Terre Pruitt's Blog

In the realm of health, wellness, fitness, and the like, or whatever inspires me.

  • I teach yoga, Nia, and stretch online!

    ALL CLASSES ARE ON ZOOM AT 10:00 AM PDT

    Tuesday Gentle Yoga 

    Wednesday Nia

    Thursday Stretch

    Please see my website for details!

    I am also available for private Nia / yoga / Personal Training all virtual, of course!

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Posts Tagged ‘Cypress Community Center’

#AYogaPoseADay

Posted by terrepruitt on January 27, 2020

Last week I asked my Tuesday yoga class if anyone would be interested in trying a yoga pose a day. I clarified that the idea was for me to just text or e-mail a pose a day. There wouldn’t be any instructions or anything. I asked them to either text or e-mail me if they wanted to participate and that I would send the pose the way they requested. A few of them were interested. So the following day I sent out a pose. Then I realized that I had written a post on a few poses and I thought that I could include that in the text and e-mail just to get us started. I would send the link with the first few. I hadn’t looked up all of the posts that I had written regarding asana but I found a back bend post that had links to posts about back bends so I could include those links with the text/e-mail. I haven’t posted about a lot of poses, but tonight I did look through to see what I had done. We will have a few more poses that can have posts attached to them, but the idea was just to send out a quick idea, “Hey, today do xxxx.” I also extended the invitation to my Thursday yoga class.  It has been fun so far.

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So far we have done:

01.22.20 – Bound Angle
01.23.20 – Upward Salute (Urdhva Hastasana)
01.24.20 – Locust Pose (Salabhasana)
01.25.20 – Sphinx Pose (Salamba Bhujangasana)
01.26.20 – Cobra (Bhujangasana)
01.27.20 – Upward dog (Urdhva Mukha Svanasana)
01.28.20 – Stork (oh, this is a spoiler 🙂 )

I had been tweeting it, but not all posts have a picture so my gravatar of me and Nessa was being posted so I stopped tweeting because I hadn’t noticed the way to keep that from posting. I was using #AYogaPoseADay. Tweeting could be something I keep up with now that I see I CAN keep the picture from posting by deleting the preview. I mean Nessa is a cutie, but I understand it gets annoying when every tweet has a picture of her and I. And, as I said, not every #AYogaPoseADay will have a post so that will be good.

I love finding simple ways outside of the class to connect with my students (or others, if you want to join us please do. You can follow me on twitter or asked to have the #AYogaPoseADay e-mailed to you).

The idea is just for me to suggest a pose a day . . . perhaps it is all you do or perhaps it gets adding into the practice you have. The instruction we decided upon was 30 seconds or four breaths. I actually suggested that the students time their breaths just to have an idea of how many breaths they do in 30 seconds or how long four breaths is for them. Then you can play with it from there.

Is there something that you do daily? A daily practice that you have?

Posted in Yoga/PiYo/Pilates | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Six, Five, Three . . . Let’s Just Keep On Going!

Posted by terrepruitt on July 22, 2019

Last Thursday while I was teaching the Thursday evening yoga class I realized that I had been teaching at the Willow Glen Community for six years. Then I looked at my How Long Have You Been Teaching Here? post and realized it was six years to the day! I started teaching gentle yoga at that community center on July 18 in 2013. It was supposed to be a temporary gig.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFit, City of San Jose Exercise Classes, Cambrian Yoga & Cardio Dance, CYCDI am happy to say that they kept asking me back.  Hopefully we can keep the class going for many more years to come. It has grown in attendance, which is nice. It started out with maybe five people and now we are cutting off the sign up at 22 (I think). Usually, not all the people that sign up show up at the same time so we end up with 12 to 15 people.

I’ll also have been teaching Nia on Thursdays for six years this year, but in September. The original time we started back in 2013 was 8:45. I understand the necessity for classes starting on the quarter hour, but sometimes that is not as standard as on the hour or half hour so we were able to change it to a 9:00 am start time in 2015.

Then we even changed locations in January of 2019. The program under which Nia was offered with the City of San Jose was cancelled. The feedback I received from the participants was that they wanted a class that they could drop into – which was not going to be allowed under the new program. So I found a new place to have Nia on Thursdays. We were so lucky that it happens to be right down the street from the community center AND it is on the same day AND it is at the same time. I am so happy that I was able to keep it so close to the same as to make it very convenient for the students. So, as I said, come September 2019, I will have been teaching Nia on Thursday for six years!

In February it had been five years that I have been teaching gentle yoga at the Cypress Community Center. At the time I was teaching Nia before the yoga class so I wasn’t able to step into the original class time when they called to ask me to teach it, but the students that had been signed up for that session agreed to move the class to 10:30. So the class has been at 10:30 on Tuesdays since February 2014.

