Yo-ga! Yo-ga! Yo-ga!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I had my second session of beginning yoga last night… I’m loving it! Any other Dopers do yoga?

My instructor is a devotee of Iyengar yoga, which - unlike other types of yoga (she says) - combines meditation and movement. A lot of her direction asks us to “bring our attention” to specific parts of our bodies while working the various poses.

Last night, I was able to do all of the poses except for a shoulder stand… I tried and tried and got all sweaty.

My favorite is “corpse pose,” with a bolster under my knees and my head slightly raised by a blanket.

“Bring your attention to the tip of your inhalation and follow your breath…”

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…

2

I love yoga! Very calming when you need it to be, but can also tone and get you in shape. I like to do combinations of yoga and pilates, gets you tight fast!

One of my favorite positions is “downward facing dog”…
Yes, it’s what it sounds like. But it keeps me flexible!

3

I LOOOOVE yoga.

I have a couple of back injuries and I find that yoga keeps me really limber and reduces back pain.

I do Ashtanga Yoga. It focuses on your breath - if you’re doing it properly, you sound a bit like Darth Vader. :slight_smile:

Anyhow - enjoy!

Al.

4

Velma I like downward facing dog, too. Last night I did it right for the first time, having a straight line from my wrists all the way to my tailbone. Man, does that one feel good!

My instructor is a beautiful Japanese-American woman who is also a dancer… She has a gorgeous body, too. She’s petite, strong, has piercing eyes, glossy black hair, smooth olive skin… I want to be her!

5

I keep meaning to try Yoga, but the breathing exercises aspect bothers me. Contrary to popular belief, deep breathing is not good for you. (I can cite if you really want, but it’ll take a while to dig up some details).

6

I haven’t tried yoga but I’m a Pilates nut.

I started about four months ago with a month of Saturday classes and I’m up to three classes weekly and hoping that they add more. At home I have two videos, one of those big balls and a ring. I’m well and truly obsessed.

Get this: At my class on Tuesday, I didn’t even break a sweat and even thought that it was an unusually uninspired class. Two days later my butt hurts so much that walking is painful. YAY!

7

kitarak, I would like to see a cite of your assertion.

My wife loves yoga and Pilates. I’ve tried Pilates and didn’t care for it much, but she wants to become a certified instructor in both (she’s started some yoga instructor training already - I don’t know which style).

8

Maybe it depends on what kind of yoga you’re practicing, but our teacher doesn’t ask us to breathe deeply, but merely to observe our breathing. In fact, she specifically says that we shouldn’t change our breathing.

9

Count me in as one of those who keeps meaning to try it, but just haven’t found/made the time :frowning:
Canty, what part of the metro are your classes?

10

Hello rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrubesbaby!

My classes are in Saint Paul…Saint Paul Yoga Center

11

I would actually be interested in this as well.

With Ashtanga Yoga, breathing is key; however, it’s not really deep breathing, as opposed to loud breathing - when you exhale, you really force the breath out. I’ve found that it’s helped me with my asthma, reducing the frequency and severity of attacks; however, the plural of anecdote is not data, so if you had some info about this, I would be interested.

Al.

12

Ahhhhh.

I don’t have a yoga class nearby, so I use books and videos to learn what I need to do it on my own. I know that’s second-best, but it still feels darned good.

I can’t do a downward-facing-dog right. My legs don’t stretch yet. Not only can’t I touch my toes, I can barely touch my calves. I like that yoga is noncompetitive, and as long as I stretch as far as I can, I’m doing it right.

13

Hmm. Rereading my statement there should be an IMHO in there somewhere. I think the theory is correct, but the jury is still somewhat undecided on it. Sorry about that.

To be honest my information is in part anecdotal, in the sense that I don’t have a very large amount of experience with the subject, and I have yet to see any medical studies with conclusive evidence. That’s mostly because I haven’t looked though.

