A shift is taking place in my teaching schedule. At Bernal Yoga I'll no longer be teaching a Tuesday evening class, and I'll be instead teaching every other Saturday afternoon. The first class will be March 12th, and starting in April it'll be the 1st and 3rd Saturday of each month. And each Saturday class will have a theme publicized in advance. If you can come to these classes and have something you'd like me to work on, please suggest it.
The Saturday classes, while themed, will provide a well rounded overall practice. Within that practice will reside an emphasis or a possibility to workshop whatever the theme of the class is.
The March 12 class will be pretty general: Yoga for Athletes. For me this is a good place to start because the time in my life when I really dove into yoga is when I quit bicycle racing. So I can relate to having parts of my body very developed and seemingly immovably rigid (hamstrings, quads, hips); parts of my body accustomed to being held in positions not so healthy (consider the natural curves of the spine and then go look at a photo of a pack of road cyclists); and parts of the body that were not so strong and suffered from tensing into the same position for hours and hours at a time (upper back, shoulders, arms, neck). If you participate in an athletic activity on a regular basis you can probably also make a quick list of places you are very strong v. places that are weak, places your activity has a destabilizing effect on the joints, places you are chronically stressed that need some stretching and toning. A well rounded vinyasa practice should work the strong areas of the body because then they will open up, and work the weak areas of the body because then they will strengthen and bring balance to the body. Attention to alignment will stabilize the joints and lead to more balanced energy flow in the body.
And we haven't even gotten to the good part: breathing. Fundamental to vinyasa practice is steady attention to the breath. Attention to the breath develops focus, mental alertness, and cultivates the inner awareness that helps you find your edge. Cultivating that inner focus, the beginning of being your own teacher, can be a very powerful tool to use in any aspect of life.
Finally, the beautiful thing about the yoga practice is that it's just that: practice. You're just there to be present for yourself and work on you. No race to the finish line, no points awarded for longest hamstrings or bendiest spine. With any luck this attitude might bleed over into other areas of your life, i.e. focusing on the present moment in a non-judgmental manner without distraction of expectation.
