Yoga - CD/SD

Cool, thanks. I do want to try the free Sunrise/Sunset Runyon Canyon yoga, too.

i'm finding rmexico's post completely o_O/LA

Totally OTM, by the way, but LA's like that. Ground Zero for yoga in the US and home base for 80% of the Yoga Industry's superstars (for better and for worse).

The idea of any form of exercise having superstars is mindblowing to me.

Oh wait. I forgot about the Olympics.

haha yeah, but i love california for it anyway, even if i find a lot of it kinda o_O
xpost lol supastar yoga exactly... but it's been going on since the 70s on the west coast!
i've done a bunch of anusara yoga, which is US-based, tho maybe not california (maybe arizona or even texas), and there's something about it that doesn't quite gel with me. and something that does. anyway... i actually don't even know if there's a 'formal' name for the kind of yoga i've been doing with my current teacher. i mean, i keep forgetting it and forgetting to ask. it's nice though.

Anusara = John Friend = Texas, north of Houston in one of those creepy newfangled New Urban-type places: http://www.thewoodlands.com/

I find the language a little fruity, but the practice itself really good - the focus and attention to detail of Iyengar without the severity, and notwithstanding the absurdities the actual Anusara teachers I've known have almost without exception been really excellent.

It's also a perfect complement to the flow stuff, where Warrior IIs have a tendency to get pretty sloppy as folks struggle to keep up. Without a foundational alignment-based practice it's just calisthenics, people.

/yoga nazi

(note: many astanga types will openly smirk at Anusara types; many serious Anusara types turn out to be ex-astangis... it's a funny little world. in my limited experience it takes about six months with any practice before you "get" what it's about, and much like sports clichés and 12-step mantras there are things that seem silly at first but reveal hidden depths in practice)

PS felicity if yr going to Crunch check out Donovan's class if you can. I've never had him as a teacher but he's a genuinely great guy and sure SEEMS like he'd be an equally great teacher. If you make it tell him Jake said hello and he will shower you with good vibes :-)

yeah i did anusara practice regularly for over a year and then some few-month courses spread out over the next year - i love the attention to detail but there's something about the rhetoric that i have to resist/ignore or i end up feeling keyed up and self-conscious. again, depends on the teacher too - even the subtle difference btwn using "we" vs "you" - i like "we"/"let's", which anusara doesn't use. haha i just don't like being told what to do.

i can't deal with most astanga classes - just the wrong kind of tension for me, but sometimes really good for getting mind off other things b/c it can be so intense. i just know a lot of, uh, 'type As' who do it and none of them seem all that yogic (philosophically) to me. but whatever, i guess we all have dif reasons for doing yoga. it kinda freaks me out when people get on the defensive/offensive abt their particular practice - i'm like, wahtever works for you, isn't that point?

i haven't been a yoga man for a v v long time :-/

the weirdest things hurt after doing yoga, such as the tops of my feet. ow tops of my feeeet.

that's how you konw it's working!

roger, I have taken Jake's class. 'e is so copa. I will look for Donovan too.

I kept thinking about "flyers" in class today during all the twists and binds.

o no multiple Jake confusion! (suffice to say Donovan (tuesday nights) has never heard of "rogermexico" - we were neighbors before I moved north)

Roger that. What's your Vector, victor?

ok this is great. i have been doing it for a little over a week and already have definition in my stomach. the tape i am doing is specifically for back care and mostly focuses on lower back, stomach and sides. i should mention that i also have been laying off the beer all week, but yeah it's encouraging to see results so quickly.

:)

Search: tree pose, crow, twists, binds, chattaranga, headstand, shoulder stand, eagle anything

Destroy: Chair pose, side angle pose, tortoise, wheel, handstand

I love yoga but I wish it was cheaper. At a studio a class is around $20 now, which makes it hard to go multiple times a week. I could do it at home but I do better with a teacher leading me. I can finally do a couple of chattarangas before collapsing.

My favorites: cat/cow, downward dog, cobra, sphinx, upward dog, fish. Any back bends/heart openers.

Least faves: triangles, warriors, chair, that thing you go into before crow that is like a squat, pigeon.

