Well if my intro post and avatar image hadn't given me away yet, then this should seal the deal!

I've been practicing yoga now for 3+ years and it is really my only form of strength, cardio, flexibility and balance training that I do on a regular basis. But it's also more than simply exercise to me. It fits in well with healthy eating and a positive approach to life and as they tell us in our classes, yoga really begins when we take the lessons and things we learn on the mat, off the mat and into our everyday lives.
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My two main forms of yoga asana (the physical practice and one of the eight limbs of yoga as categorized by Patanjali in his yoga sutras) both take place in heated studios (anywhere from about 98 to 104 F). My primary form is known as power or vinyasa (flow) yoga and is an americanized form of ashtanga yoga. It combines movement, breath, core work, balancing postures, and inversions all rolled into a 60-75 minute class. It's an amazingly fun workout and more!

My studio also does "bikram style" classes, they simply call "hot yoga". To call it Bikram yoga requires licensing fees and stipulations by Bikram Choudoury that many find too onerous to put up with. So while "bikram yoga" might be patented, the 26 postures and two breathing exercises are not and can be taught and performed by anyone. Although typically hotter than the power classes, I find the bikram series very peaceful and meditative and very complete in terms of working the whole body. (well OK, the arms and upper body get a bit of short shrift.) Although my studio has started teaching a 60 and/or a 75 min. version, the true series is meant to be done in 90 minutes and I prefer the 90 minute version.

They also teach a yoga sculpt which is a somewhat cooler class done with handweights that combines some light resistance work with yoga movements and lately I've taken a few hot power fusion classes that combine a bit of both the bikram series and a power vinyasa class and they are doing their best to market on a national level to fitness and yoga centers. So there is far more to "yoga" than what most people have an image of in their heads or what they might have been exposed to in a gym class somewhere.

Feel free to pop in and pose any yoga type questions and I'd be happy to respond! The only question I really have no answer for is "what DVD do you recommend?". I really don't. I've never really practiced much to a DVD and I think it's important to learn from an accredited teacher who can watch you and adjust you to begin with to keep your alignment in place and help prevent injuries.

I do often recommend an online site, www.yogatoday.com , which offers a free 60 minute yoga video everyday. you have to watch a short commercial first, but hey, they need to pay the bills too! They cover a range of styles and levels and some days may appeal more to you than other days, but I think they do a pretty good job and the scenery is nice! (they are usually either in Jackson Hole, WY or somewhere in AZ.)

ack... horrible practice today. have no idea why but just no energy and a lot of time spent in recovery mode in child's pose. thought I fueled and hydrated pretty well this morning as well. oh well... practice non-attachment and non-judgement and move on! tomorrow is another day! :Jump Rope:

How long have you been doing yoga. I took a few classes and did it for like 3 months. I really would like to get into it again ... but I feel really immobile or non-flexible ... i have been running which helps but I think I need something like yoga.

My wifes sister is real serious about yoga and she is staying with us. I should just get into the habit of doing it first thing in the AM every day.

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I've been practicing fairly regularly since May of '05. I was always pretty flexible as a kid, even while playing competitive sports, although there is a lot more to yoga than just stretching and flexibility. Ideally yoga should tighten what is loose and loosen what is tight! Runners and bikers do tend to tighten up more, esp. in the hips, but a regular practice or at least some of the hip openers can really complement a running or biking regimen pretty nicely. Yoga Journal has a whole article about it here: Yoga Journal - Yoga Cross-Training - Yoga for Runners (hate their new system of pop-ups for every page!) For me personally, it's as much about the mental and spiritual aspects of it as it is the physical aspect. Only 1/8 of yoga deals with the physical practice (assuming all 8 limbs are equal in scope and I'm not sure that's accurate).
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But yeah, if nothing else ask her to show you some hip openers and anything else she thinks that might help your running. I think a lot of the balancing work really helped my skiing as well as just improving overall fitness, core strength and breath capacity and rythym.

And I suck at the doing it at home thing. I'm really more of a group class exerciser. I like going to the studio and practicing in a group. It's more fun for me and the scenery is usually pretty good as well!

And today's class was a much better day! All was right in the world again!

FWIW, I started a Yoga social group which you can get to from your "Quick Links" drop down menu along the top menu bar. Stop by and join in! For an added incentive, I added a few pics of me practicing on the beach in Florida this past winter. :OMG:

a few new pics added in my yoga album here under the Pictures & Albums quick link. Some arm balances this time on a rock jetty on Cape Cod in July.

