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So, I opened my shoulders with Jill Miller.  That particular DVD ended up being a rather comic adventure, as I needed two blocks, a blanket, a box the height of my hips, and a bamboo staff.  I’m sure that every yoga practitioner just happens to have those things lying around their home.  I took a trip to Home Depot just to find a six foot dowel so I could do the practices, and luckily one of the shelves in my yoga room closet was just about the right height.  I remember doing this video before, but I don’t remember my shoulders sounding has if I was snapping my ligaments and tendons over the hard surfaces of my bones.  There was some serious crunchiness in my shoulders during the practice.  However, I did also feel super awesome in both Downward Dog and in Dolphin Pose (pinca mayurasana prep).  Plus, Jill’s delivery is always humorous and precise, so I appreciated every excruciating moment of nearly dislocating my shoulders.  There are two more of her Yoga Link DVDs in the bag, so at some point my hips and core will be as liberated as my political leanings.

From there, it was back to Dharma Mittra.  This time around, however, it was with his first DVD from Pranamaya.  The vinyasa sequence in this class was much more accessible than the advanced intermediate option from Level II.  As I don’t dare mock Dharma Mittra, all I can say is that it was a wonderful practice.  One of the things I found interesting about his sequencing is that he inserts shoulderstands very early in the practice.  This is something that I”m not used to due to my predominantly Krishnamacharya-based training.  In the practice that I did with the DVD, he has you do sun salutes, followed by a brief shavasana, and then into three repetitions of shoulderstand.  Shoulderstand is not what I would have considered to be a beginner’s pose; however, I understand the logic of it.  After all, shoulderstand is one of the fundamental poses to the yoga canon, and as Dharma Mittra points out shoulderstand is a complete pose (it’s name means “all limbs” in Sanskrit).  By the end of the practice I was pleasantly stretched and satisfied with my practice.

This past week, I was busy in the land of Forrest Yoga.  Now, I will make fun of Forrest Yoga, but I do so at my peril, because I know Ana Forrest could kick my ass.  I was briefly enamored with her style of yoga after taking a class with her at Yoga Journal’s San Francicso conference many moons ago.  She was famous at the time — and perhaps still is — for her focus on “finding your area,” being incredibly flexible, and encouraging “gravity surfacing” (i.e. arm balances).  The room was hot and sweaty, and she made us do all kinds of insane core work. She has had a fetish for a downward facing dog variation where you bend your elbows towards the mat and wrap the shoulders to create some mighty latissimus work.  I remember getting this awesome shavasana adjustment from one of her assistants that I use to this day.  However, I also remember sweating my ass off in a heated room and thinking that maybe signing up for all vinyasa classes was a mistake.

While Patrick was gone I pulled Ana’s Strength and Spirit DVD.  Luckily this is older and easier of her two DVDs that I have.  On this DVD she provides a beginner/adv. beginner yoga practice consisting of a “classic” Forrest Yoga Sequence.  By classic I mean the standard seated warm-up, dolphin prep, killer core work, and then a standing sequence.  One of the key components of Forrest Yoga is “releasing the neck,” but letting it hang in almost every single pose where it can hang.  This is, obviously, incredibly relaxing for the neck but does make me look like a victim of a stroke or similar intracerebral vascular event.  One of the other things that was interesting about the DVD is that I had forgotten how “non-standard” her pose naming is.  Salabhasana, for example, is “boat pose.”  By the end of the DVD practice I pleasantly happy with the supercharged power in my core and the relative work in my shoulders and back.  I suspect that her other DVD will be much harder, but for now I can pleasantly leave the land of Forrest Yoga to continue on my journey.

More about Jill Miller.

I’ll be honest.  I wasn’t thrilled with this DVD.  This definitely has less to do with Desiree and the content, and more to do with the format.  While it’s a full-body practice, it’s segmented into all these different parts, some with cheesy pre-explanations, and some that go directly into the practice.  One segment is basically an admonition to keep your thighs back to release low back pain.  While each segment is good, the combined move through of all of them just feels too disjointed and disconnected to really flow from one pose to another.

The other thing that is confusing is that the instruction in this DVD is really Anusara based, which made it hard for me to follow.  While I know where my groins are, what Desiree wanted me to do with them was not exactly clear.  This is definitely compounded by my underlying contention that Anusara is really Iyengar with compliments (an idea first advanced by a dear friend).  So, when she tells me to lift my thighs with enthusiasm, I’m both doing it and wondering just how enthusiastic my thighs really are today.  It’s effective, and heartwarming, but combined with my general dislike of this video, it just made me feel silly, not competent.