Love: shivasana. I've had a few teachers end the class without corpse pose, instead just doing a couple of restful poses such as legs up the wall. Not right.

so not right! <3 shivasana

yoga should srsly not cost so much. i have found several good teachers who understand this here, phew, and even a few who do free community classes for people who would probably otherwise go to a yoga class, whether because of cost or 'culture.'

the only pose i always feel a slight dread/dislike for is bridge/wheel, and i'm not sure why, even though i've gotten better at it. a lot of poses i used to not like, i figured out and like now, which is encouraging to me right now as i'm tackling handstand from the ground up. like totally still faltering at L-pose - where you put yr feet on the wall and hands on the floor and make an L.. it is kinda scary. but that's ok.

i am doing another 1-week everyday 7:30am course starting monday ooh

aww guise I <3 wheel

pincha mayurasana > handstand, but mostly because I suck at handstand

eka pada kundinyasana > crow for same reason, but also because it feels more like flying

CLASSIC

my yoga class is 60mins

the bit at the end (shivasina??!) is SOOOOOO good, guys

any chance of being able to teach myself yoga? eg using a book or the internetz? do you like yoga?

will I be able to do stuff dhalsim does?

RIP Sri. K Patthabi Jois

गते गते पारगते पारसंगते बोधि स्वाहा

o lawd the NYTimes Style section found Vinnie Marino. as always their take on LA is pretty LOL celebs and douchebags but fuck the scene his class is amazing. once you survive your first time, anyway...

http://bit.ly/Y0Xhu

I really enjoy yoga, but all the places around me are either WAY expensive or way inconvenient to my schedule..
Any good yoga podcasts/webvideos that I can follow along to at home?

http://www.yogisanonymous.com/live.php#YogaVideoLibrary

I can personally vouch for Ally, Brock and Kate. They rock.

http://www.yogaglo.com/

I can personally vouch for Marc, Tara, and Noah. Heard very good things about Jason and Kathryn.

Awesome, thanks!

Update: I have it on good authority that Elena Brower (YogaGlo) is also awesome. Might have to sign up and check this stuff out myself!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiHIs7_iMl8

Am slowly getting into this, but Im pretty guarded and very derisive when the new age hippie bullshit starts creeping in. Ive been to two classes, one at a very nearby studio run by a lady of that kind of hippie/yuppie amalgation endemic to Portland, one who used the word "toxins" unironically. The other was at the big chain gym place I belong to.

The small studio is better for learning the stuff, but the chain gym doesn't have the hippie shit leaking in.

At any rate, am very stressed and anxious right now thanks to work, and the gym doesn't have any classes left today, so I'm heading back to the studio place in a while.

I really like vinyasa style..but all the places close to me either are WAY expensive or totally inconvenient times.

Anyone know any good online videos/podcasts (preferably of the freeee variety!) that are good for using at home?

Why is "toxins" a loaded term?

yoga teacher who used toxins ironically would be p hilar

So I've started doing this after many many people told they thought I'd love it. Guess what? I love it!

We have a lunch time thing at work which is weird mostly because I never thought I'd be walking around my office in yoga pants. The instructor is awesome. Just bought pass to studio by my house. Stoked.

yaay :)

i haven't been doing classes lately, but i do asanas at home and practice yoga breathing, which is A+ for all things incl when you're feeling stressed/anxious

:D

was wondering if anyone knew of a good yoga dvd or set of dvds that would be good for a beginner with pretty poor flexibility?

yogi bear season 2

sorry

maybe i can watch those when i'm crippled and bed-bound :/

H uses the "Bryan Kest Power Yoga" video sometimes. I watch for the lulz.

http://www.demeterclarc.com/wp-content/uploads/images/2012/02/BRYAN-KEST-AND-SEANE-CORN-297x300.png

he says stuff like "but imagine if the masseusse was pushing TOO hard -- you wouldn't call him up to rub you down again"

"power yoga" kinda scares me off, like i said i have poor flexibility, was hoping there was a set that maybe had a really easy ramp-up

weirdly the only thing i've gotten recommended is former pro wrestler Diamond Dallas Page's DVDs, which are supposedly great, but they have a lot of "dude stuff" like where they give moves new "cool" names like i dunno cat pose is like "radical ninja doggie style" or some shit

yeah it's not for true beginners. I tried it once and wound up with a strained neck. it's kind of self-contradictory in that he constantly tells you how you shouldn't be pushing yourself and just "be comforatable where you're at" or whatever, but the screen is full of beautiful people doing flawless yoga

beginning on your own without an instructor is unfortunately very difficult because its hard to know how a pose is supposed to "feel" just by seeing a picture or video of it. particularly when you're not flexible and thus need to be that much more conscious about doing it correctly and not allowing your body to "cheat" and thus cause injury or waste your time. a mirror helps a lot though.

the yoga journal series are not bad--there is a Rodney Yee one on back care yoga (which covers lots of stuff, not just back) that I think would be a good intro.

thx :)