Ted's Yoga Journal

I do yoga and write about it.

[tedsyogajournal]

One Hour Hatha Practice REVISITED

I was at Dragonfly Yoga Barn last weekend for Sarah and Cat’s Strength and Ease retreat, a magical weekend of yoga practice and farm fresh food.  I’ve been doing the podcast alone in my apartment exclusively for the past three months off and on, so I was ready to practice with a teacher in front of me.  

By the end of the four days, my body was more limber than ever.  The running I’ve been doing has contributed to my flexibility, and I feel more confident in my practice than ever before.  I don’t want to lose this progress, and I intend to continue practicing at yoga studios in my neighborhood.

This week however, I’m home in South Dakota.  My mom just finished her first 200 hour Iyengar Teacher Training.  I’ll be practicing some podcasts in the coming days, as well as working towards full Headstand.  Headstand has frightened me in the past, but Sarah was kind enough to give me some pointers so I can work towards it without the crippling fear of breaking my neck.  

Last night I was feeling antsy and weary from a full travel day, so I wanted to do a more intense practice.  I thought it would be a good idea to revisit some of the podcasts I found challenging and see how I progressed.  Let me put it this way:  I NAILED this podcast.  I was in downward dog, piece o’ cake.  High plank?  No prob.  Forearm plank?  My core was born for that one, baby.  

After about 40 minutes of practice, we finished pigeon on both sides of the hips.  At that point, I brought out the foam roller.  (Thanks mom!)  I rolled around for a spell, then relaxed into a savasana that put me to sleep.  Once again, I slept like a baby.  

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Episode 42/Pre Yoga Retreat!

I’m leaving for a yoga retreat tomorrow.  I went to the Dragonfly Yoga Barn last fall for my first ever yoga retreat.  It jump started my practice, and I came back to New York feeling energized and excited to live.  I’ve been a little bit lazy with the season change, and I’m looking forward to getting up to New Hampshire to do yoga and drink tea all weekend.  

I haven’t done yoga in about a week.  The last practice I did, I led myself.  I picked some poses I liked and moved through them in about a half hour.  “Better than nothing.”  I told myself.  I’ve been finding that doing at least a little bit will sometimes lead me into doing more than I originally planned to do.  Which is good, since I’m inherently lazy.

My bag is packed and I’m ready to go tomorrow.  I did Episode 42 for two reasons:  1.) To get ready for bed, 2.) to ease myself into doing a full weekend of yoga.  This practice had hip work, and was only 40 minutes.  As this practice progressed, I was so glad that I took the time to do it.  My hips were tight, a byproduct of running in freezing cold weather, and a lack of yoga practice.

This podcast was designed for people who travel and/or sit for a living.  Airplanes are a terror for your hips and back so this practice should provide some relief.  I’ve been reading some internet articles talking about just how bad sitting for extended periods of time can be for your body.  As a result, I try to incorporate hip openers into every practice I do.  I also don’t sit at my desk at home anymore.  I fashioned a kind of “standing desk”, where I’ll do my internets and other biz.  

I’m looking forward to tomorrow.  I feel ready and able for a yoga retreat.  

[tedsyogajournal]

Headstand is terrifying.  I’ve done it in the past with spotters, and today I’m going to try it again.  It’s a cool fall Sunday.  Here’s a point of view shot from my practice:

Sarah told me to gather two blocks, a strap and a blanket.  I had to pause the podcast to find these things due to the amount of clutter in my room from my Home Improvement weekend.  I couldn’t find my normal strap, so I used this:

“This is how a MAN does yoga.” I thought to myself.  “I should make yoga blocks out of old scaffolding and sell them on Etsy.”  I also thought to myself.  I pressed play and went back to the practice.

When I was in school I did a semester abroad in Southeast Asia.  One weekend we stayed at a Buddhist temple to learn meditation.  The Buddhist monks spoke of “Monkey Mind”, where your mind is constantly firing from one thought to the next with no sense of connection.  My mind was a monkey today, for sure.

My remedy was to focus on each inhale/exhale and wipe any unnecessary thought from my consciousness.  It worked, but not as well as I would have liked.  