I would have loved to love this video, and I really don’t blame Desiree.  It is what it is, but I’m going to pack up my thighs and move onto the new week.

More about Desiree Rumbaugh.

I should have known it would happen: the eventual epic yoga fail.  I’m almost ashamed to write about it, but it did indeed happen, and it happened during Dharma Mittra week.  That’s doubly embarrassing.  I mean, if a man who is over 80 can still do a no-hand headstand, what is my issue.  But here’s the story.

So I practiced this one on Sunday the 19th.  Then, my week and life went to the dogs.  While I could blame a lot of things, the fact of the matter is that I hit that place that I almost always get to.  In late October, I had a rather scary bout of anxiety that led to me going on medication to help give me space to work with it.  When that happened, I flew into full “Rice” mode: I immediately set up structures to help me be successful, including workouts, therapy, life coaching, etc.  I was going to get healthy — I was going to beat stress, beat my anxiety, and I was going to win, win, win!

Well that works for a while.  But eventually the zeal tires.  It happened for me right around the time that I started the process of buying my new house (yay me!).  And while I don’t think they are connected, I do think the timing is significant.  Work stress was increasing because I couldn’t finish anything without something else coming up, I was buying a house, and I was beginning to have my diet unravel.  All of this came to a head the week that I pulled Dharma Mittra’s practice.

I will say this — the one practice that I did was really good.  The DVD is brilliantly setup to allow you to create your own practice, and it loops certain portions of the practice to allow you to extend the workout.  While it’s a bit of a gimmick, it still works.  The practice on this DVD is definitely challenging (naturally I chose the harder of the two).  The poses right of the gate are hard core (visvamitrasana is taught in this sequence without any extensive warm-up), and I struggled to even do a semblance of them.  However, Dharma’s instruction, as always, was clear and effective (but not very effusive).  Actually, I have to say that he makes me smile with the way he cues.  Between his accent and his languaging (“look forward a little bit” in bakasana), I felt moments of levity and joy while practicing.

My epic yoga fail highlighted for me one reality — zeal is only sustainable for so long, particularly when it does not strike at the heart of a particular problem.  Time to go back to the drawing board and recapture an approach to practice and exercise that works well for me.

More on Dharma Mittra

Fast forward about 7 years later.  Patrick pulls a yin yoga DVD from the bag, and I’m super excited.  As I’ve biologically aged, I’ve noted that things really do change.  All of a sudden you don’t snap back as easily as you once did.  Things actually ache.  I’m not suggesting that I’m decrepit, but I have discovered that I have to be more mindful that I was in my late twenties.  Both Sarah Power’s Insight Yoga and Paul Grilley’s Yin practices have been a powerful component of surrendering to a different side of practice.  While I continue to teach my public vinyasa classes (with sometimes zealous use of power yoga movements), my own personal practice is much quieter.  Therefore, when I got to unfurl my body into Paul’s 3 yin yoga sequences, I immediately felt great.

This DVD is actually two parts — the first is a lecture on yin, the second is a set of yin and selected yang practices.  The three yin series are the Hip, Spine, and Infant series.  Each one is delivered with Paul’s trademark lucidity and humor.  His steady voice guided me into the poses in a way that felt very organic and very permissive.  Paul encourages you to find the aspect of the pose that works best for your body on a particular day, and he constantly exhorts viewers to get past any preconceptions about what the body should do.  The models are nicely spread out between stiff (in some directions) and super bendy (in all directions).  Each sequence lasts for about 60 to 70 minutes, and I found that the time flew by.

One of the things I loved about his instruction was that he pointed out that doing yin yoga will make the body feel temporarily fragile.  Indeed, when I finished each pose, I did not that there were these dull aches and a sense of looseness in the joints that did make me feel “exposed” and opened.  Laying after each pose I felt like a cracked egg that slowly mended itself through breath and rest.  It was absolutely beautiful.  Combined with Paul’s consistently supportive and clear cueing, I felt rejuvenated and balanced after each practice.  In fact, I left my week of Yin wishing that I hadn’t committed to this experiment.  It would have been great to stay with the practice.  Alas, it was not meant to be – but thank you so much Paul for empowering this warrior to be a little bit more yin in life.

