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...

They call it power yoga where I go, it's based on Ashtanga. Hard!!!!

sorry wasn't lolling @power yoga in itself, just at your picking it for a restart. hope you enjoyed the class. did you do power yoga before or did it come as a bit of a shock? i love a full-on class, i usually leave about a foot off the ground, although ours are pretty tame compared to ashtanga. does power yoga include stuff like arm balances, dropbacks, hand/headstand etc (the stuff i think of as advanced and would love to be able to do) or is it more your basic postures done quickly?

i overdid my session last night due mostly to accumulated frustration at not being able to exercise for the last week thanks to a bad cold. so now i still ache all over, but at least it's a healthy ache

Mileniwmffalcon - I have had problems with the sun salutations too. However I learnt that its the position of your hands helps with the pose. So I think my hands used to be beneath my shoulders. I found that by just continuing to try it even though not elegantly gave me the strength that I needed for the fluid movement. Also practicing press ups helps
I used to be a runner and then found yoga. Now Im just unfit and pregnant for the third time. Have adapted my yoga to enjoy it while Im pregnant.

thanks for the tips oonagh, will keep on making roughly the right kinds of shapes and hope it improves

i missed my first early morning session this morning - great start, eh - but made it up this afty. i realised how hard it is to break out of a well-known sequence. i tried to do the ashtanga sun sals but just couldn't make my body do it, it was doing the sivananda one i've been doing for years whether i liked it or not

I think the ashtanga ones are really hard if your body isnt used to them! The Shiva Rea ones are even harder! I used to try those when I was a complete beginner!!!
Im going to try an early morning session tomorrow with my adapted sun salutations!!! I feel so good afterwards, I wish I could motivate myself to do it more often, but lying on the sofa with chocolate ice cream is so tempting

Oh, isn't that funny, I used to be a runner too and found yoga when I got injured!

It's my birthday weekend as well as Easter so I haven't done anything since Weds... oh well, back at it tomorrow!

lol i'm doing it the wrong way round then, going from yoga to running. i think the two complement each other really well, i'm definitely a yoga girl at heart, but it can feel a bit static sometimes, it's nice to get moving too.

i'm enjoying the chance to focus on really familiar postures while i'm concentrating on my sun sals at the moment. looking at the yogajournal website i'm definitely falling into the trap of bending my back too much in downwards dog. i did a fantastic class with a scaravelli yoga teacher once that focused almost entirely on down dog - it was a revelation. she also gave me my best ever yoga tip which is to use the space after you breathe out and before you breathe in again to move deeper into postures - i find it much more natural than during the outbreath which is what you're usually taught.

btw happy birthday jbm

ooh, great - lovely yoga thread!

I've been doing siv or ashtanga 1-2 times a week for about 10 years

just about to resume (hopefully!) after my 6-week check next week

can't wait

Well didnt manage my early morning practice, we took the kids to the beach as the sun was shining which seems to be a rarity.
Interesting about the breathing, I must try that.
I think its ggod to have a balance of yoga and sport. I used to be a rower aswell as a runner and I find that combining really works.Actually I think any endurance sport can enhance your yoga practice and visa versa.
I am hoping to do some yoga later, umm fingers crossed.

I went to the hot yoga class yesterday - where I go, they don't turn up the heat nearly as much as for Bikram Yoga (which leaves me feeling like I want to throw up), it's more like a gentle warmth, and you begin to sweat after a while... I felt soooooo good after!! And I wasn't sore at all today. And (better and better) I was able to do some poses this week that I couldn't do last week. I'm so happy to be doing yoga again and to have found this studio. I was spoiled by my very first yoga teacher, she was fabulous. I started right with power (flow) yoga, and she based the class around the Sun Salutation, so I'm used to a nice flow to the class. This teacher doesn't do as much of a flow and I kind of miss it, so when I get stronger I'm going to try to do some flows at home. Don't know if that's realistic since I have a 14 month old running around but I guess I could try.

I tried the bit about deepening the pose between the in-breath and the out-breath and it worked really well!

where do you live jbm that you have such a choice of classes? i'm v we have

a) my teacher: fab but slightly loopy
b) local leisure centre class: rubbish, i'd clearly done more yoga than the teacher had
c) gym classes: never been member of a gym to try these
d) classes at the buddhist centre: i'd be tempted to try these but friend got a nasty injury being adjusted in one once, which puts me off

it just seems easiest to stay put

wow dinny 10 years is a lot of yoga have you done classes or practised at home? is once/twice a week enough for you? or the most you can squeeze in? i seem to find the more i do the more i want to do.

no yoga for me today, is my "rest" day, which amounted to a fair bit of gardening, a little running alongside dd1 on her scooter, and quite a bit of scooting myself when she got bored of it. we just dug her big scooter out of the shed as it's been too big for her since we got it a few years back, but now it fits and and it's a lot of fun .

I live in Canada. On the West Coast, in a suburb of Vancouver, called Langley. Yoga is pretty popular here. My very first yoga experience was at a community centre in another Vancouver suburb. Then I moved out to Langley and tried a few others and wasn't so happy, so stuck to straight gym work-outs. Then I did Pilates. Lengthy pause for pregnancy and recovery from DS's birth (shudder), and now I've just started yoga again at a new studio here in Langley and love it, love it, love it.

i found getting back into yoga was the key to regaining some sense of my own body/identity after having dd1, i finally had some say in what was happening to me!

Can I join in?

I am missing my yoga - I practiced Iyengar for about 5 years but not since falling pg with my 2nd daughter. Now my locked-out neck and achey back tell me its time to go back.....

But I have moved cities and can no longer go to my lovely, lovely teacher. So I am trying out classes nearby.

