Ashtanga Practice 2/22/18

This week I had the pleasure of doing my first Ashtanga yoga practice. To my surprise I have done a lot of the Ashtanga poses in my vinyasa flow class however the poses felt different comepared to my flow class. For starters the sun salutation poses which I have done week after week were one of the elements that felt different in this practice. In vinyasa flow we do not hold the poses as long as we did in the ashtanaga session. This particular sequence is a great work out typically, but in the ashtanga practice it seemed like the poses required a little more effort. The poses in the sun salutations are meant to stretch all the muscles in the body, while strengthening them. In vinyasa I feel like we treat the poses as stretches and not a strengthening technique. I know ashtanaga took a little more effort because my entire body is sore! After the practice I felt strong which is definitely something I haven’t felt from a yoga class in a long time. I am a sucker for meditation so I liked how the class ended in a relaxation period. What I did not like about the ashtanga session were all the poses in the seated and finishing sequences that I couldn’t do. The instructor showed some variations for the poses but not all of them so I felt like I didn’t do too much towards the end of class. I know with time and practice I will eventually be able to do them, but I really liked the momentum and sweat I was working up.

practice 2/15/18

-Unfortunately I had to miss the Iyengar session in class Tuesday because I was sick.-

This week I went to Tracey for the typical Vinyasa Flow. There is not too much I can say about her class at this point without repeating myself from previous weeks. This week while doing our flow I decided to make note of every pose we did in this week's flow.

First we start in a seated position right leg in front of left and focus on breathing, while raising our arms with the inhale and lowering them as we exhale. Doing this helps with the synchronicity of breath and motion. Next pose we stand, breathe for a count, swan dive into standing forward bend, breathe. With the inhale we straighten our back to the mid point, exhale back into standing forward bend (uttanasana), soft knees, inhale straighten the back. Exhale. Repeat. Start incorporating a sway to further stretch muscles out. Next we do a plank, and into Chaturanga Dandasana, into Cobra pose. As we come up from Cobra pose we go into  downward dog ( adho mukha svanasana) to three legged dog (right leg.) Next we transition back to plank, chaturanga dandasana, into corbra, go into downward dog, and three legged with the left leg. Guess whats next? If you guessed plank, chaturanga dandasana, cobra, you're absolutely right! This time we go to chair pose then through all the warrior poses in sequence, Warrior 1, into Warrior 2, Reverse Warrior, into Warrior 3. Coming out of warrior 3 we go into downward dog,  plank, chaturanga dandasana, into corbra, bring left foot into the front of the mat and repeat the previous sequence.

I am looking at other yoga studios in my area for a new experience, and I am hoping to go to a different instructor for next week's practice.

Bikram Yoga 2/8/18

This week I did Bikram yoga for the first time. I actually liked this class the most out of all the classes I've taken. The poses we did were a part of the 26 Hatha Yoga poses. I do not think we did them all, but we did most I would say. Typically Bikram yoga is done in a hot room, and the class I did was not, but I am curious as to how much of a difference the heat makes. What I liked most about this practice were the poses themselves. I feel as if it was a good total body work. I have muscles that are sore that I did not except to be sore because I didn't think I worked them that hard, or at all. I liked having to hold the poses for as long as we did. Some of the claims the instructor made followed typical yoga instructor claims. One of those claims were that the more one sweats, the more toxins that are expelled from the body. Its ironic because we were talking about how that is false in the class earlier this week. The instructor himself had a healing story as a result of practicing yoga. I had a weird kink in my back for the last week from the last yoga class, but the bikram class seems to have corrected that so I do like that. Chris(?) seemed to like yoga and teach it as strictly a physical practice which is another aspect that I liked. I do not recall too many anatomical calls, but he was able to describe how various parts of the body should be aligned/moved.

Vinyasa Practice 2/1/18

This week I decided to go back to Tracey's Vinyasa flow class. Last week she had an injury and so the class was less intense. This week's flow was definitely more intense. We did a lot of the same poses as last week, but there were more hip openers, and core poses. Not only were there a few more poses, but the flow was moderately paced. I am definitely feeling last nights practice today.
I decided to go to Tracey's class because her practice's focus is physical. The poses she prefers engages multiple muscles in various locations of the body. She's descriptive when it comes to which muscles should be engaged, and feeling "it." As a full time student with an internship, and job I spend a lot of time stationary, and do not work out as often as I should so I am weaker, and less flexible compared to previous years. I feel as if her class is perfect for becoming reacquainted with yoga. I like Tracey because she shows me modifications for poses that are considered intermediate.