Our stretch class has been going on for three years. This one is the one that have changed the most. First of all before I started teaching the class it was held at noon. But when I took over we moved it to 10:15 (that weird start time) because I was teaching Nia from 9:00 to 10:00 and when I took over teaching stretch we had to relocate from one room to the next so we needed time to do that. Plus it is always nice to have at least 10 minutes in between classes so that students can exit and enter and those wanting to take both classes can take care of any needs they might have (the instructor too!). Stretch was at the community center, but again, when the city changed programs the students wanted to have class passes and drop-ins so we moved stretch to the same place we moved Nia. Not enough people attended the stretch class though, so the studio could not support it.

So, we moved stretch to the park. The park is great. It is a very nice park. It suits our needs just in fine. There is a huge tree under which we can put our mats. Most of the time the students start off with their mats in the sun and after about 15 minutes they move into the shade. But even though we have great weather in California, we will not be able to stay outside through the winter so we are moving back to the community center. If you want to join us for stretch at the community center, please register. Here is a link to my site that will have the links to register. I don’t want to put the links here as they will die eventually and I rather not have dead links on my blog. (I try not to.)

When we moved stretch to the park we adjusted the start time so that we would have time to get from the studio to the park. It starts at 10:30. When it moves to the community center it will start at 10:30 because I will still need the time to get from the studio to the community center. It actually only takes about 5 minutes to get to either place from the studio, but I can’t guarantee that I can leave right after class. Sometimes I have to talk to students and/or attend to other things so it is safest to start class when I can guarantee for the most part that I can be there.

Well, this post just start out because I was excited that I had been teaching gentle yoga at the Willow Glen Community center for six years to the day and wanted to share . . . the other info just seemed a logical follow.

Do you take any group exercise classes?

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How Long Have You Been Teaching Here?

Posted by terrepruitt on June 6, 2018

People often ask how long I have been teaching Nia and/or Yoga. Sometimes a student will ask how long I have been teaching the class. In order for me to remember I have to think about something I remember specifically for one class where the supervisor called me when I was in the hospital visiting my mom. Then I have to think of when that was and try to piece it together from there. I did send out some information over a year ago regarding the class facts. It was kind of in the form of a thank you for keeping the classes going. I decided to post the information so I will always have it on hand and I can point people towards it.

Terre’s Class Facts:

Nia at the Camden Community Center:  Tuesdays and Thursdays at 9:00 am. Friday at 10:15 am.

The Tuesday Nia class started on September 4, 2012. It has always been at 9:00 am.

There was a Wednesday Nia class for a very short period of time in 2015.

The Thursday Nia class started on September 22, 2013. Originally it was at 8:30 am, then in November 2013 it was changed to 8:45 am. Then in February of 2015 it was changed to 9:00 am.

The Friday Nia class started in February of 2015. It has always been at 10:15 am. It follows a class that is at 9:00 am so that is why it starts at 10:15 am. The fifteen minutes in between classes is supposed to be for the out going class time to finish, clean up, and vacate the room AND allow us to come in and get ready.

 

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFitGentle Yoga at the Willow Glen Community Center:  Thursday evenings at 6:00 pm.

I started teaching the gentle yoga class at the Willow Glen Community Center on July 18, 2013. Originally I was asked to do it for one session. But then it turned into the next, and the next . . . This class is held at 6:00 pm. This class is part of the Leisure Class program, so students sign up for session. So sometimes there is a mandated break in between sessions. They do not allow for drop-ins at this center.

 

Gentle Yoga at the Cypress Community Center:  Tuesdays at 10:30 am.

I started teaching the gentle yoga class at the Cypress Community Center on February 25, 2014. The original time slot for this class was 10:00 am. But it was moved to 10:30 am so that I could get there from my Nia class at Camden. This class is also is part of the Leisure Class program, so students sign up for session. Sometimes there are breaks in between sessions, but we work hard to not have them because we like to just continue without breaks. This community center allows for drop-ins. So you don’t have to sign up for the entire session you can just come take on yoga class if you would like.

 

Stretch at the Camden Community Center:  Thursday at 10:15 am.

I started teaching the Thursday Stretch Class in May of 2016. The original time slot was noon, but it was moved so it could be after Nia. It has gone on hiatus at times due to various reasons (summer camps usually come in and take over the community center). This class is at 10:15 am, after Nia.

 

Additional information about the classes:

All classes are an hour long. Nia and Stretch are part of the SJCITY Fit program. The gentle yoga classes are a part of the Leisure Class program.

