Monthly Archives: January 2012

How to Do Yoga for Fun and Profit and Not Wreck Your Body Along the Way

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“Don’t let yourself go.
Everybody cries and everybody hurts sometimes.” — R.E.M

Ok, please stand in Tadasana (play along with me for a second). Inhale and bring your arms up into Urdhva Hastasana.

Now, raise your hands if you haven’t heard of *that* NYT article about how, yoga is like your kitchen sponge, innocent looking, appears to be useful in so many ways, but really hiding in plain sight, waiting to bring you to your knees, in a really bad way.

Hey, look at that, you have all heard about it. You can exhale and lower your arms now.

I’m being a little facetious here, and thank you for indulging me for a moment. I realize this is a rather serious discussion, and I’m glad yoga and injuries are now in the same breath and on the lips of so many people, from lunch and dinner tables, coffee shops, to yoga conferences.

Yes, the article is flavored with a bit of what, in my day job, is referred to as FUD, fear uncertainty and doubt, as Sarah Miller acutely observed with her wit. Yes, the article is littered with inaccurate and sloppy anatomical references, as many teachers like Roger Cole, a scientist and Iyengar teacher of 30 years, has pointed out.

So now that everyone has weighed in on this issue, a Good Thing, because it brings this matter to the forefront of our awareness, one question remains.

Now what?

Now that this horse has been well beaten, now that I’m aware that asana done carelessly with overzealous instruction can mess up my body big time, now that I’m aware that the qualification—and quality— of the person telling me where to put my arms and legs really does matter, what do I do?

Below is an article written by my teacher Theresa Elliott, which I have permission to publish here on my blog. It’s a poignant piece addressing the very topic in Mr. William Broad’s NYT yoga article, written almost four years ago.

This article is, as they say in my office job, actionable. It’s not a philosophical discussion of how yoga helps you become one with the divine. It’s not a treatise on abstract themes like spirituality and love, and what our ego is good for.

It starts at the start: how to choose a yoga teacher who will protect my ligaments and guide my joints with care. It’s helped me begin on the path at the beginning. I think you’ll find Theresa’s thoughts useful for your own journey too.

Bolded sentences are mine for emphasis.

Choosing a Yoga Teacher

By Theresa Elliott
Director of Taj Yoga, Co-Director of Pacific Yoga Teacher Training

Yoga has exploded in Seattle as in much of the country. For every coffee stand,
there is at least one yoga studio lurking nearby. With so many places offering
yoga, how do you decide who would be the best teacher for you?

I have encountered many individuals whose primary consideration is location.
This makes sense as yoga is ubiquitous. Why not just walk down to the
neighborhood gym and pick up a class?

Yoga is different than a typical exercise class, and the potential for stress and
strain is far beyond what you could do to yourself in aerobics at the gym. As
yoga has proliferated, so have yoga injuries.

Part of the intrigue is also what makes it risky: Increased flexibility is helpful for everyday living, and the ability to stretch can produce breathtaking forms. However, uncontrolled flexibility can result in muscle strains—or worse.

For example, overstretched ligaments result in the destabilization of the structure, such as a knee joint. Common yoga injuries include hamstring pulls, sacroiliac dysfunction, rotator cuff injuries, strained lumbar vertebra, and medial collateral/lateral collateral
ligament damage in the knees.

Alignment is crucial in posture work, as is an understanding of how to stabilize joints through strength while muscles are being stretched. It is time well spent to do some research on a potential teacher and include factors besides location.

Cost is also a consideration. Why pay extra at the yoga studio when you can
get it free at the gym? The subject of how and what we value is a complex
question in itself.

So, I simply say, is anything free? Hidden costs are not always clear, and somehow, someway, someone is paying for that “free” class.

The following items are usually listed in a teacher’s bio and are a good place to start the winnowing process. Is he or she certified? By whom? How long has she been teaching? How old is he? This last question is an important factor that is often over looked.

When friends ask me about starting yoga classes, I recommend they look for a
teacher within 10 years of their age. This recommendation is especially
applicable if you are over 40. A teacher in your age bracket will understand what
happens to the body as it matures and how this relates to the art of practicing
yoga postures.

Of course, there are highly qualified young teachers, “old souls,” as it were, especially those who come to teaching from other health care professions, such as massage therapy. These individuals are able to bridge the age gap through empathy.

At some point you make your best judgment and take a class. I do not recommend observing a class. You need to be in it, feeling and experiencing it with your body, because your research isn’t done yet. Below are some thoughts to consider once your are in class.

