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| Bakasana - make shifting my kitchen floor and turning it into a temporary yoga studio. Rynel was gracious enough to take some pics while I was in yoga action! |
One of the primary reasons for my leave of absence in the blogosphere has to be my practice with yoga. I know what you're thinking - yoga, oh, that must be so easy! Not at all! At least not with the right approach. It could be devastatingly easy, or frustrating to do depending on who's class you go to or which type of yoga you start with.
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| Sirsana |
My personal experience with yoga started roughly 6 months ago. I think I've said it quite frequently already in previous posts, but I was sick throughout my fall semester of grad school last year. It resulted me lingering anemia that was really hard to manage even with supplemental iron. It was a nuisance! I mean it drained me, and it got to the point where I didn't have energy to stand for 15 minutes without feeling faint or tired. And being that I was already stretched thin with academics and working on the side, I figured after finals in December that enough was enough and that it was time for me to change my lifestyle. As a physical therapy student I knew the answer to my own problems, I just simply didn't have time to do it (hint: PT school is harder than you think!).
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| I actually really like this pose.... chaturanga |
With help I was able to sign up for a gym close to my apartment (Gold's Gym Roger's Ranch!). Although we paid quite a fortune to sign up, it was the only gym that had a variety of classes with numerous times that were convenient to my schedule.
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| Ready for yoga! |
I wanted to start out slow with my return to a regular exercise routine, and of course the first thing in my mind was yoga. You know, because it seems easy and all... Well for my first group exercise class I coincidently happened to attend advanced ashtanga. Mind you, I've done a few yoga classes here and there, but it was nothing compared to what I had previously experienced. It wasn't just the atmosphere, it was the people - the props - and by golly the poses! I had never seen that many people do sirsana (headstand) before. So many arm balances, really deep stretching poses to where you're pretty much eccentrically contracting your muscle to go further past the stretch. I mean the days following I felt like my body was ripped in pieces.
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| In action! |
Yet instead of feeling deterred, I was oddly inspired. I told myself multiple times I will someday do the headstand, arm balances, and some day get rid of these extremely tight hamstrings! How a yoga class made me feel that way was beyond me at the time. But after doing some research and through my own observations I found a few things:
1. Ashtanga can be a difficult practice. Usually there are names in front a yoga class that will signal to you the difficulty level. Hatha is typically your beginner's version, followed by Vinyasa, then Ashtanga. Then of course there's Bikram and Kundalini yoga which is going to be a different topic for a later date.
2. A desirable aspect of yoga is eccentric muscle control. You can definitely trust that if you practice ashtanga you can get sore!
3. To advance with any yoga you must do it frequently, otherwise expect progress to happen over a longer period of time.
4. Find yourself a good teacher. After going through many classes within the past few months, I find that your journey is influenced by your instructor or your studio.
5. Don't get discouraged or intimidated. I've often felt really intimidated by some awesome yogis out there who have a natural talent for yoga, but I've had to tell myself over and over again that every body is different, and also the years spent doing yoga is different!
6. If you didn't get a good sweat with your practice, you either didn't do the poses correctly or that level of practice is too easy.
7. And lastly, the coolest thing about yoga is you can make it as hard or as easy as you want it to be. There are so many forms and different instructors, you'll always get a variety of something!
Granted although I'm practicing way more, I still have a long way to go and I'm by no means an expert. I know my poses will get more beautiful the longer I practice. Do you practice yoga? Let me know in the comments below about your journey!
Jacq
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| Namaste! |
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