yoga class 2018

This week I didn’t get a chance to go to a class but I looked up a routine online and tried to do it the best I could. I moved some stuff around in my living room and started with the routine. It seemed like the sun salutations I’ve done in my other classes so I was somewhat familiar with it. I actually enjoyed doing this because it was independent. No one was around, I didn’t lose focus from people watching, and I could really practice my poses without worrying about keeping up with the pace of the class. I think I’m going to do this more often because I can get better at yoga for when I do real classes and because it was more relaxing being alone.

This week I attempted another shot at meditation. It didn’t go well. I wasn’t crazy over the one we did in class, but I’ve heard nothing but good things about doing meditation so I gave it another try. I took a class called Be at lifetime fitness, which is a meditation class. I hated it. I only got about 15 minutes into it before I snuck out and left. It has us trying to focus on our breathing, than visualizing objects, feeling out body parts in space, blah blah blah… I don’t really have the attention span for this and I felt like I was wasting my time. Maybe I should try it for a shorter period of time and then work up to an hour-long class or maybe meditation isn’t really my thing. 

I did an early morning wake up class and just like the last few I did I really enjoyed them. We did an Ashtanga style vinyasa class. It was nothing too intense, just a bunch of sun salutation to wake up the mind and body. I like this because it isn’t taxing on the central nervous system like other forms of exercise can be. It’s perfect to start the day because it gets your muscles lose and moving, which is always good before a day of work or sitting at a desk at school. I’ve noticed from doing yoga that my lower back has loosened up a lot and I think it’s from these morning sun salutations I’ve been doing throughout the semester. Another thing I’ve noticed from doing morning yoga is that I drink more water throughout my day. Because of the early morning class I become thirsty earlier on in the day and it makes me end up taking in more water than usual which is always a good thing.

This week we had an in class practice and I have to say it was by far my least favorite one. It was a meditation class and I did not have the attention span for it at all. They way it was structured with us closing our eyes and listening to him talk and try to visualize what he was saying reminded me of a cd you’d put in to help you fall asleep. Now I understand the benefits of meditation and I mean no disrespect by that but for me I couldn’t hack it. I nodded off about three times and after the last one I decided I had to open my eyes and give up. I would like to try other forms of meditation or even this one again perhaps at a different (less tired) time of day. I would love to learn how to clear my mind and relax like this class was suppose to do, but unfortunately for me all it did was have me late for my next one.

After trying some new classes here at lifetime like surrender and now doing as well at them as I’d like to I decided to take another roots class. Roots is a beginner level yoga class which teaches all the new yogis basic poses and breathing. It’s just what I needed. The instruction is more personal because the teacher comes over and helps position you to assure you’re doing it right. They also take you through basic breathing exercises that will help calm you and make you work more efficiently. This class really helped me work on my basic poses and it felt like more of a practice than a class. It was very informal; the instructor wasn’t really taking us through any sort of routine so much as she was just showing us poses. I liked it. I think it was something I really needed at the time because I didn’t feel ready yet for some of the last few classes I attended.

This week I did a Vinyasa flow class. It’s probably the most popular class at my gym back home. It’s most similar to Ashtanga because it is very sequenced, and focused on breathing. We started out with sun salutations they called their Vinyasa. It was a sequence of planks, chaturanga, and upward facing dog.   The instructor kind of set the pace, but then let us preform it on our own. After the salutations we moved into more complex sequences that the instructor took us through. She kept reiterating breathing and being efficient. The whole class seemed like a commercialized ashtanga, but I think I liked it just as much as our in class practices. It was challenging but laid back at the same time. The tempo was easy to keep up with, and the poses had beginner poses if you couldn’t do the real one.