Yogic Arts is Duncan Wong’s personal style of yoga that combines gong fu, yoga, and massage therapy.  The practice on Awakening Level is a basic vinyasa flow combined with Wong’s integration of gong fu energy exercises, and massage-influenced shoulder and wrist stretches.  Shot in dramatic black-and-white, the sequence begins with pranayama and bandha work, and then moves into shoulder and wrist stretches.  The energy work is fascinating, but the instructional is minimal, and so it’s imperative to watch what he’s doing.  Much like with Matthew Cohen’s DVD, Wong uses martial arts inspired movement, but it happens so quickly that you easily get lost in the sequence.  Once I got the hang of it, it was definitely fun (and going to be stolen for my classes).  He also includes an interesting variation of Downward Scorpion (down dog with a leg up and open) done on the forearms.  I found it awkward as I felt a little bit pongu (wounded) while doing it, but I can see it being a great intro for students.

The main standing sets are short and not really a huge event.  Consisting of warrior poses and some stretches, it’s a pretty basic flow.  That having been said, the prior sequences prepared you so nicely for them, that I felt very open and ready to get into them.  His core work is fantastic, including a twisting plow variation that I really liked.  He also includes this wicked yummy twist variation where you include a quad stretch, which was just heavenly.  The whole sequence ends with shavasana.  Interestingly, the video during this point shows 360 panning of Wong in a meditation pose and in shavasana — pretty, but not sure why it’s there.  Then again, most videos show pictures of someone lying in shavasana, which I suppose is there to ensure that people know how to lie down.

So what about my padangusthasana comment above?  He has this weird lisp when he says it.  It comes completely out of the blue, and I remember pausing before coming into the pose and saying to myself “Huh?”  It was momentary, but disconcerting.

All in all, I enjoyed Awakening Level.  I practiced it the least of all the sequences, mostly because I was having a week from hell at work, and just didn’t have the energy or desire to practice.  However, I know that his Source Power level is somewhere in the bag, so he and I will cross paths again.

On to next week!

Yogic Arts for this week — I love these DVDs and this practice.  It’s gonna kick my ass, but I’m going to enjoy it!

More about Duncan Wong

After a week with Cyndi Lee, Patrick pulled Matthew Cohen’s qi gong practice out of the big blue bag.  I was, admittedly, thrilled.  I was hoping that I would have a chance of page from yoga at some point in the 52 weeks of movement, and it arrived.  I believe that I’ve done this one before at one point, because I suddenly remembered stealing some of his stuff and putting it into my Sacramento yoga class at the incomparable Rise Yoga.  However, I don’t remember doing both the Fire and Water practices, so I did get a very different experience this time around.

Let’s start with Matthew Cohen himself.  He’s definitely attractive, but probably not in the traditional sense.  He has the rugged good lucks of someone who has probably had his nose broken a couple of times.  He also looks sometimes vaguely simian, which made me feel like I might be watching Qi Gong from the Planet of the Apes.  However, he definitely has got the qi gong mojo going, so I would do horse stance all day long for him.  His good looks aside, his practice definitely made me interested in attending one of his classes in the LA area.  He is one of those synergists that I’d like to think I am.

The segments on the DVD are sometimes really short (like, less than a minute).  His instruction is excellent — clear and concise.  One of my personal gripes with qi gong and tai chi videos is that they are so often difficult to follow.  I’m pulling horses’ manes while parting the wild sea of ephemeral fire clouds.  Let’s keep it simple people.  Qi gong and tai chi are different disciplines, so that probably helps.  Luckily, there is limited foot movement in this one, and most of the arm, leg, and torso movements are easy to follow.  There are a couple of sequences where it’s unclear how the breathing is supposed to be done, so I just tried to breathe normally, because hypoxia doesn’t look good on me.  The Fire sequence included on the DVD is heating and power — it was my favorite of the two.  My new favorite exercise is “Taming the Tiger.”  You squat and hold your hands as if you were pressing onto a tiger’s back.  The thing I really like about it is that you have to tame the tiger through your heart.  There was definitely a feeling of steady energy as a I practiced the Fire sequence.  I also liked the various energy “throwing” practices, particularly Burmese qi gong.  I should practice it at work to release stress and tension…

The Water sequence didn’t resonate with me as much as the fire sequence, but I did enjoy the “Hawk” meditation.  You literally stand like a hawk, with your wrists crossed (like a hawk with its wings closed).  It also had a nice variation of arm swings, and Matthew’s direction was great in terms of making me feel like I was standing in water and gently moving it around me.  It also had mean horse stance meditation.  Maybe I just wasn’t in a very watery mood last week…

This is one of those DVDs that I would actually recommend to people who are interested in trying qi gong.  The production value is incredibly high (thanks to YTC and James Wvinner), and the instruction is clear.  The movements can be challenging, but are easily modified down.  Thanks so much, Matt, for putting a great product out into this space.  So, I bade adieu to the Floating Mountain Parting Wild Cloudy Manes on Moonlit Seas of Happy Families and head into my next week’s movement adventure…

More on Matthew Cohen.

