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Original poster

can we have a yoga thread?

56 replies

mileniwmffalcon · 05/02/2009 21:19

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...

OP posts:
deste · 07/03/2009 21:05

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.

shamum · 01/03/2009 21:11

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

Original poster
mileniwmffalcon · 07/02/2009 21:40

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

OP posts:
Original poster
mileniwmffalcon · 06/02/2009 09:26

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.

OP posts:
RachePache · 05/02/2009 22:57

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.

shamum · 05/02/2009 22:36

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.