Bikram Yoga Green Valley and Details Magazine

The following was published a few months ago but I never put the link up here on my blog. I'm finally just getting to it now. One of the top ten studios listed here is the one I go to and the one with the little logo on my blog - Bikram Yoga Green Valley.

http://www.details.com/culture-trends/critical-eye/201102/10-best-bikram-yoga-studios-in-america

Greg

First Timer Class

My studio offers a "Free at Three" class every Monday which is where people coming for the first time can come for free. It's not open to the general public, just first timers and a few experienced people up front so the new people can see good examples of the postures.

Yesterday due to some scheduling reasons, I took this class. I went up in the front row. Our studio owner, Stacey taught. She is absolutely fantastic dealing with new people, answering their questions, calming them down, etc.

It's a very unique class for an experienced person and I really enjoyed it. There were about 8 first timers and four experienced people. I definitely could tell the people behind me were paying attention to my postures and of course this gave me extra incentive to do a good job. It was a very low key atmosphere which I think is great for first timers. I survived my first class, but I was certainly intimidated walking into a room with 40-50 people who all done this before. I would have loved to do a first time class like this.

Hopefully I can do this again, it was definitely an enjoyable class.

Greg

National Competition

I haven't posted in a few weeks, but I'm still here, still practicing, but very busy. I have a few posts I want to get to in the near future. Just a reminder to everyone that the U.S. national competition is this weekend in L.A. Three people from Vegas will be there competing, two guys and a girl. You can check out usayoga.org for details on the event. Apparently they are going to stream it live on line too, so check it out!

Greg

Addicted to Advanced

488 classes (13 advanced) in 472 days.

Well, I figured this would happen eventually. I’ve been doing advanced class once a week almost every week since August. This is of course in addition to the normal class I take every day. I take advanced on Sundays, as that’s the only class I can make due to my work schedule. This past Sunday unfortunately I wasn’t able to make it. I had a little eye infection which would have made advanced nearly impossible. Anyways, my eye is ok now, but yesterday my body felt awful all day, sluggish, muscles tight, etc. As if that wasn’t bad enough, class last night was pretty terrible by my standards. I was out of it, felt really stiff and had a (relatively) hard time.

As this was happening in class last night I kept thinking, “What is going on?!”, but then I realized the problem – I didn’t take advanced on Sunday. You know how you get to a point where your body is addicted to the normal class? Apparently the same thing has now happened to me with advanced. My body now expects it every Sunday and if it doesn’t happen, you get the results from yesterday. You would think that the “rest” from not doing advanced would be a relief to my body, but it’s quite the opposite. It throws it off, gets me off my rhythm.

I know from talking to many people that everyone is different when it comes to taking a day off or not. Some people really benefit from taking regular days off, whereas I don’t. It’s the main reason for my “streak” of classes, it just doesn’t feel good when I take days off, and now that’s spilled over into advanced! There are certainly far worse things to be addicted to, so I guess I can’t complain too much.

Greg

Never Too Hot

432 classes (9 advanced) in 418 days.

These are some actual conversations I’ve had:
Friend: “Was she hot?”
Me: “Not really, 106/35, I was really sore the next day.”
Another one:
Friend: “How was she?”
Me:”Smokin’, 114/45, thought I was going to die!”

I have conversations like this all the time, and they’re not some strange rating system for women, but of course discussions about the yoga room and how hot (or not) it is. This is most obvious talking point when asking how somebody’s class was. Word spreads fast about a particularly cold or hot class, and all of the regulars know who the “hot” and “cold” teachers are. I know many people that specifically take or avoid certain teachers because they are either too hot or too cold for them.

As gone over in previous blog postings, I prefer hotter classes, and I have a very hard time with a few “cold” classes in a row. I have all kinds of muscles that get sore if I don’t get hot classes in. As much as some people think I’m a “heat freak”, there are people that make me look like I’m downright arctic. These other people wear long sleeved shirts, sit next to the humidifiers and set up under heating ducts. They don’t want to have anything to do with cold classes!

It’s interesting to observe the conflicts between the “hot people” and the “cold people”. Our studio owner hears from both sides, and I’m glad I don’t have to deal with the complaints. I want the studio to be hotter, but it’s definitely better than other studios I’ve been to. I don’t hesitate to point out classes I think are too cold. I figure there are a lot more people that complain when things are too hot, so I try to balance it out by pointing out when the room is too cold.

My love for heat spills outside of the yoga room too. At work, I drive the people next to me nuts because I control the A/C and heat (hehe) and I like it much warmer than they do. They’ll come and complain to me that it’s too hot, and I’ll just say, “But it’s only 85 in here!”. They’re not amused.

Greg

New Carpet

410 classes (6 advanced) in 398 days.

Last week, after WAY too long, my studio got some new carpet. This is of course cause for great celebration, as anyone who has practiced there understands. So Friday the studio was closed most of the day, just two early morning classes. I went to West Side to take my class Friday after work.

So Saturday before I even went to class I was warned by one of my friends about the glue smell - and she was right. Definitely had that new carpet glue smell. Luckily I'm not too sensitive to that kind of thing and the smell wasn't too bad throughout class and now it's almost completely gone. However, it was slippery, and it still is. I can just stand there with my legs apart and I'll keep sliding and sliding unless I do some work to prevent it. It's gotten slightly better over the past few days, but it's still tricky. I put one foot on my mat and towel when doing Standing Separate Leg Stretching and Triangle, otherwise I'll slide all over the place!

There's one thing the new carpet doesn't have - lines. Apparently it would take another day or two to put the lines on. This has generated quite some complaints from various students. It's funny because some people REALLY like the lines and I understand why. They are important for alignment in certain postures. If they're painted on they also can help prevent sliding around. However, I've practiced in studios without lines and I don't always use them in class. It's not a big deal to me, but I do like to use them and I understand their importance. What I don't want is for the studio to close down for two more days.

Funny how something like new carpet in the studio is exciting to me...

Greg