* Good teachers will be able to adapt the work to you when necessary. If they
stick to a regime and cannot or will not modify postures, it’s a good sign you
should not go back.

* A sense of humor is a must. Really serious tends to goes with really rigid, and
that’s a really good reason to exit.

* In cross-cultural arts, your common sense is still valid. People are people, no
matter what continent you are on. If you think something is weird or fishy, it
probably is.

* Can you understand what your teacher is saying? With a component in spirituality, some teachers will use yoga jargon or “buzz” words that may leave you wondering what planet you are on. A competent teacher should be willing to define terms, and do so graciously.

* Look at the other students in the class. Who does this teacher attract? It will
help you understand who this teacher likes to work with and how qualified they are.

* The following saying illustrates the next point: Give a man a fish and he can
feed himself for a day. Teach a man to fish and he can feed himself for life. Teachers who practice the poses at the same time you do are, in essence, taking class themselves and not watching you.

Without an eye on students, they cannot make adjustments to your alignment or teach good form. Look for someone who offers more than a “follow-the-leader” aerobics format.

Think of your teacher as a coach. Yoga is traditionally a solo art and developing a home practice is one of the aims. Ask yourself: Am I being given the tools to begin a practice on my own? Am I engaged intellectually and theoretically so I could start to build a home practice? If you can answer yes to these questions, you are on the right track.

Finally, for those of you who like to fine tune here’s a parting thought. When you
study and learn from another person, you are subtly taking on their ideas and
values.

Sometimes what is taught “between the lines,” often through nonverbal
cues, goes in under our conscious radar. We begin to think like our teacher and
may not realize it.

So, the question is, is your teacher someone you admire? Someone you trust? Do you want that person in your psyche?

Am I engaged intellectually and theoretically so I could start to build a home
practice? If you can answer yes to these questions, you are on the right track.

Yoga can be a deeply rewarding endeavor. The yoga practitioner has the opportunity to work with both body and mind. It’s worth the time investment you make to locate a qualified teacher and ensure a safe journey.

Copyright July 2008. Theresa Elliott. Original PDF: Choosing a Yoga Teacher.

Winter Fun with Sanskrit, and a Lesson in the (S)now

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It has been snowing like mad around my part of the world, and our world’s a little different, visually, and rhythmically. Schools are closed. Offices are vacant as most people stay off the roads and work from home. Or, if they come out, it’s to play with the fluffy powder before it turns to slush and wash away.

As is often my coping mechanism, I make various jokes about Weather Gods, that maybe they’re protesting that awful bill in Congress right now, SOPA/PIPA, or that some Weather God is dreaming the snow level of Inception.

In one moment of curiosity, I went to look up Greek and Roman and Hindu Winter and Weather Gods, and discovered a fascinating link in words.

It turns out there *is* a Hindu God of snow, Himavat. In Sansrkit, himavant conveys “having much snow”, coming from the root word himá, for “frost, snow”. The Himalaya Mountains got their name from him for snow and alaya for abode or home.

In Latin, the word for winter is hiems, which is where we got hibernate from, “to pass the winter in a dormant or torpid state”. In French, winter is hiver.

Going back we have these words coming from the Proto-Indo-European ghei, for winter. And speaking of winter, the Proto Indo European root word of winter is rumored to be *ueid, or *ued, and if you say that out loud, you can see how that becomes wet, went, and then wint.

Around here in the Pacific Northwest, winter is living up to its name. It’s wet, cold, snowy, windy, icy and stormy. I’ve been on house arrest, snowed-in, and powered out. I admit, I have not enjoyed every moment of it, I wanted to get out, go do things and see people.

Intellectually, I know in some weird way, Mother Nature is telling me to slow down and chill out, literally, and that’s a good thing. Emotionally, I’ve been less mature in accepting this message. “I’m moving south to some sunny place,” I think, and I create alternative scenes in my mind where I could escape the present.

In Midnight in Paris, Owen Wilson’s character—realizing that everyone has some kind of Golden Age Thinking, romanticizing the past and in denial of the moment—proclaimed, “That’s what the present is. It’s a little unsatisfying because life is unsatisfying.”

Satisfying or not, snow or not, now is all there is. So I make a pact with myself, when I see snow and wish that I didn’t, I’d take out the “s”, and now it’s just… now. Sometimes I succeed. Most of the time I fail. And I make another go at it again.

