Roxtar Yoga

kick your own arse May 26, 2009

I do yoga so that I can stay flexible enough to kick my own arse if necessary.  ~Betsy Cañas Garmon

Ha!  I love it!  I found this website with some fun little inspirational yoga tidbits.

I participated in yet another awesome yoga workshop at Smiling Dog Yoga with Kira Ryder who has a studio in Ojai, California called Lulu Bhanda’s.  I had just returned from traveling and was super sleepy and lethargic and it was THE MOST PERFECT solution to my travel woes.  My favorite tidbits…

• She said that people who are cronic teeth clenchers should do lots of lunges.  A great one is known as “thigh torture.”  My students definitely know and love it, it’s great for runners and cyclists, but she did a new variation I really liked.  I will try to come back and document with photos, but it’s when you take your shin up a wall, with your knee on the floor or a blanket and your shin going up so your foot is near your hip.  She had us sink into a deep lunge while in this position which hurt oh so good.  Usually I do this trying to get my hips to the wall, then my shoulders.
• Kira has a lovely soul.  You can tell she has spent a lot of time just being on her yoga mat and learning about herself.  She is one of those teachers who teaches from her heart and experience.  The more yoga I do the more I realize that these are the best teachers.
• She spotted me into a drop back backbend (where you go from standing back into the backbend with no wall or laying on the floor)!  She made it so I felt it in my body for the first time which was so exciting.  I have been playing with walking down the wall for a while and it was fun to try something a little scary.  There is just a point where you have to let go of your legs and just fall onto your hands.
• I also loved doing big toe hold after intense backbending.
• She challenged me, yet didn’t kick my ass.  It was nice to be reminded that yoga (and probably all things in life) can be challenging in a slower, loving way.  I wonder where the concept of challenge became intermingled with painful, ass kicking, dramatic in my brain.  I think it is my practice in life to learn learn that less is more and that I am still taking good care of myself even if I don’t hurt myself in yoga class and can walk the next day.  I don’t have to do 50 poses to have a solid yoga class, nor do I have to make my classes so ass kicking power yoga like, flinging our bodies through so many sun salutations but never really feeling the energy the way I did in her class.  I don’t have to cry or hurt to have breakthroughs.  I have been reminded that there is a reason the tortoise beat the hare.

slo yogafest May 16, 2009

Today I’m teaching a hip opener class at the SLO Yogafest.  I thought I would document what I do here in case someone needs a reminder later.  Yummy hip openers indeed.  Hip openers are some of the most challenging stretches you can do because the hips aren’t stretched in any of our day to day activities.  Yet, they are the most rewarding by releasing low back pain, knee discomfort, sciatica, and improving blood flow to the lumbar spine, intestines, and reproductive organs.  The hips are also the emotional storehouse of the body.  They house a good portion of your tension and stress and as you start releasing the pelvis and softening that tissue the rest of your body effortlessly shifts into natural alignment.  It’s amazing how opening the hips will help resolve old aches and pains everywhere else in your body, from your neck, back, to your knees and ankles.  If you need details on any of these poses check out this Tight Hip Anonymous sequence.  It links to detailed photos and descriptions of each pose.

Childs pose with knees wide
Downward facing dog
Rag doll
Chair to 1 legged chair with hands to floor
Other side
Take it to the floor
1/2 pigeon
1/2 pigeon with back leg pulsation
Double pigeon
One legged forward stretch
One legged forward stretch with side opener
Wide legged forward fold
Other side
If time and mojo is right, do wide legged forward fold second time with friend
Paschimotanasana forward fold
Frog?

Oh, I almost forgot to include notes from Amy Swanson’s class on Funamentals of Vinyasa Yoga.  I loved it.

• Vinyasa actually means breath, although we refer to the middle sequence in Sun Salutations the “high push up, low push up, upward facing dog, downward facing dog” as a connecting Vinyasa.  The Connecting Vinyasa is like wiping the slate clean, giving your body a fresh start for moving forward to the next postures.
• Halfway lift should be onto fingertips if in uttasana you can align your fingertips with your toes.  Otherwise your hands should be on your shins.  You should also have  a bit of a back bend in your halfway lift to help the shoulder blades get into place and set up your chaturanga correctly.
• Balls of feet.  You should be on the balls of your feet when you step back into high pushup not just on your toes.
• Quads. They should be engaged, lifted, and strong in high push up, with the inner thighs spinning inward and up.
• Shoulder Blades.  Should be moving down your back toward your buttocks as they were in halfway lift.
• Tops of Shoulders should not drop as you lower.  You should only go so low that your biceps are parallel with the ground and your elbows at right angles and pause.  You have to make a conscious effort not to let the top of the shoulders drop even if you can keep the rest of your arms in alignment.
• Your hands should be gripping the mat and pulling you forward.

yogis heart bikes May 11, 2009

This month is bike month and I have been making an extra special effort to ride my bike and to encourage those around me to do the same.  Last year I had just moved back to California when my friends asked me to join them in the commute challenge.  It was then that I realized just how great commuting by bike is. If you’ve never tried it, I urge you to give it a try, if only once this month.  I am blessed to live in a place where the mornings are a mild 50 degrees, where I get to ride my bike along beauteous hillsides dotted with cows, where bike lanes and trails run amuck.   I live and work in a community that doesn’t require I sit in my car for 45 minutes to drive 5 miles every morning (this isn’t LA!).  I consider my bike commute a mini morning meditation and enjoy the fact that I get at least 30 minutes of fresh air and sunshine a day, no matter how busy, stressful, or long the rest of my day may be.  When I’m in the mood, jamming to Journey on my way to the office isn’t a bad way to start the day. Check out the photos of my fellow cyclists and I enjoying a lovely lunchtime ride in honor of spring and bike month.

Anywho, the bike challenge this month is to get as many people to do at least one commute by bike. Ditch your cars just once, and if you like it maybe even more! Maybe take your bike (and backpack) to the nearest store to get a few groceries. Maybe you ride your bike to run errands this weekend. To the beach. Wine tasting. To lunch. To work. I’m not asking you ditch your motor bike or car forever; I love my little hatchback Integra and the freedom it provides as much as you do. I’m only asking that you try something a little different, move your legs a little bit more, enjoy some brisk morning air and sunshine, notice the fresh cut grass that you normally wouldn’t notice, and be reminded of how much you might have loved your bike as a kid.

If you ride your bike even once this month when you would have or could have driven your car or another motorized vehicle, you will help make yourself and the earth a little bit healthier and happier.  AND I might think you were a bit cooler.   If you are interested in joining the San Luis Obispo Commute Challenge go here: http://www.triplink.org/chain-reaction/.   The bike month calendar which lists some of these events and more is stored in a Google calendar (yes, those bike guys are after my heart). If you want to view it this is the calendar address/id:  eb43slurf2l5d2hbklf0lrroco@group.calendar.google.com.  I am organizing weekly lunchtime rides around Edna Valley and my Lunchtime Yoga Class will have lots of hip openers to make sure our hips don’t tighten up on us.  Let me know if you’re interested in participating in any of the events here in SLO, CA or check your local area for listings and happenings.