556 classes (19 advanced) in 538 days.
Various things inspire me (or not) in class and thought I would list five of each here. I’m sure everyone has their own list.
Things that inspire me:
1) Heat. Not to be confused with excessive humidity, but there’s nothing I love more in class than a nice hot room. As discussed numerous times in my blog, I love the heat. Warms up my muscles and joints and makes for a productive and happy class.
2) A favorite teacher. I make no secret about the fact that I will try harder when one of my favorite teachers is teaching. At this point my favorite teachers all know my practice really well and can tell if I’m slacking off and they often don’t even have to say anything. They can just give me a look and I’ll correct things.
3) Being surrounded by people with a really good practice. Teachers talk about energy in the room all the time and it’s completely true. It’s palpable and when I’ve got really got people around me, I have a better class.
4) Having new people behind me. I blogged about this recently, but having new people watch me always will force me to concentrate more and work hard, even if I don’t feel too good that day.
5) Major drama. Kind of an odd one, but if there’s a lot of drama in the room, lots of people sitting out or leaving the room, it gives me an incentive to work harder. Maybe to give them more energy, I don’t know, but when I see people dying on their mats I get inspired.
Things that don’t inspire me:
1) Cold. This is a deal breaker for me. If it’s cold in the room I can’t get very motivated. I even have a whole way that I do class if it’s too cold. Basically I just work on the form for each posture and don’t worry about depth. And I try to avoid getting injured.
2) Bad teaching. If the teacher has no energy, poor dialogue, etc. then I just check out mentally. Not very common, but it does happen.
3) Low energy around me. This is hard to quantify because it doesn’t necessarily mean having new people around me, or even drama. Sometimes you’re just surrounded by people with no energy. Maybe they just don’t have energy that day, but it’s contagious.
4) Food problems. This can consist of being too hungry, or having some bad food earlier in the day. I’ve become good at figuring out what to eat and when before classes so I don’t run into this problem too much anymore.
5) Morning classes. For me this means any class before 1 PM. I’ve gotten much better at morning classes but I think I’ll always prefer the night. I’m looser and have had all day to hydrate. It’s hard to do either before a 9 AM class. And 9 AM is the earliest I’ve even taken. My studio offers 5:30 AM and 7:00 AM classes and I think you’d have to pay me a lot of money to take one of those.
Greg
Friday, February 4, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Fans
547 classes (18 advanced) in 530 days.
I had a class recently which got me to thinking about a favorite subject for many students - fans. Some studios and teachers use them a lot and some studios don't even use them at all. At Green Valley, we have some very nice and powerful fans and they are used quite differently depending on the teacher.
I have an interesting theory after watching the use fans. I'm convinced they don't do much to get people to do the postures if they're sitting out or about to sit out. I know sometimes teachers like to turn the fans on in the hopes that the people sitting out will go and do the posture. Unfortunately this seems to have mixed results at best. If you're at the point where you need to sit out, then a little bit of air doesn't make much difference. I know that on the rare occasion I need to sit out a posture, it has nothing to do with whether or not the fans are on. It's generally because of something like eating bad food earlier, being dehydrated before class, etc. So you can turn the fans on all you want, and I would still sit out. What's worse is that excessive fan use drives me crazy, dries up my sweat, makes me cold, etc.
I like a little air flow here and there, but any idea that it makes the postures more doable is a mental reaction, not physical.
Greg
I had a class recently which got me to thinking about a favorite subject for many students - fans. Some studios and teachers use them a lot and some studios don't even use them at all. At Green Valley, we have some very nice and powerful fans and they are used quite differently depending on the teacher.
I have an interesting theory after watching the use fans. I'm convinced they don't do much to get people to do the postures if they're sitting out or about to sit out. I know sometimes teachers like to turn the fans on in the hopes that the people sitting out will go and do the posture. Unfortunately this seems to have mixed results at best. If you're at the point where you need to sit out, then a little bit of air doesn't make much difference. I know that on the rare occasion I need to sit out a posture, it has nothing to do with whether or not the fans are on. It's generally because of something like eating bad food earlier, being dehydrated before class, etc. So you can turn the fans on all you want, and I would still sit out. What's worse is that excessive fan use drives me crazy, dries up my sweat, makes me cold, etc.
I like a little air flow here and there, but any idea that it makes the postures more doable is a mental reaction, not physical.
Greg
Thursday, January 20, 2011
The Grind
539 classes (17 advanced) in 523 days.
I’ve been in a grind for the past couple of weeks with my practice. I haven’t felt good physically for weeks, I’m very tired in class and I just slog through class lately. And mentally I’m just not anywhere in the room. What’s interesting is that I’ve developed so much muscle memory for the postures that I can barely pay attention to what I’m doing and still look respectable, but teachers who know my practice can tell something is off. I had one of them earlier this week tell me that my postures looked fine but she can tell I didn’t have much energy. True enough.
This recent phenomena is a bit disturbing to me, but I’ve gone through this before. I’ve even taken a few days off in the past month and it hasn’t really handled anything. I can’t take too much time off, as my body is quite addicted to this, even if mentally I’d just as soon take off a month.
The one thing this recent experience has reminded me is that I do this yoga for myself. I only care to a certain extent what anyone else may say about my practice on a given day. I know how I feel and even though I’m feeling lethargic these days, I still get benefits and I do what I can do each day and each posture. Teachers can give corrections and suggestions and I do what I can that day. If it’s not perfect, then so be it.
Greg
I’ve been in a grind for the past couple of weeks with my practice. I haven’t felt good physically for weeks, I’m very tired in class and I just slog through class lately. And mentally I’m just not anywhere in the room. What’s interesting is that I’ve developed so much muscle memory for the postures that I can barely pay attention to what I’m doing and still look respectable, but teachers who know my practice can tell something is off. I had one of them earlier this week tell me that my postures looked fine but she can tell I didn’t have much energy. True enough.
This recent phenomena is a bit disturbing to me, but I’ve gone through this before. I’ve even taken a few days off in the past month and it hasn’t really handled anything. I can’t take too much time off, as my body is quite addicted to this, even if mentally I’d just as soon take off a month.
The one thing this recent experience has reminded me is that I do this yoga for myself. I only care to a certain extent what anyone else may say about my practice on a given day. I know how I feel and even though I’m feeling lethargic these days, I still get benefits and I do what I can do each day and each posture. Teachers can give corrections and suggestions and I do what I can that day. If it’s not perfect, then so be it.
Greg
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