Another trick I use is to remember a Thich Nhat Hanh quote:

“The present moment is where life can be found, and if you don’t arrive there, you miss your appointment with life.”

When something is on my calendar, I make every effort to show up. Why couldn’t I do the same with the present moment? When a bus, train, or plane departs at a certain time, I make sure I catch it. Why couldn’t I arrive on time to catch the moving vehicle of Now? Why wouldn’t I?

Not to be cheesy, (or, ok, to be cheesy), realizing this stops me right on my track. The track of reminiscing and fantasizing, and wishing that something completely out of my control wasn’t so, like precipitation from the sky, like ice on the road, like the electricity that I cannot summon with my sheer will.

Mother Nature, here’s to you for showing who’s the boss. Here’s to you, every winter god and goddesses in every culture and geography. Thank you for yet another reminder that for every Allegro movement, there’s an Adagio. Merci a toi, Woody Allen, for showing the silliness of our nostalgic thinking in a moveable feast of a movie.

The ice outside is melting, and I’ll soon forget my lessons. But surely, after spring, summer, and autumn, winter will come around again.

References:
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayas
Bill Casselman: http://www.billcasselman.com/winter_words/winter_words_three_brumal_hiemal.htm

Assisting Judith Hanson Lasater at SF YJ Conference 2012

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Tomorrow is Friday the 13th, a lucky day for me. After work, I’ll be on a bus and a plane heading to San Francisco, where I’ll assist Judith Hanson Lasater at the San Francisco Yoga Journal Conference.

Here are the sessions I’m assisting. If you’re at the conference and we pass by each other, please say hi. Or better yet, come take a class with Judith, you won’t regret it.

The Mysterious Sacroiliac Joint: Anatomy and Asana

Saturday, January 14 — 10:30am – 12:30pm
Therapeutic / Continue Your Education / Mixed Levels

Many yoga students suffer from sacroiliac pain, which interferes with forward bends and twists. We’ll study the anatomy and kinesiology of the joint, and then practice in a way that can prevent problems. **This class has been approved by American Council on Exercise (ACE) for 0.2 CECs.**

Restorative Yoga

Saturday, January 14 — 3:30pm – 5:30pm
Therapeutic / Mixed Levels

Explore the theory and the practice of restorative yoga.
Props are essential to this practice. Bring at least three blankets, an eye cover, a strap, and, if possible, a bolster. The more props, the more relaxation.

The Shoulder: How to Open, Strengthen, and Repair

Sunday, January 15 — 10:30am – 12:30pm
Therapeutic / Mixed Levels

We’ll learn the basic principles of the rotator cuff through a presentation of the anatomy and kinesiology of the shoulder. We’ll then focus on poses that open and strengthen the shoulder joint. **This class has been approved by American Council on Exercise (ACE) for 0.2 CECs.**

January 2012 – Intro to Yoga at Taj Yoga

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I’m teaching an Introduction to Yoga series at Taj Yoga on Tuesday nights starting this coming week. Here are all the deets… eh… details.

Elevator pitch

This five-week introduction series will cover the fundamentals of yoga including alignment, breathing, and relaxation techniques.

When

Date: Tuesdays January 10-February 7, 2012
Time: 7:30 p.m. to 8:45 p.m.

Where

Location: 9250 14th Ave NW,
Seattle, WA 98117. [Google Maps link]
Studio: Taj Yoga Room 1

How much

Cost: $70 for all 5 classes. $130 for two if you sign up together.

Is this class for me?

I’ve designed the syllabus primarily for someone brand new to yoga, or has dabbled in a class or two at a local gym, where the pace is fast and there are a lot of students.

I will focus on techniques–the whys and hows–of the types of yoga poses such as Standing Poses, Back Bends, Forward Bends, Twist, Seated, and Supine (everyone’s favorites).

Because yoga is multi-faceted, I will be introducing some foundational aspects of the 8 limbs of yoga, and so this class would also be appropriate for anyone interested in deepening their knowledge of the techniques and tenets of yoga.

The classes build on each other from week to week, and the goal is prepare you to take ongoing hatha yoga classes with lots of confidence.

What if I can’t make it to all five classes?

If you know you won’t be able to make it to a class, I will prorate the cost of the series and work out a plan to catch you up. Class notes will be sent to everyone about what we covered in class.

Who are you? Why should I take yoga from you?

I’m Nikki. I started yoga via asana at 15, developed a Vipassana (Insight) meditation practice when I was 25, and received my 500-hour certificate to teach yoga in in May of 2010.