I had a go at Kundalini yoga - which I found to be barking crazy mad. A very odd practice and didn't get to my knotty bits at all. It left me feeling a bit discombobulated.

There is an Astanga class that I might be able to get to once the girls are in bed. Will I like that? Or should I try Pilates for a few months to target the post-partum floppiness?

morning duchess all welcome here

i have a friend who does a kundalini dvd, she seems to rate it and i've gently fished for details since i heard it was fruitloopy too, but it makes her happy

i'd love to try ashtanga, but i don't know how easy it is to modify for beginners/returners. i'd always rate a yoga teacher on how well they adapt their class for people who are less able for whatever reason, but ashtanga is (afaik) a fixed sequence so i don't know how much you can slow it down or adapt it. i certainly found after dd2 there were all kinds of things that i just couldn't do for a while, but it's coming back pretty well with sustained practice.

some people find a vigorous class in the evening doesn't suit them so well, but i love our evening class, which is pretty strenuous but then has lots of pranayama and chanting at the end to bring me back down.

I found after having two Dds that eventually I was able to go to an evening class and eventually built up to two evenings a week. the classs started at 8.15pm which was perfect for me as I could go out after the kids are in bed.Its amazing how you can motivate yourself when you have kids, I wouldnt have dreamed of doing such a late class pre children!
These sessions were tough classes but I agree with plenty of pranayama etc at the end it is a great way to finish the class.
I prefer the strenuous classes so I would recommend to try the Ashtanga to see ewhat its like.
I do enjoy Ashtanga it can be quite daunting initially but you feel great afterwards.
I didnt manage to practice at the weekend, my Dd2 was ill and I felt a bit ill aswell. My BP is low with this pregnancy so energy levels are also low.
I need yoga in my life so hopefully tomorrow I will get some time

i know what you mean about motivation oonagh - when my girls are squabbling and screaming first thing in the morning i can't think of anything i'd rather do than run a mile and a half in the opposite direction (although tbf i haven't yet failed to come straight back, even when i can hear them still yelling before i open the door...)

hope you find some time to practise tomorrow, i really should try to get a morning session in.

well my early morning plan was scuppered again yesterday by sleepless children, but happily i packed them off to the other end of the country at lunch time, so i got a nice long afternoon session in instead. it's lovely to feel the benefit of a more regular practice already - i'm beginning to fold into forward bends again instead of inching microscopically towards my toes what i really need to work on is my savasana though, haven't managed more than a minute or two lately, just can't stay still

anyone include meditation in their practice? that's what i want to work towards in the longer term, but i find it so hard.

i'm doing a bit of decorating/furniture shifting at the moment, which means my spare room is full of stuff again i only just got it cleared of the crap that was piled in it since the new year. not sure whether my early morning plan will work with the room out of action, will have to see...

Oh that sounds lovely! My baby had me up from 3am to 4am - should I have grabbed some (very) early morning practice?

I used to go on a retreat with my London teacher and she incorporated lots of meditation into those weekends. It was lovely - early in the morning and again before bed. I found it sublimely easy on retreat and almost impossible to do once back at home.

I found it helped to meditate on an object - a glass of water was always a good one. It moves and shimmers as you go into it, iyswim.

I would meditate if I leave enough time at the end of my practice. I have been on a few retreats with my yoga group and we also did loads of it on those weekends. I am always amazed at the amount of different meditiations there are....The Chakra meditiation is one of my favourites.On the retreat we would always start with the laughing one which was a great way to start the day.
I am struggling trying to find any energy to do any yoga I think my BP was really low today as I had the usual light headedness etc. My bump is laso starting to get heavy.So maybe I should just focus on some savansana

Hi ladies
I've just run my eye down this thread and hope to answer some of your questions... Oh I've been teaching for the last 10 years the last 6 concentrating on pregnancy...

For chanting I recomend Kirtan by Sicananda Yoga, for general sounds Sur Sudha by the Third Eye. Then there is Yoga Chill by The Dum Dum Project that has a general CD and a teaching CD.

With regard to doing yoga when pregnant, taking it easy is the key. The body is working hard enough as it is, it's time to give it a break. That is why there is lots of breathing and relaxation during classes.

You shouldn't do any inversions and stretching must be done with care.

Gentle practice is a fab time for you to get in contact with yourself and your baby.

Another tip is to stay with the main yoga groups ie Hatha Astanga Iyenga. All others tend to take on fad aspect which dont always do the best for you.

Please also check your teacher out to make sure they have a recognised teaching certificate and insurance.

I hope that helps out some

Enjoy

Natalie x

Hello yoga thread. How are you all getting on? I did a small amount of yoga before & during pregnancy. I loved feeling my baby 'flutter' during breathing exercises & I also found focusing on the breath very helpful in the first stage of labour so time well spent IMHO .

I have just started with an Astanga yoga teacher who is fairly gentle on us as a class (offers plenty of alternatives according to ability) & as she is on holiday have moonlighted with another teacher who is tough. However, she does give detailed anatomical instructions that I find helpful. Her class was far more strenuous but I enjoyed the challenge IYKIM. Ideally, I would like a mix of a more meditative approach & the physically rigorous .

I have also been running regularly since DD arrived & feel the two do make a natural partnership. I would be interested to hear how others feel that they feed into one another. Hope to hear from some of you soon

I have a couple of questions for people...

how do you manage to remember the sequence of poses?

how do you fit yoga into your day (with kids)? I have preschoolers and feel I have no time

EldonAve, I have just done a short practice at 9pm, not ideal but dh is away so I get ds to bed and I had a light dinner first.

You don't have to remember a sequence unless you are practicing astanga and then I learnt it by doing it only up to a certain asana and repeating daily.