There have been other class that have come and gone. I started teaching in 2009 at a studio I rented in Willow Glen. I did that for four years. I have also taught for the City of San Carlos. I worked for a little fitness studio, I taught at other community centers in San Jose, and I rented other studio space. But since those classes are not longer happening, I didn’t make note of those dates.

I am very fortunate to have such great students and to teach these classes. It is common knowledge among fitness instructors that a class can be cancelled at anytime, especially at city community centers. If there are not enough students then the class gets cancelled . . . makes sense, that is just the way it is. So that we have had these classes for so long is just the biggest blessing. I am grateful.

Posted in Nia, Yoga/PiYo/Pilates | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Yellow Friday Photo

Posted by terrepruitt on August 4, 2017

Sometimes there is just a pretty flower that catches your eye. I was talking with my students after yoga class one day and I noticed this in the landscaping at the community center. My students were laughing at me because they knew the names of all the flowers and plants and I had no idea. I thought this one was pretty.

To me, it is a flower for today’s Friday Photo. Do you know what it is?

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFit

Posted in Friday Photo | Tagged: , , , , , | 9 Comments »

The City Of San Jose Has Two Different Exercise Programs

Posted by terrepruitt on July 24, 2017

I am going to address this again because so many people are not aware of the programs in San Jose that are available through the Parks and Recreation Department. Back in 2015 I wrote a post explaining the main difference of two of their programs. To summarize, there is the program that many of you are familiar with because many of us grew up with it, that is the program the city calls the Leisure Class Program. These are classes in the booklets the Parks and Recs Department prints and sends out. There are ALL types of classes – don’t let the name “Leisure” fool you. There are language classes, art and craft classes, music lessons, cooking lessons, dance classes, exercise classes . . . .and a lot more. They are set up in sessions where you register and pay for the entire session before the first class. The session consists of a set number of meetings and when you register you pay for all of them. You may be familiar with those types of classes . . you may have even signed up for one of those sessions and had it cancelled because not enough people signed up. That is always disappointing . . . that is why it is important to sign up early. Anyway . . . there is also another program called SJCITY Fit . . . it is a version of Group Ex which was discontinued in 2015. But it is somewhat the same in that it is like a gym membership. You pay monthly and you have access to all the classes that are in the SJCITY Fit program, PLUS the gyms at three locations.  The SJCITY Fit Program classes are exercise classes.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFitThere are a lot of people who are not aware of this program that the city offers. I talk to people all the time that think the exercise classes through the city of San Jose are just the leisure type of class. I teach both. I teach some SJCITY Fit classes and I teach some Leisure Classes. There are benefits to both, so it really depends on what works for you. But it is nice to know that you have options.

There are some people who like to go to a class everyday. For the people who just want to have a class to go to every day, the SJCITY Fit program is great. The SJCITY Fit classes are offered at three of the community centers in San Jose; Camden, Almaden, and Bascom. Some people like the convince of going to the community center that is closest to their house, so they might join the Leisure Classes. There are a lot more community centers that offer the Leisure Classes. It all depends on what works for you.

The SJCITY Fit classes are on-going . . . meaning there is no end. Yeah, sometimes there might be a cancelled class if the teacher has an emergency and can’t get a sub in time, but the class is scheduled to just go on and on.

I have all of my classes on my website, but since I teach for BOTH programs it might be confusing sometimes. I think it is important for you to know the difference so you can decide what class you want to take.

At the time of this post, under the Leisure Program, I teach two yoga classes. One class is at the Cypress Community Center and the other one is at the Willow Glen Community Center. You register for the session. Although Cypress is unique and will allow you to drop in. But typically, with Leisure classes, you need to register for the entire session.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFitAt the time of this post I teach THREE NIA classes under the SJCITY Fit program and one stretch class under the SJCITY Fit program. So for one monthly fee you can take all four classes a week. PLUS attend all the other classes that are offered through the SJCITY Fit program PLUS go to the gyms. If you don’t want to join the monthly membership you can drop in for $6.00 per class.

Usually . . . although I can’t say for sure . . . but usually . . the city has a special at the end of the year. They offer an annual membership for a great deal and you just buy that and you are set for the year. But they do not offer the annual membership all year. It is usually for a limited time. After that time is up any membership purchased is only monthly. We will see what they do at the end of this year. I will keep you updated.

I just wanted to share – trying to get the word out there – and try to clarify that there are two ways you can exercise with the Parks and Recreation Department of the City of San Jose: SJCITY Fit and Leisure Classes.  These are GREAT programs – hopefully you will take part in what the city has to offer!

Did you know that the City of San Jose has something akin to a gym membership? Did you know that “Leisure Classes” include EXERCISE classes, too?

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