can we have a yoga thread?

[mileniwmffalcon]

and can this be it?

i'd love to hear from anyone else who does/wants to practice yoga on a regular basis, particularly anyone who has a regular home practice.

i've been doing it on and off for years, sometimes with a teacher (the same one) and sometimes at home. between dds 1&2 i managed to find time to practise 3 or 4 times a week and i found i made a lot of progress then. i'm getting back into it again now, and i'm aiming to do a session at least weekly if i can't manage many more just yet.

eventually i'd love to have a daily practice, but finding a good time is always tricky. i've tried first thing in the morning, but i'm just too stiff, perhaps before bed would be better.

so come and tell me about your practice...

[shamum]

hooray for the yoga thread!

I heard recently that 10 mins of practice a few days a week is better than one full-on session every week or so. Good! Because that's all I can get around to most of the time. A few sun salutations and some nice stretches before bed, occasionally an hour long session I downloaded from i-tunes, if everyone else is out!

Agree with you about the mornings - even if I could get up an hour before the school/work rush begins I'm too creaky! I'd really like to go to a class but can't find one I can get to regularly AND enjoy.

[RachePache]

I have done a weekly class for a year now, and before that, pregnancy yoga with the same teacher. I love it, especially the chanting (does anyone else do chanting?). Trying to fit in a daily practice is tricky more through laziness/bad habits than anything else, though I should really try to do a dew sun salutations a day if nothing else.

What's the itunes thing? Sounds interesting.

[mileniwmffalcon]

oh i love the chanting in class. ours is usually pretty busy so the energy is incredible. sometimes when people are having a tough time our teacher invites them to lie in the circle that's one thing i find impossible to replicate at home - there's a short ah-ee-oo-mm bit in the cd i use but it's not the same doing it on your own.

i'd be interested to hear what audio you use too shamum. i have a cd my teacher made which i love, she's very good at preparing you for poses and doing proper counterstretching, but it's quite a short/basic session. then i have some shiva rea stuff which is pretty full on and i tend to do selected bits from that after i've warmed up with my teacher's one.

when i was doing lots i'd make up my own sessions too - i have a good book about establishing your own practice with guidelines about the order to do different types of pose etc. - i loved being able to focus on whatever i felt i needed more of at the time.

[mileniwmffalcon]

i have a question if anyone's still out there lol - how hard do you work? do you do a restorative type gentle hatha yoga practice, full-on ashtanga? power yoga? (btw what its this? i've never been sure) or something inbetween?

as i said earlier in the thread, i mostly use a cd put together by my teacher, it's pretty gentle (she caters for everyone from severely disabled on up), but there are bits involving core muscles which seemed to jump ship after dd2 was born that i still find pretty challenging (e.g. i can just about manage shoulderstand again but can't do plough, which is something i'd previously always been able to do).

but today after my "run" i fancied doing something a bit more energetic so i put shiva rea on and lordy did i find it hard! there were whole sections i merrily fastforwarded past! i wonder if this is an american thing - for e.g. ashtanga seems to be much bigger over there than it is here - that they just work much harder, take it more seriously almost as a sport, rather than the gentle, stretchy, over-60s type pace it often seems to go at here.

so what type/s do you do? any you've tried and not liked? i've been going for years and it turns out every time i feel i'm beginning to get the hang of it a whole new world opens up that i had no idea even existed, enough to keep me busy this whole lifetime just for starters

[shamum]

it's been a week or so since i've been back - but since i just found 30 mins for a yoga session i thought i might check back in...

i've been doing yoga for years (my mum used to take me when i was little) but have never heard of shiva rea! there's definitely something new all the time... i'll have to see what it's all about, though it sounds pretty hardcore! i tried bikram yoga once and it just wasn't for me. i know some people like the hot sweaty room but i'd much rather have a fresh breeze. i used to do a lot of ashtanga and still quite like the energy of those sessions, but it does seem a bit too close to sport. My favourite is a good energetic sun salutation start then on to the deeper stretches and deeper relaxation.

the one i downloaded is ateeka - i think DVDs are also available.

i miss the chanting when i practice by myself. and the encouragement of a teacher! i definitely work much harder in a class.

how have you been doing - got some good practice in ov

[deste]

I go to Hatha yoga once a week, Power yoga once week and am about to start Yoga Fussion. Has anyone heard of that one. I do enjoy the sessions and feel very calm after them but I just dont get the chanting. When we were all chatting before a class one week most of us said we disliked it. I have seen Shiva Rea on Sky tv on a Sunday on the yoga channel and really enjoyed it.

[mileniwmffalcon]

ooh hello i didn't realise this thread was still going

where do you do your yoga deste? i can imagine the chanting might feel out of place in a gym for example. i started with a group of old ladies in a daytime class, and i have to say i didn't feel particularly comfortable with it at first. but it makes so much more sense in our evening group because everyone's completely into it, the vibrations go right through you

i've never heard of yoga fusion, i'd love to hear how you find it. oh and tell me about power yoga, how does it differ from your hatha class? am v at 3 yoga sessions a week.

i work much harder in a class too shamum. i'm doing a drawing class in the evenings at the moment but i think when this term finishes i'll go back to yoga for my "escape" evening, i miss it. i find i can do the physical part at home, but i like the philosophical bits i get from class as well as a sense of community and perspective. my teacher talks a lot, often seemingly at random. i know some people really don't like it, but i've found it a really important part of deepening my understanding.

i'm happy to report i've been managing my once a week home practise and my plough has come back

[deste]

Hi I do the yoga at a local gym, in Aberdeen. The power yoga is faster more intense but you feel as if you have done a bit of a workout. Yoga fusion is done to music but has not started yet as the timetable changes shortly. Our teacher also talks a lot, telling little stories etc, some relevant some not.

