Yoga with Abbie

Meditation practices can seem very new age-y or for hippies, and the first reaction to meditation can often be negative.  Thoughts like, I can’t do that, I can’t sit still that long, I will fall asleep, my mind can’t shut down to focus, are all very common concerns.  The practice of mindfulness allows for mental peace, increased concentration and control and awareness of thoughts and reactions to your own thoughts as well as the outside world.  The good news is that even regular short (10 minute) sessions of meditation can be beneficial in changing your thought processes and increasing mental awareness.

Therapeutic yoga can encompass multiple forms of yoga and is most often used in private or small group classes.  Hands on healing is a key component of therapeutic yoga and is generally used in conjunction with elements of yin, restorative and gentle practices.  This type of yoga is often used with patients that have chronic illnesses, are fighting cancer or have other limitations.  The practice can also focus almost solely on breath work and meditation and mindfulness as opposed to physical poses.  The benefits of therapeutic yoga are more often being recognized in traditional western medical world as well.

One of my favorite descriptions of this is guided nap time!  I’d probably call it more guided rest period, but either way it is one of my favorite practices.  Restorative practices make heavy use of props for a couple of reasons.   The main one is that the poses are held for a long time….a long time being 5 – 20 minutes.  This means that an hour long restorative class never feels like long enough and that even in a 90 minute restorative class you may never do more than 5 poses, including savasana.  The second reason for the props is to allow your body to be fully supported.  In a yin practice props are used but the poses are designed to get into the joints and synovial fluid.  In a restorative practice the intent is to go even deeper and impact the central nervous system.

A restorative practice does not involve any standing poses, all of the poses are sitting or lying on your mat, but despite not being physically challenge it can be a challenging adjustment to get used to the stillness and the patience needed to settle into a pose.  Restorative (and yin) practices can also bring up a lot of emotions as well as mental awareness.  And if we don’t like what we are seeing and hearing and experiencing in our mind and with our emotions it can be very hard to deal with and can even feel threatening or uncomfortable.  If you can get past this (which can definitely take a few sessions) you can find significant benefits from a restorative practice, particularly a greater sense of peace and calm and all the benefits or meditation.  When I teach restorative classes I will often read a guided meditation during the pose that is held the longest and it is amazing to watch the participants sink into a deeper state of relaxation.

This is another style of yoga that I don’t have any personal experience with, but in some ways is the polar opposite of Iyengar yoga.  Viniyoga aims to provide a broader background of yoga, including philosophy and the use of breath, in addition to learning the poses so that the practitioner can best make yoga work for them and their life.

In many ways this fits with my personal style of yoga, I’m not a complete anatomy geek or alignment nazi – I want the practices to be safe and comfortable for you and your body and for you to be able to find and utilize the elements of yoga that provide you with the most benefits.

Iyengar is a very specific type of yoga that makes heavy use of props in order to get exact alignment.  It is very precision focused with the exact alignment and shape of the body in the poses being the primary factor.

I don’t have any personal experience with this type of yoga, but would love to learn more about it.

This is an interesting category, and depending on the teacher the definition of gentle can vary greatly!  Gentle yoga will often offer modifications and a less challenging pose as the primary pose.  For example, instead of high runner’s lunge, the pose will be with the back knee down, instead of starting in a high lunge and giving the option to lower the knee.  Props are often used but not necessary.  Gentle classes will often attract people with less range of motion and the props can come in handy then.

I’ve been to and taught gentle classes that never have any standing poses in them, and I’ve been to other “gentle” classes that left me a sweaty mess.  Gentle classes can be a good place to start and get used to poses, and tend to move slower than a flow class while still using the same poses.  As with any yoga class if you go to a gentle class and find that it isn’t as gentle as you hoped, find another class and teacher instead of giving up.  The teacher and their style and intensity is critical to finding a good match for you.

Kundalini is an incredibly fun practice that I was introduced to by one of my teachers in teacher training.  It can involve pretty quick movements, moving on the breath with strong inhales and exhales.  The movements can build a lot of heat in the body and the practice can be a lot more of a core and strength workout than you might expect.  The focus in a kundalini practice can also be on different chakras – or energy centers within the body, either focusing on specific ones or working through all of them depending on the intent of the class.

If I teach an all levels flow class I definitely incorporate some kundalini elements and depending on how gentle a gentle class it is, may include some aspects there as well.

This type of a practice generally moves from one pose to another on every breath.  As an example – inhale lift the arms overhead, exhale fold forward….or inhale step back to plank pose, exhale lower down in chattaranga (or knees chest chin to the floor), inhale to cobra, exhale to downward facing dog.

In some flow classes things might start off a little slower taking a couple of breaths in each pose, and then gain speed by moving on every breath.  This is a very common style of class and can get your heart rate up a bit, while building strength and balance and working your core.  The ongoing movements make it extremely important to focus on your breath as a source of energy for the movements, otherwise if you end up holding your breath the whole practice gets harder – and yes, I do know this from experience.

Bikram and hot yoga are often used interchangeably, but aren’t exactly the same thing.  Bikram is a set sequence of 26 poses and breathing exercises, always performed in the exact same order in a room that is supposed to be 104 degrees Fahrenheit.

Hot yoga can be any sequence of poses in a heated room.  I’ve seen a trend of studios switching from Bikram specific classes to general hot yoga classes due to the founder of the Bikram sequence claiming trademark rights to the sequence and wanting compensation, beyond the fact that teachers have specifically been trained in the sequence and methodology.

Warnings about hot yoga classes – they can be very hot and uncomfortable.  Your body can adjust and if you are interested and aren’t susceptible to heat related issues you should give yourself at least 3 classes to try and acclimate to the environment and the movement in such high temperatures.  I liked the first class and made it through with only one break, my second class the heat was nearly intolerable, and the third class was more bearable and easier to handle.  But you will leave dripping in sweat, looking like you’ve just jumped out of a pool of water!