1. 3 physically intense workouts a week
2. 3-4 cardio sessions a week
3. Practicing my selected yoga video at least 3 times a week
4. 1 yoga class that I teach, and
5. My yoga teacher training two nights a week.

Needless to say, I’ve quickly become physically exhausted.  This week was a doozy at work, as well, so I just didn’t find as much time to practice.  I got my three hits at Om Yoga in, so I definitely kept my commitment, but I hoped to get more exposure.  That having been said the three practices that I did have were definitely enjoyable.

I have an interesting connection to Cyndi Lee — she has one of my Bhakti shirts.  During my first opening of the Bhakti Warrior Yoga brand, I had a set of 4, mythically-inspired t-shirts.  Cyndi bought a Laskhmi one at Yoga Journal in 2007 (I think).  So I feel that she and I are connected on a spiritual (and commercial) level.  It seems only appropriate that I should own one of her videos.  I had never practiced this video before (to the best of my knowledge), so I happily popped in the DVD on Sunday of this week and selected the 80 minute full beginning/intermediate sequence.

First and foremost, Cyndi is a wonderful presenter, with a combination of clear and humor-tinged instruction that reminds me a lot of the way that I teach. The Om Yoga style is a combination of vinyasa-based asana practices with Buddhism, so there are some instructional references to Buddhist meditation concepts.  The DVD has a full class, and then various variations based on interest (beginner beginner, beginner, relaxing, strengthening, etc.).  I assume that the variations are just slicing and dicing of the 80-minute full sequence.  The full sequence consists of warm-ups, sun salute variations, standing poses, forearm balance prep, backbends, forward bends, shoulderstand, and relaxation.  I would say that it pegs itself fairly accurately in terms of level — there are definitely some challenges for beginners, and intermediate vinyasa/power students will feel right at home.  If anything, it errs more on the side towards being about starting as a beginner and progressing, since there are rarely any options for intensifying poses past their initial stages.  For example, there is a build-up to chaturanga, but no really additional modifications for poses like tree or pigeon.

So, with the sequence being very doable and perhaps even a little “generic” (standard vinyasa fare), I had an opportunity to focus on her language.  During the very nice warm-up sequence, she instruct students to roll the wrists while in a seated lateral bend.  All of a sudden she says, “Very sexy,” and almost purrs.  Alright, Cyndi!  This was followed by direction later about pointing my nipples forward in poses (like a yoga fem-bot) and telling me that “non-orgasmic trembling” was allowed in a standing split.  I assumed that orgasmic trembling was optional, but certainly not guaranteed.  Her instruction and setup for Forearm Balance prep was great, and I appreciated all the extra instruction on setting up shoulderstand (a setup I will use into the future).  Overall, I left her class feel balanced in terms of strength and flexibility, and I appreciated the Buddhist invocation at the end.

So, it is with a difficult week and some fun yoga cues behind me that I say farewell to Cyndi and Om Yoga and head into my next week of movement.  Let’s see what the blue bag brings us!

More about Om Yoga.

The DVD is lead by Maya Fiennes, who I assumed was mostly famous because of the last name.  She’s dressed in white in the video, in a white “room” with a white sheepskin underneath her.  You could just imagine the set catering being fettuccine alfredo with a sauvignon blanc.  Her voice is incredibly soothing and somehow Macedonian sounding, so it makes the whole video a lovely experience which really should end with baklava.

The practice was actually pretty mild compared to the kriyas that the wonderful Ann DaPrato used to throw at us on Sunday mornings.  The first part of the video starts with a basic warm-up consisting of spinal movements and life nerve stretching.  Spinal flex is followed by sufi grind and then an upper body twist.  She ends with neck rolls and life nerve stretch.  After each exercise she has you pull up on the “mulabhand” which she describes as squeezing the anus, the sex organs, and the abdomen.  This is an interesting cue, as it is biologically impossible to squeeze the anus and the perineum simultaneously (it’s because of the way the nervous system is wired).  However, she also encourages you to smile and enjoy.  Personally, I know that whenever I’m squeezing my bunghole, it’s a rocking good time, so I relaxed my shoulders and smiled broadly.