Back to the practice:  We started flowing through planks and downward facing dogs.  One of the first poses was high plank but resting on one’s forearms to strengthen the core.  It was a little early for this pose, and my body started complaining.  I deepened my exhale and when we revisited the pose, my body stopped complaining and started working.   Even though I haven’t practiced in a while, I could feel my body had maintained a bunch of progress made thanks to my running routine.  The entire practice flowed from intense poses to resting poses.  There were a few side bends, some core work with blocks in between our legs, and dolphin pose.  I kept thinking that headstand was right around the corner, but before I knew it I was transitioning from happy baby to final savasana.  

I thought maybe we’d be moving into headstand after that but my friend came over to my apartment to use the internet and my practice was over.  I was off the hook.

[tedsyogajournal]

Sarah's First Podcast!

    It’s a rainy Saturday in Brooklyn.  I decided to do “Sarah’s First Podcast” since this was “Ted’s First Yoga Practice in Two Weeks.”  This podcast was dated 2009, and I immediately got nostalgic for my twenties.  It took some time for me to muster up the energy to go to my mat, and once I did I pressed play and took a deep breath.

    As the podcast began, it sounded like it was also raining on that day in Cambridge when Sarah recorded it.  It provided a nice simultaneous flow that made me feel more present in this basic vinyasa practice.  Usually when I don’t practice for a while I feel lazy and weak, but today was different.  I have been running consistently for the past four months, so my body was ready and able to do some high planks and twists.

    My favorite thing about Sarah’s practice is how much time she devotes to savasana, which really helps me get into a deeper meditation at the end of the practice.  It’s interesting to see what memories erupt after a long series of twists and stretches.  This practice is a standard 60 minute vinyasa with hip openers (pigeon, woo!).  It’s also not as slow flow, alignment based as Sarah’s current practice is.  Despite this, if you have 60 minutes, this is a good all around practice.  

[tedsyogajournal]

A Thanksgiving Podcast in September

    My roommate and I had to move from our old apartment in Bushwick to one we found further into Brooklyn.  We’re technically in Queens now, in a lovely little neighborhood called Ridgewood.  Moving is stressful.  Moving is hard.  Despite these facts, I like moving because it afford an opportunity to cleanse your crap out of your apartment and start fresh.  

    I had spent the past week getting the apartment in order, eating primarily take out and not doing ANY yoga.  Last night I finally had my room almost completely set up so I decided to do a short practice before bed.  Episode 34 may seem short, but let me assure you, you will sweat.  You’ll flow, you’ll plank, you’ll chattaranga, and you’ll sweat.  

    I was moving through high plank when my body kindly reminded me of all the yoga practice I hadn’t been doing.  Several times I considered turning off my computer.  Surely I had sweat enough.  I dug deep for this one, and stuck with it.  At the end, I felt refreshed, and proud of myself.  I had been doing so well before the move, and tonight I was very tempted to have a beer.  Instead I had a 35 minute sweaty yoga practice.  This is a good one to do before bedtime.

    Oh, and one more thing.  At the beginning Sarah says it’s 25 minutes.  It is actually 35.  You shouldn’t be staring at the clock anyway.

[tedsyogajournal]

Start where you are. Two feet on the ground.

    Sarah opened this podcast describing the weather in late fall/early winter.  There’s a tendency to curl forward and slump your shoulders in an effort to stave off the chill.  I tried to keep this image in mind with a sunburn on my back from my beach day yesterday.  It is true that September has come again, and yes, fall is coming.  But it’s currently a balmy 85 degrees in New York, so I’m gonna keep on pretending it’s summer until I have to put a sweater on, thankyouverymuch.

    Regardless of season, this was still a rigorous practice.  A recurring theme was to be mindful of “How Far Back Your Mouth Goes”.  A thought to make me aware of my body in space.  Granted, I am very aware of where my mouth is.  Mainly because it’s usually saying something sassy or eating.  But the DEPTH of my mouth, where the back of it is compared to say my eyebrows, was a different sort of awareness.

    There were many backbends in this practice, Sarah gently worked my spine to be more allowing of winter’s cold air.  Again, it’s summertime so I don’t REALLY feel the chill, but it was still helpful in summer to be mindful of my posture.  Sarah also incorporated some “Spider Cobra”, which sounds like a Metal band.  It’s a version of Cobra that has wider hands and is meant to open the upper back.  