It’s a medical system called Buteyko. I have yet to really research it in detail, but I’ve picked up bits and pieces of it from a friend and random browsing of websites. He used to have asthma, and after a buteyko course has never suffered from it since. (Yes, this is an anecdote. There could in fact be many other reasons he has never suffered from it since, but he believes in it).

Here’s a link to a study published in the medical journal of australia. I haven’t read through it in detail, but it looks legit. I got this link from here, which seems to be a good reference site on the subject. It mostly covers the method with regards to asthma sufferers, but it is my understanding that many athletes use it and this boosts performance, but this may be a misreport - I can’t find any reference to it immediately to hand.

From what I know of the subject it would seem that the type of breathing you (alice_in_wonderland) describe would make asthma worse, but if you say it helps… ::shrug:: Different people are affected differently I guess. And who knows, the whole buteyko thing could be complete rubbish. :slight_smile: The person who introduced me to it also believes in homeopathy, so I don’t take his word on medical issues too seriously, but this seems far more legitimate.

Finishing with an anecdote of my own, I certainly feel a lot better when I minimise my breathing. However, it’s quite possible this is because I’m now used to shallow breathing. I’m not sure if I feel significantly better than when I started.

Maybe I should ask Cecil about the subject?

Sorry for the hijack. Perhaps we should move this to a new thread?

14

Last night I went for a 3.5 mile run and when I got back, my buttcheeks were burning like a couple of live coals!

My ass hurts! And I think it’s all the Yoga Nazi’s fault!

Keeping everything “active” on Wednesday night made my ass try to leave the vicinity of my body!

Thank God today is my rest day.

15

Canthearya,

Who are you taking it from? Before children, I took the intro courses there from Teresa for about 3 sessions. Then the kids arrived. I really enjoyed it, but did discover that the right teacher does make the difference -

I have the shortest hamstrings in the world - and downward dog is very difficult for me.

Still practice, on occation, not enough to improve unfortunately.

16

Arggghh! The link to the center doesn’t display for me, but I’m afraid St.Paul is too far away. I’ll have to try and pony up some gumption to get to an uptown yoga center…someday

17

Canthearya the progression here reminds me of the joke email that went around about some one starting w/a personal fitness trainer, Day 1 “exhilerating, trainer is so up beat and positive, it’s a joy to see her” and by Day 6 it’s “she’s the demons spawn from hell, if I hear her shrill voice one more time, I’ll take her work out towel and cram it…”

anyhow, as a totally other thing, I was at lunch today w/a friend I hadn’t seen in months. She said she’s been going to physical therapy for a yoga injury… (to be fair, she was a new participant and couldn’t do a move, and a friend ‘helped’ her do it)

18

The one and only yoga class I took started with a five minute period of time for people to lay on their back, relax, focus on their breathing and their body and center themselves. I woke up with all the people around me doing “stuff”–I can’t remember what positions they were doing but according to my friend I’d been asleep about fifteen minutes. Oops.

There’s a form of yoga called “Bikram” (I think that’s it) which appears to be very popular here in the Bay area. It’s supposed to give you a great butt, although they make the room something like 106 degrees during the sessions, which doesn’t sound appetising. I don’t dig that hot sweaty gym smell.

19

Week 3 of yoga was last night… I did the inversion pose this time. Pretty cool! We’ll see if my ass tries to detach after my run tonight.

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrubesbaby, I screwed up. Here’s the correct URL: St. Paul Yoga Center

Dangerosa, my instructor is Kaori. Turns out that she is a dance instructor during the day. I love her style of teaching because she knows where each part of your body should be… she knows exactly how to tell you what to do to be in the correct pose. “Pull your inner thigh toward the back wall - pull your knee upward into your thigh…” etc.

20

Actually, I’m going to join the yoga class at the gym I just joined.

There’s a beginner class tonight at 7:15, but I was already at the gym for a couple of hours today, so I’ll probably put off going until next week.

But I’m excited!