On Thursday January 25 I went to Optimal Gym located in Vineland for a drop in Yoga class. The class was taught by a woman named Tracey. Tracey has been a Yoga instructor for over twenty years. She teaches Vinyasa Flow Yoga. Vinyasa Yoga is a flowing style of yoga and focuses on synchronizing breathing while various Asanas. The instructor had an injury and made class easier than usual. I have taken vinyasa yoga classes before, but not with this instructor.
The classes sequence focused on an array of postures that worked the core. The flow started off seated to focus on alignment, back straight, heart center forward, shoulders relaxed, butt planted and everything aligned. The purpose of this was to make sure we are aligned for our postures, and focus breathing. After a few minutes we started to raise our arms and bring palms together on the inhale, and bring them back down on the exhale. I believe the purpose of this is to synchronize breathing with motion before the real flow starts.
The instructor showed me easier modifications for some of the poses she was doing to see where I am at as far as flexibility. She emphasized that my practice is MY practice, if something is uncomfortable take a moment and adjust. She also made it important to note that there is no competition in yoga, and even though I may have been experienced before that I should not get frustrated if I could not do something I used to be able to do.
I was able to do the poses throughout class, but pacing my breathing with my flow was difficult at some points. We did poses such as Warrior 1, 2, Downward Dog, Plank, Chaturanga Dandasana, Upward Dog. There were other poses and movements made that I do not know by name, but the purpose was to engage different muscles, and the core. There were anatomical calls made during the flow. The calls were both distal and proximal.
The instructor talked in a calm voice, and played atmospheric music. The lights were dimmed and was relaxing overall.
No comments:
Post a Comment