    Then came a chair progression that made me want to cry.  I went for a run this morning, and was feeling ambitious so I decided to do this podcast.  My already sore legs were not fully ready for a chair progression, but I did my best.  I extended those exhales, but still had to sit it out half the time.  We started in Chair, then brought one leg back, moved our arms down, then our torso forward, then arms back up, then stepped the back leg back into low chair.  It was intense, sweaty, but I was present.

    We finished with two blankets rolled into a bolster of sorts for my spine.  This practice had a number of restorative poses as well as active poses.  I’m not going to lie, I fell asleep for part of this.  I was tired.  Fortunately, living in Brooklyn affords the luxury of cars driving by blaring loud music on the street out front of my house to bring me back into mindful awareness.  Bookmark this one for colder months, because it’s gonna warm you up. 

[tedsyogajournal]

40 Minutes of Spring Cleaning!

This was a shorter podcast, and pretty straightforward. 

    I had just gotten out of bed and looked at my phone.  I had to be at work in 2 hours.  I didn’t have enough time for a full practice so I opted for the 40 minute practice from 2009.  There were lots of the ol’ classic poses in this practice: Sun Salutations, Vinyasas, and some hip work.  I could tell Sarah was putting harder poses in the beginning to warm us up before a final savasana.  I came out of this practice feeling refreshed, but at the same time wished I had the time for a longer practice.  I recommend this one for morning time if you’re pressed and want to squeeze in a quick practice to start your day off right.  Here’s the link.

[tedsyogajournal]

70 Minutes to hanumanasana

Hanumanasana is a mouthful.  It’s also “monkey pose”, or for the layman, “the splits”.  I have never been able to do full splits.  I have a vivid memory of playing with other children when I was very young, and watching one of the girls do the splits almost effortlessly.  I tried, and failed.  I asked her what her secret was.  She said, “Boys have a kickstand.  Girls don’t.”  I didn’t get it, but in my adulthood I’m fairly certain that I get it now.  I think.

    I was feeling sluggish and tired today, but I knew I would feel refreshed once I dragged out the mat.  This is my third yoga practice this week, and I’m feeling into the routine.  This is a vinyasa practice with hip focus and flows.  My body is slightly fatigued from the regimen of exercise I’ve put it through this week, and my shoulders were burning at the beginning.  Those longer exhales really do help calm your mind, and after my body warmed up my shoulders stopped whining.

    We did a little bit of Utkatasana (Chair Pose).  I know this pose VERY well.  I used to go to Yoga to the People on St. Marks in New York regularly, and those yogis LOVE making you sit in chair pose for a long, long time.  You’d hear people whimper or grunt all around you in the packed room while the very fit yoga teacher would cheer us on.  Sarah’s way kinder.  We sat down in our chairs, breathed deeper into the pose, then moved on.  

The splits were coming, and I was putting my mind on that pose.  We had some Warrior 3 variations; my balance is not very good so they were wobbly.  Then came standing splits.  All this hip work was just warming us up for that big bad monkey pose.  I placed a towel in front of my mat, and set my right heel on top of it to begin sliding forward to my upper limit of flexibility.  I felt kind of like James Brown, but not as flexible.  I was still fairly impressed with how far I could deepen into the pose.  This is one practice I’ll do again, because I think it would be a great party trick to be able to do a full split.

    When final savasana came, I just meditated a little bit and slept a lotta bit.  Came out of meditation feeling refreshed.  Yoga’s the best, isn’t it?  You can find the link here.

[tedsyogajournal]

75 Minute Intermediate Practice

I haven’t had a drink since Sunday, and haven’t had a cup of coffee since Wednesday.  I’m trying to displace my dependency on caffeine and alcohol with a dependency on yoga.  I will say this: I’m sleeping better than ever.  Tonight I had dinner with friends, called my parents, made some tea then put on this 75 minute Intermediate Class.