After the warm-up, we went into the main sequence.  The first pose involves reach the arms open wide and then bringing the hands back to the heart.  It’s one of the those shoulder achers that kundalini yoga just loves to have in it.  You feel like one of those crazed monkeys with cymbals banging away at your karma.  Maya continously exhorts the practitioner to break through the pain barrier and make the choice to continue.  To be honest, it wasn’t that challenging, but the shoulders definitely got warm and achy and I felt ooey-gooey after finishing it.  We then went into breath of fire, cannon breath, and “Har” chanting to cleans the adrenals and kidneys.  This breathing and sound sequence was very doable, and I always love a good breath of fire through pursed lips (cannon breath).  I felt like a chimp attempting to signal my interest in a banana — or a Japanese sex doll.

The second half of the sequences proceeds in rapid order, beginning with body drops.  Basically you lift your butt up and drop it to the floor.  It’s meant to raise the energy in the body and refuel the adrenals.  I was sincerely worried about the people below us when I did that.  One of the exercise was sitting in staff pose and then reach forward and then rocking back on to the sacrum.  I realized as I was doing this that I was slowly starting to depants myself and my underwear was doing what the body drops couldn’t — making contact with my kundalini.  The last time I did the practice (January 21) my underwear was pretty far up there.  Luckily my kundalini had risen, otherwise I would have been flossing its teeth.

At the end of the practice, Maya ends with a Sat Nam chant three times (no Sunshine song).  She then finishes the practice by saying “Thank you God.”  I think that’s a wonderful way to end the practice.  I felt awesome and recharged after most of the practices.  This week I had some really heavy lifting in my workouts, along with strenuous poses in my yoga class, so I was pretty wiped by the end of the week.  Thank you, though, to Maya for creating a great and accessible Kundalini workout and for helping me flap out my crap.

On to Week 4!

Here we go with flapping my crap!

More on Kundalini Yoga.

I’ve been doing quite a bit of heavy lifting lately at Staley Performance Institute, along with elliptical and stationary bike cardio. It’s created quite a bit of load on my back and knees, and I was beginning to feel the impact.  When Patrick pulled out the viniyoga practice, I was thrilled because it seemed like exactly the thing that I need to get my back stabilized and happy with me.  I laid off the cardio for the week and practiced the postures four times this week.

The DVD itself is from my good friends at Pranamaya (hey Mark and Ian).  While I did not watch the lecture material on the DVD, Gary has always been a lucid and complete presenter with an engaging style.  The DVD contains lectures on the anatomy of low back issues, as well as a description of how to do all of the adaptations of the asanas.  Viniyoga is part of the Krishnamacharya tradition, and so uses many of the asanas that mainstream vinyasa, Ashtanga, and Iyengar are familiar with.  However, viniyoga typically synchronize repetitions of asana with breath, entering and exiting the final form several times to progressively achieve benefits from the pose.  It is one of the elements of viniyoga that I’ve always loved, along with the idea that the pose adapts to the person, not the other way around. (Iyengar yoga believes the opposite, which is likely a function of when Iyengar left Krishnamacharya’s tutelage to teach in Pune.)

There are three practices on the DVD — a back stabilization, a hip opening, and a strengthening practice.  All three are very slow and gentle, and last about 30 minutes on average.  I practiced all three on the first day, and then alternated between them for the remainder of the days.  Overall, my back and hips felt more stable after each of the practices, especially on the days when I was doing deadlifts in the morning and then practicing at night.  It reminded me that the practice doesn’t need to be long or strenuous to be effective — it has to be targeted and comprehensive.

The practices follow much of the same format — variations of apanasana, dvi pada pitham, chakravakasan, bhujungasana, and vimanasana (kind of like salabhasana).  Each one is done with breath leading the movement, and with the focus on the entrance and exit of the pose.  There is not a lot of holding in the sequences.  For example, in dvi pada pitham he would have you start with the feet and knees together, lift up and down for a few repetitions, and then widen the feet.  The progression of the base of the pose would change the emphasis of the asana.  After each asana there is a short rest to feel the effects of the pose.  I found the rest periods to be both delicious and reflective, allowing me to feel the benefits of the poses.  The one strengthening sequence included some additional poses (such as an utkatasana variation), but fundamentally followed the format of the other two.  I loved the hip opening sequence, as it included this wonderful hip stretch in lunge and a variation of jathara parvritti with top leg lift to strengthen the hip.  Yummy, and totally going to be added to my public classes.

I totally loved my week with viniyoga.  This is the kind of practice that I could see myself popping into at lunch and being able to do as a midday refresher for my body.  It comes with MP3 files of the practices, so it’s easy to do the practice even if you don’t have a DVD player.

More on Viniyoga: http://www.viniyoga.com/