[mileniwmffalcon]

do you find you get confused between the different types deste, or can you draw on things you learn in one to take to another? there are differences e.g. between the sun salutations i've learned with my teacher and the ones shiva rea uses - i often find myself halfway to the wrong posture whenever she goes at any speed!

one of the things i dearly love about my teacher is that she doesn't use any music - i tend to find it really distracting. good job there's so many different types to keep us all happy

[deste]

Hatha yoga there is no music. I also do Body Balance which is a mixture of Tai Chi, Yoga and Pilates so Power Yoga is closer to that than Hatha, although the moves are similar. You dont get mixed up though. Power Yoga is continuous and is explained as you go or for something more complicated is demonstrated first. The Power Yoga teacher is younger than the Hatha Yoga teacher and really flexible, in fact she is amazing and makes it enjoyable and fun. The Hatha Yoga is more relaxed.

[OonaghBhuna]

Hi there, I am a yoga fanatic. have been practicing for a few years now. I discovered a fab teacher who I was going to twice a week. He is from Nepal and has been doing yoga since he was seven. His classes are a mixture of sun salutations and deep strengthening.We also do alot of breathing, chanting, meditiation.
I am pregnant with my 3rd child so have had to stick to my yoga DVDs, although I do enjoy home practice.
I also have Shiva Rea DVDs ummm they are hard but have found recently that I am getting into more of the intermediate poses, well until recently. I think its going to be a while before I can do wheel pose or crow...

[sachertorte]

Not so many of us into yoga then? I found in via Wii Fit so about as inauthentic as it gets!? would love to know more about it, especially the meditation/philosophical element. Can u recommend any DVDs? Can´t really make it to a class, just do c 30 mins every day..

[WhereTheWildThingsWere]

Oooooh a Yoga thread, how exciting , I do Bikram, it's fantastic, anyone else?

[OonaghBhuna]

Is Bikrim the hot yoga? whats it like?

[christiana]

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[OonaghBhuna]

I do Shivas pregnancy DVD too. The classes tend to be for people who only take up yoga when they are pregnant so for people like us who practice they are really disapointing.

Can anyone recommend a good post natal dvd?

[christiana]

Message withdrawn

[poshtottie]

Hi, I am a yoga teacher though doing my pregnancy yoga module at the moment. I found the pregnancy yoga class very tame too as was teaching myself and going to classes but yoga is an individual practice and when teaching in a class situation a teacher has to be very careful.

My friend who is also a yoga teacher had a miscarriage around week 10 but she was teaching 12 classes a week. She can't be sure it was the yoga but it is a possiblility.

[OonaghBhuna]

Poshtottie, I do understand how careful teachers need to be.I am fortunate in that i know which postures are safe in pregnancy.

I am sorry to hear about your friend, I had one at ten weeks a few years ago and when I eventually got pregnant again everyone advised me to take it easy for the first trimester.

Christiana- Is the post natal one worth getting? How would you rate it?!

[christiana]

Message withdrawn

[mileniwmffalcon]

ooh hello everyone - i keep forgetting about this thread

i used janet balaskas's book preparing for birth with yoga, i enjoyed it, although i'm sceptical about whether it actually helped with my (long, back-to-back) labours. although i guess i could have ended up with at least one section if i hadn't done all the preparation i did, attempted homebirth etc.

second time i carried on with my normal, fairly strenuous, class during the first trimester but worked with my teacher on what i should and shouldn't be doing. i kind of lost momentum once i got into second trimester though, and haven't yet got back up to speed.

i did surprise myself by (briefly) managing wheel the other day, but i could only do crow by the skin of my teeth when i was practicing regularly so it won't be happening just yet shiva rea has an "abdominals" section in the audio i use which i've only lately even begun to attempt!

tell me more about bikram - is it full of tiny bendy girlies in hotpants as i imagine?

[mileniwmffalcon]

morning yoga peeps

i'm wary of making promises i can't keep, but i thought putting my intentions down in public might be motivating.

i'm just reaching the end of the couch to 5k running plan and i was really impressed at how quickly i managed to progress with a good programme and setting aside some time on a regular basis. but while i enjoy the running, and i'm going to keep it up, i don't really want to be a runner - i want to be a bendy yoga person

so i reckon if i can get up early 3 mornings a week to run i should easily be able to do the same to do yoga. i'm not going to aim too high, but if i can do a few sun salutations on the mornings i'm not running that would be a good start, right? and then i'll start back at my evening class once a week too.

will report back how i get on...

[mileniwmffalcon]

i realise i'm at risk of sounding slightly unhinged talking to myself like this, but there's more of you out there, right? or only when the thread's dropped off the bottom of my threads, it seems

anyone got any tips for chatturanga dandasana (sp?!) the four limbed staff (sorry my terms are rusty!) pose? my teacher's always taught us the easy version from plank - "knees down, chin and upper chest down", followed by cobra. but since i'm working on my sun sals i thought i'd try my hand at the ashtanga version which (afaik) is chatturanga, up dog, down dog. but i can't do chatturanga i've found with so many poses it's just a question of someone talking you through it in the right way to magically get it, so can anyone offer any tips, or know of a good description? does it rely on arm strength or is there some other knack to it?

[Jackbunnysmama]

I would love a yoga thread!! I just started again last weekend - but not with Hatha, like any sensible person who last exercised 15 months ago, but with power yoga - how stupid am I????? I was so sore!!!!

Will come back later, am just at work.

[mileniwmffalcon]

lol @power yoga. tbh, even when i do Old Lady Yoga (TM) after a break i'm creaking and hobbling all over the place the next day