This practice made me nostalgic for the days of 2007 when I still lived in the Twin Cities.  Tuesday night was my yoga night, where my friend Carey and I would go to Sarah’s class at the Carleton Artist Lofts, take her practice then sometimes make dinner afterwards.  It was in that studio that she opened my mind to the idea of bringing a towel to yoga.  I sweat profusely and would complain about slipping around on my mat.  Honestly, I have no idea why I didn’t think of it before, but at the time it was quite the revelation.  

This is an intermediate level vinyasa class.  Opens with some meditation, then sun salutations.  We flowed into some Warrior 2 poses, working our way into Half Arc Pose.  It is a challenging practice, but my body is adapting quickly.  Downward facing dog isn’t as hard as it used to be, Chattaranga pushups are going slower and more controlled, etc.  I had a nice moment toward the end in bridge pose where I really deepened into a pose and achieved a calm mind.  My palms were face up under my heels and I felt alive with energy.  

I feel like most yoga practices are good to do before bed, because I’m usually so wiped afterwards.  This one did give me some energy, though I still slept like a happy baby.  This podcast was dated 2009, so it’s a little bit of a deep cut.  This is vintage Sarah B yoga.  

[tedsyogajournal]

Appreciating and Connecting with the Floor and Breath

    Living in New York City has it’s own share of stresses and disappointments.  I was feeling frustrated and decided that I would do some yoga instead of doing some wine.  I wanted to sweat, and I wanted to sweat HARD.  I selected this practice, put my mat down and was on my way.  I can say with certainty that it will make you Appreciate and Connect with the Floor and Breath.  

    I knew this practice was going to be challenging, and boy howdy, was it.  At the beginning of the practice, Sarah told us to set an intention while we meditated.  I closed my eyes, and intended to relinquish my annoyance with New York City, and if that failed, at least be aware of my frustration.  Sarah advised to try deepening one’s breath when in a challenging pose, instead of folding out of it into a puddle of sadness (my words, not hers).  I acknowledged this tip, and vowed that I would do my best.  

    Then we started to sweat.  We started with some core work that made my abs cry out in shock.  The core work was challenging, but I tried to breath deeper when my abs insisted it was perfectly fine to turn off the yoga podcast and go to the liquor store.  I ignored their plea and deepened my breath.  I found that being aware of difficulty and deepening my exhales helped.  I actually got into some deep meditative states throughout this practice.

    We finished our core warm up, rolled over and began to flow.  This is one of those practices that I was glad to do at home, because I can be as vocal and uncensored as I want.  I’m not going to lie, I extended some exhales with a very long expletive.  At one point, I even said, “Ooooooooooo, Sarah.” after she described the next sequence of poses.  

    By the time we moved into Supta Baddha Konasana, I realized my “strap” is not nearly long enough, since it is in fact, a belt.  Nevertheless, I moved into the pose and found myself drifting off into a calm mind and body.  My shavasana was a deep and peaceful meditation.  I came out of the practice feeling like I had achieved my intention to relinquish frustration.  I had also relinquished any desire to move for the next 12 hours.  Who knew it only took a 90 minute advanced level practice?  Grab a towel for this one, folks.

[tedsyogajournal]

Spring into Summer: Flip Upside Down

It’s a rainy Wednesday in Brooklyn.  I have the day off and I thought it would be great to do a practice.  Spring into Summer: Flip Upside Down seemed appropriate.  I wanted to work on my handstand practice and thought this podcast would do the trick.  I was having trouble focusing this morning, and I wanted to do a more challenging practice to calm my mind and body.

We started on our backs and eased our hips open with a strap.  We then moved into some core work with a block in between our legs.  This was one pose to which my body kindly said, “No, thank you.”.  However, after moving out of the pose and back in a few more times, my body decided that it enjoyed engaging it’s core.  

We then flipped over and started the real work.  We flowed several times, downward dog, chattaranga, and back again.  Sarah has a very calming voice, which is nice because you’ll find yourself working hard.  If you were to just listen and not do the poses, you wouldn’t be able to tell what she’s describing was difficult.  

I really enjoyed this practice.  Some hip openers, lots of movement, and it was very sweaty.  We did several handstand exercises to prep for handstand towards the end.  However, I was a little bit scared to do a long headstand or handstand by myself in my apartment.  I did get into headstand but only for about five seconds before my brain insisted that what I was doing wasn’t safe without a spotter.  Nevertheless, getting upside down is great for my mood.