My training and practice is heavily influenced by the Iyengar lineage. Techniques, Safety, and Alignment (TSA without the lines) are my main emphasis.

With the proliferation of yoga, there has come the rise of yoga injuries. My classes are small to ensure the techniques and modification are personal and appropriate for you.

And while yoga is more popular than ever, its message still appears to be elusive and esoteric. I have been lucky to catch a glimpse of yoga beyond the bendiness. My goal is to make what seems to be mystical practical to you.

Is this hot yoga?

No.

What other students have said

I just finished a 6 week alignment series with Nikki, and I can’t wait for the next opportunity to take a class with her.

Nikki keeps the class fun, while making sure everyone is working within their capabilities. I especially appreciate that she makes sure to be aware of what injuries or impediments everyone brings to the class in order to best suit the class to the individuals.

And as a bit of a geek myself, I love that Nikki spends the time to explain the whys of each posture, and even each adjustment, rather than just running students through a prescribed series with little or no thought involved.

The class is a great balance of physical postures, breath work, and inner work, leading to a terrifically revitalizing experience. – David Tolmie

I’m in! What do I do?

Hooray! Please RSVP by writing or calling me:

  • Email: nikki @ nikkiyoga dot com
  • Voice/text: 206 . 992 . 0139
  • Twitter: @yogageekgirl

How do I pay you?

You can pay me at the door on the first day of class. I take cash, check, and credit card via a Square reader. I’m not receiving payment through PayPal at this time.

How do I get there?

Taj Yoga is housed inside the old Crown Hill Elementary building, which opened in 1919 with six rooms. Today, it’s home to Seattle Gilbert and Sullivan Society, Arc Ballet School of Dance, Small Faces Child Development Center, and many great movement art programs.

The building is on 14 Ave NW and NW 95th St. There is ample parking. It’s also accessible by bus #75 on Holman Road NW, bus #15 on 15th Ave NW, and bus #48 on NW 85th St.

Here are all the gory detailed directions on how to find Taj studio, including photos.

What if I’m hungry before or after yoga?

The class is 7:30 -8:45 p.m. The general guideline for doing yoga is to not eat about two hours prior to class. However, I’d much rather you have a steady blood sugar level than be so hungry in class you can’t wait for it to end. So, if it’s close to class time and you haven’t eaten all day, please eat. Almonds, bananas, soups, a small peanut butter sandwich are typically good options.

We do also have the distinction of being within walking distance from Holman Road Dick’s, one of six Seattle famous Dick’s Drive-In, which makes for a fine choice after yoga, but probably not before.

If you have any additional questions, please let me know, and I hope to see you soon.

 

 

Breed and Feed, or, How to Detox and Do Other Things Good Too with Savasana

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I once described Savasana to my boyfriend–who doesn’t do yoga–as, “taking a sanctioned nap in public”, to which he asked quizzically, “You pay people to do something you can do at home?” I laughed, “I guess you can look at it like that.”

In fact, if I didn’t know better, I would look at it exactly like that. And when I didn’t know better, I saw very little value in Savasana, if at all. It didn’t help that in certain yoga tradition, the teacher simply ended class with, “Thanks for coming, now lie in your sweat and your neighbor’s B.O. I’m leaving the room for some fresh air.”

Ok, I’m being a brat, I know, my point is, in my experience, there’s usually very little instruction in how to do Savasana in most public yoga classes. If I don’t know what to do, I’m either going to pass out and fall asleep, or I’m just going to get up and leave.

If the value of Savasana isn’t widely taught and understood, fewer and fewer people will learn it, do it, care about it, and ultimately benefit from it, and that is a crying shame.

This leads to scenarios where students can complain to studio directors if a teacher keeps the class in Savasana for “too long”, and in turn the well-intentioned director, who want happy customers, will ask teachers to not do Savasana, or minimize it.

This leads to scenarios where, when Savasana time comes, for those who’ve come to know, love, and appreciate the nap (like yours truly), but don’t know the benefits beyond getting some much needed sleep, and therefore don’t do the appropriate practice in Savasana.

This leads to scenarios where, teachers go on yoga forum asking things like: “Why is savasana a key aspect to yoga classes? How do you explain it to your students who may feel they don’t need to pay someone to “just lie on the floor” for 5, 10 or more minutes?”

In this post and a few that follow, I hope to make a case for the yoga pose Savasana: what it is, how to do it, and why we care about it at all.

