching your knees and arching your lower back will bring you a world of hurt too.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-09 07:58 am (UTC)Yoga gezond? Niet altijd. Bill Broad schreef een boek over de gevaren van yoga. ‘Je spot met de sturing van je lichaam.’
there are some asanas that are not all that healty, shoulderstand being one of them. I hope you will google Bill Broad and read his article for a US newsparer (Times I think) Just for some background info (and to practice yoga safely)
A few weeks ago during yogaclass we did an asana for several minutes that did not feel good. Last week I tried the yoga basics class and tried to hard on a backbend needles to say triying to hard is not a good thing (so my back keeps telling me eversince)
See Ya
no subject
Date: 2014-01-09 10:16 am (UTC)On the other hand, Bill Broad is taking things out of context. For example, he cites single cases and acts as if it is the fault of yoga that the person got injured while there are also plenty of cases of people having a heart attack while swimming or working out. I believe that the human body can be injured by all types of exercise: I haven't seen solid prove that yoga is extra prone to accidents compared to snow vacations or running. The type of accident might vary, depending how overzealous the student is in getting into a pose, and how competent the teacher is in correcting it towards a more sustainable pose.
You were looking into yoga instructor training too, didn't you? Do you have plans for regular at home practice?
no subject
Date: 2014-01-09 04:51 pm (UTC)Indeed the plow is very uncomfortable and I will never try that even again, same for "schouderstand"
I hope that I can start teachertraining in 2 or 3 years (depending on a possible pregancy in the near future and on how my bodie reacts to regular practice)
I prefer slow-flow BTW