If you’re like me, you sweat buckets at the slightest provocation.  The humidity of this rainy day probably didn’t help my situation either.  This was my mat after practice:  

Pretty gross, right? 

Have a towel handy for this one.  Here’s the link:

http://sarahbyoga.com/2010/06/07/spring-into-summer-flip-upside-down/

[tedsyogajournal]

1 hour Hatha class for a steady mind and a calm body

You can find the podcast I write about below here.

I’m visiting my parents at their home in South Dakota this week.  One of my favorite things to do when I’m visiting is cook fancy pants meals.  Tonight I made a recipe I found that incorporated five of my favorite things, cheese, eggs, bacon, cheese and spaghetti.  It was Spaghetti Carbonara night, and I was on a train to fat town.

After I came out of my carb-induced daze in front of the television, I decided to do some yoga.  I found another podcast Sarah recommended to do after a long day or before bed.  My parents go to bed fairly early so instead of staying up late drinking wine and watching action movies, I decided to do this hour long Hatha practice.  I got two blocks and a blanket from the basement and pressed play.

The first five minutes were bliss.  I laid down on a long rolled up blanket to support my spine and placed my hands on my ample stomach to feel it rise and fall as we deepened our breath.  Little did I know the challenging poses that awaited me.  My shoulders were sore from the day before.  My mother was helping with some headstand practice.  I don’t do headstand regularly, and it generally gives me the willies.  I went into the pose, and as if on cue the phone rang.  My mother left me in the pose and went to answer it.  After what felt like a forty five minute conversation I came down on my own strength.  Turns out it had only been forty seconds.  My shoulders were still sore today from that Telephone Headstand.

Lots of high plank, lots of downward facing dog.  My downward dog is improving though.  It’s amazing how quickly one’s muscle memory clicks back into place after a long time out of practice.  The highlight of this practice was the pigeon pose.  I LOVE PIGEON.  I work on my feet, so my lower back gets sore and tight all the time.  Pigeon always helps ease the tension.  Yay pigeonWhen I finally finished the practice, my (mom’s) yoga mat was damp with sweat.  Despite my struggle, I will say that my mind was steady and my body was calm.  It’s intense, but Sarah was right, great to do right before bed.  I slept like a baby.

[tedsyogajournal]

Live Slow Flow

I’m racking my brain, trying to think of when I last took a yoga class, and I think it was in March?  Maybe April?  I decided to get back into a regular practice, and luckily my friend Sarah offers a free yoga podcast on her website.  I was scrolling through the selections trying to pick one of the 50+ selections and decided that “Live Slow Flow” would be a nice refresher.  I especially liked the word “Slow”.  

Sarah opened the live podcast by asking her class if they had any requests.  I heard one woman say, “Hip Openers”, and I was into it.  I love hip openers.  I love the way they make me feel like I’m walking on air after a class.  

We started in a supported back bend, and set our intention for the practice.  I placed the blocks I was using my parents basement beneath my shoulder blades and the other under my head.  I felt so relaxed and present that I wondered why I don’t do yoga more often.  After about five minutes of meditation here we moved on to the rest of the practice.  

“Now move into high plank.”  I heard Sarah’s voice from my laptop.  “Oh yeah.”  I thought.   I remembered why I am reluctant to get back into yoga practice.  I’m inherently lazy, and high plank sounded like a lot of work.  Before, I would practice for a week and feel on top of the world, then fall out of practice for a month and feel like I’m back at square one.  We moved through high plank, then downward facing dog that was fairly shoddy.  Luckily, we had only just begun, and my mother (also a yogi) was more than willing to offer her advice for my form (which my wounded pride reluctantly accepted).

The highlight of my practice today was the legs up against the wall pose.  I have a job that requires me to work on my feet, and this pose is great for my tired legs.  All in all, it was a good practice for getting back into the ol’ yoga game.  I’m looking forward to tomorrow and doing another podcast.  

 EDIT:  You can find the link to the podcast here: http://sarahbyoga.com/2010/03/08/live-slow-flow/