There are multitudes of interesting things about Savasana, but perhaps the most relevant topic to write today is something closest to home for most of us who just celebrated the Holidays Season in North America, starting with Halloween, then Thanksgiving, all the way to New Years.

That topic is digestion and elimination, or, the more trendy and PC word is: detox.

How Savasana helps with detoxing

I don’t want to rehash the list of benefits of Savasana that you can read everywhere. I want to talk about what happens in Savasana and how it helps you digest, or detox.

You may remember the autonomic nervous system from school, divided into sympathetic and parasympathetic systems. You may also know the sympathetic system is associated with the “fight or flight” response, nice and catchy and easy to remember.

Think quick! What’s the equivalent catchy response for the parasympathetic system? Wikipedia will tell you that it’s “rest and digest”. But, I’m here to tell you another one that’s much easier to remember: “feed and breed”. It’s much more colloquial and down and dirty, not something they always tell you in school, but our memory works best with down and dirty things, like learning swear words in foreign languages.

What’s involved in feed and breed? Put it another way, what’s *not* involved in feed and breed? Sometimes it seems like almost a full time job for some people in our culture to keep us preoccupied with those exact two things. Feeding and breeding are big business.

Now think about what prevents you from good feeding and breeding? Bad food, for sure. Bad sex, certainly. What goes in must come out, and if you can’t digest, pee, or poop, it is not a good day in any measure.

Think about the last time you were in the mood for love, were you in a fight or flight response? Were you stressed? Depressed? Anxious? Or were you more relaxed? That’s the parasympathetic nervous system in action.

Let’s have Wikipedia come to the rescue and articulate things more eloquently:

To be specific, the parasympathetic system is responsible for stimulation of “rest-and-digest” activities that occur when the body is at rest, including sexual arousal, salivation, lacrimation (tears), urination, digestion, and defecation.

And the good people of Wikipedia (when they’re not showing creepy mug shots) have provided a useful acronym for the functions of the parasympathetic nervous system too, SLUDD: salivation, lacrimation, urination, digestion, and defecation.

Our days are filled with stimulating activities that call for a well functioning and active Sympathetic Nervous System: driving, work meetings, answering emails, giving speeches, working out, etc.

Yoga asanas demand quite a bit of us as well, thinking about what to do, where to move, protecting or preventing injuries, worrying about doing the right thing, looking good, etc.

The Parasympathetic Nervous System is the counterpart of the SNS. It’s the Yin to the SNS’s Yang. It’s the eggs to the SNS’s bacon (for you bacon fans out there). It’s the coke to the SNS’s rum. Ok, I may be taking this too far, but you see where I’m going. These two systems go together.

The problem is we as a culture has gone so far off the Sympathetic Nervous System’s deep end, that we don’t even know how to relax. We think relax is sitting on the couch watching Dancing with the Stars with our favorite drink. We think relax is watching Tom Cruise scale up sky scrapers with a bare hand.

Don’t get me wrong, these are awesome. I have nothing against holding down the couch or Occupying IMAX. Those activities, however, are fun, but not necessarily relaxing as far as our body’s physiology is concerned.

Now, think about what happens to your nervous system in Savasana. Let’s set the mood: the lights are down so it’s nice and dark, you’re well covered and warm, your eyes are closed, the floor is dry, clean, and flat. You’re not eating, drinking, driving, walking, running, dancing, moving, talking. You’re lying flat down on the floor with all the props you need to support your body position and weight.

It’s the perfect trigger to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, aka, say it with me, the “feed and breed” response. This is where the PNS “mediates digestion of food and indirectly, the absorption of nutrients.” (Wikipedia entry on Autonomic Nervous System.)

“Great, I’m sold on that,” you say, “but why do I have to pay someone to do this?”

You don’t. Plain and simple as that. Just like how you don’t have to pay someone to watch you do pushups, pullups, or situps; how you don’t have to pay to have someone to time you to run around the block or up the hill.

Or, maybe we do have to pay someone to count our pushups and time our Savasana. We need someone to give us instruction, techniques, refinement, encouragement, and the big A, accountability.

If we don’t learn how to, and do, Savasana in class, if we don’t make it a daily habit under someone else’s watch, what are the chances we will do it on our own? If we don’t learn how to relax in a controlled setting, much like having training wheels on, how will we relax when we’re in “real life” and shit is hitting the fan? (Or… not coming out well?)

And… on that note, I’ll finish writing for now. But I am not done with all the amazing things that happen in Savasana and the benefit you get from it. So, ask for more savasana, and I hope you’ll come back for more soon.