Started with an all levels (C2) heated power vinyasa class at noon with my very favorite yogini and guide, Heather, and followed it with an entry level beginner's class (C1) at 1:30. Gave me enough time for a shower and clothes and mat changeout inbetween and a few snacks to keep me going.

Heather's class was amazing as always with probably 80-90 of us mat-to-mat and sweatin' up a storm! The C1 class had about 10 of us in the same studio space so got to spread out and just be. Put in ear plugs as an exercise to help focus on the breath and keep the practice more internalized which was kinda fun and interesting. Came home and made a really big salad for a late lunch and some iced coffee left over from this morning. mmmmmmmm...... feelin' oh so good at this point!! just had to share!!!
And the mountains looked amazing driving home from downtown Denver to the west side of town. The highest peaks are getting their full winter white "hats" and just amazingly clear and crisp out today. Nice to remember why we like to live in Colorado! Dang it shhuureee can be ppurrtttyyy at times!

Well I just had to tell someone (besides wiley) that I finished up the classroom portion of my yoga teacher training this past Sunday and it was truly an amazing and intense experience. When I finish up my writing assignments and hours I will be Yoga Alliance RYT (registered yoga teacher) with their base 200 hour level designation and my certification will be in power vinyasa flow yoga. (I couldn't teach other specialized styles like ashtanga, iyengar, anusara and so forth as those have their own teaching certifications beyond Yoga Alliance which is just an industry organization that creates a standardized level of knowledge and experience independent of the specific style.)

Anyway, this has been going on since the first week of October. We had standard 2-3 hour classes/workshops every Wed. night, Sat. afternoon and Sun. afternoon. We had a requirement to take 5 classes a week, observe 5 of our studio's beginner level classes, 3 outside classes (1 each in ashtanga, iyengar and anusara for an exposore to other styles), a final written exam and a final teaching exam where we taught another class member the full 60 minute class which we did this past Sunday. And then we went out as a group to dinner (about 40 of us in the class and our instructors) to celebrate and share something about what the experience meant to us or share something personal or creative. It was a very emotional evening realizing that this truly amazing collection of people who didn't have a clue what they were really doing when they started had all grown and developed this new knowledge base and skill set and really had transformed themselves along the way. There were no dry eyes in the room along the way!

Some of the highlights and images in my mind were:

The first night watching an 8.5 month pregnant woman (one of the senior teachers) jumping up and down with excitement and passion about yoga like a high school cheerleader at homecoming!! I kept thinking, "man that is some serious good ju-ju if someone that pregnant is jumping up and down with that much excitement!" (She had a wonderful baby boy btw!!)

The cadaver lab. Which sounds gross, but was really an incredible experience. To see the various muscles, organs, fascia, skeletal structure and so forth laid out in a meaningful way to how we interact as guides to our students was something that was truly invaluable. And it was all done with such wonderful respect and caring for the people who volunteered their bodies to allow others to learn from them even after their spirits were no longer using their physical vessel. Seeing the lymphatic nodes and system in the thigh and how that would be compressed and massaged during eagle pose is just one of many "a-ha" moments during this particular workshop.

Watching the movie "The future of food" by Deborah Koons Garcia. Really an eye opening documentary on the ownership of life and the amount of genetic engineering that is going on in our food supply that most of us have no clue about because there are no laws in the USA that govern "GMO" or "GE" foods. It's really the ownership of the seed stock in the world by a few very large companies and their patent right enforcements for even unintentional cross contamination with private seed stock that is most troublesome though.
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Learning about all of the related concepts and topics. Things like ayurveda, doshas, chakras, the mythology of yoga and the stories behind the poses, sanskrit as a vibrational technology and language, the energy body, chanting and the whole enchilada really. Each topic individually could be an entire lifetime of study, so we just scratched the surface in so many different areas.

Watching everyone progress and develop as people and instructors. OMG, the first time we tried to teach someone was a disaster for everyone!! I really had my doubts that I would EVER be able to do this. But I kept telling myself to doubt my doubts and trust the process. Finally on the Saturday before the final teaching class, things suddenly clicked. I had the confidence in what I was saying, it was authentically coming out of my mouth, I knew the sequence, the cues and what to look for and I could do some of the basic physical assists/adjustements. It was freakin' working!!
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So the first step is almost done other than some writing and reading assignments I still have to complete, hopefully by the end of the year. Now I just have to find people to teach and continue to learn and get better!! All in all though a really life changing experience in so many ways.

Congratulations on (almost) completing your teacher training!

Julie~Spokane

Thanks Julie!! I feel pretty good about it!!