I appreciate this reminder. I thought you might appreciate a reminder too, so I decided to share it for today’s Friday Photo.
Posts Tagged ‘Yoga class’
Breathe
Posted by terrepruitt on August 5, 2022
Posted in Friday Photo | Tagged: breathe, Friday Photo, gift from student, Yoga class, yoga student | Leave a Comment »
Pop-Up Vs Pop-In And A Little Yin Yoga
Posted by terrepruitt on November 19, 2020
Sometimes the day escapes me. I am not going out, but with all of the stuff happening online I am doing a lot of exploring of additional tools to use to make class registration automated, I am doing tests on Zoom for different ways to bring classes to students, I am having to move and rearrange our furniture on a daily basis . . . so a lot of time-consuming stuff. Not complaining, but explaining . . . explaining why I can’t keep up with my own self-imposed posting schedule. I should have posted this yesterday since I am offering a Pop-Up Class tomorrow (Friday, Nov. 20, 2020). This post has a dual purpose, to explain the difference between a Pop-UP and Pop-IN and to expound a bit on Yin Yoga.
POP-UP VS POP-IN
What is a Pop-Up Class? For me, it is a class that is not on my regular schedule. In many cases with many different things a Pop-Up can happen rather quickly – it pops up – but for me, I am usually talking about it a couple days in advance so it is not a quick spur of the moment thing, but it is not a regularly scheduled thing.
Now, the Pop-UP is different than the Pop-In. The pop-in is quick (under 30 minute). So far we have had three pop-ins where we reviewed katas in a song from a Nia routine and then danced the song. It isn’t something where there is the structure of a regular Nia class (or yoga class or stretch class). It is quick – you can just pop-in. I have ideas to do other type of pop-ins maybe a quick stretch or a yoga pose or two, but we will see. A Pop-UP is a class . . . with the actual class structure so popping in and out is not advised.
YIN YOGA
Yin Yoga has long holds in order to affect the tissue involved. It is not about the muscle but about the connective tissue. Since the connective tissue is not as elastic as muscles it take a bit longer to effect, AT LEAST a minute. When introducing people to Yin Yoga I generally will not hold most poses but for a few seconds over a minute.
In addition to the four Tattvas of Yin Yoga another very important thing to remember is to get out of the poses SLOWLY. In some cases if you feel the pose is too much, it could be just a simple matter of backing off, not getting out of the pose . . . if that doesn’t work and you feel you need to get out of the pose you must do it slowly. When instructing I allow for a transitional period and that could be just as long as the hold. Think of it like when you sit for a long time and how it might not work to jump up, ya gotta ease into standing or repositioning yourself. That is the same with Yin . . . you are in a pose for a long time so it requires a long time to get out of it. If you need to get out of a pose before the instructors instructs the class to do so, do it slowly just as if the instructor is walking you through the transition.
Some of the poses we do in Yin Yoga are similar to the poses in yang yoga. I have probably mentioned how I used to be so frustrated that the Yin Yoga poses had different names then the Hatha yoga poses even though they are “the same” . . . but then I learned they are not the same. Yin Yoga instructors may even use the other name (non Yin) to help you get into the pose, but the intent is different. In yang yoga the focus is stretching and strengthening muscle but in Yin the intent is to affect the connective tissue and move the Qi. But so many people ask about Yin Poses I am going to say here – just to give people an idea – that we do poses similar to pigeon, sphinx, bound angle, and extended child’s pose, to name a few. Most Yin poses are done on the floor, so it is not as if you are going to be holding a Warrior II for five minutes.
Additionally, as a reminder Yin Yoga is not Restorative Yoga. Yin may be restorative like all yoga can be restorative, but it is not Restorative Yoga. Restorative Yoga is about relaxing and involves a lot of lying around. Yin is not about relaxing although it does require the muscles to relax.
Well, a really good way to see what Yin Yoga is like is to try it. For details regarding the Pop-Up Yin Yoga Class on Friday, November 20, 2020 please go to my website. Maybe I will see you there! (Update 11.28.20: This class has already occurred, but do check my site because we plan on doing more because they are so FUN!)
Posted in Misc, Yin Yoga | Tagged: candle holders, classes online, Himalayan salt, katas, Nia, Nia class, Nia routines, Pop-in, Pop-up, stretch class, tea light, Yin and Yang, Yin Yoga, Yoga class, Zoom classes | Leave a Comment »
Brown Elephant
Posted by terrepruitt on April 3, 2020
Ahhhh. Here is another beautiful water color from the community center where I used to teach gentle yoga. I feel bad because I could never capture the true beauty of the water colors. Some of them were behind glass (or maybe they all were . . . I don’t even remember now) . . . and it was difficult to get the picture without the reflection. And my goal in being at the center was not to take pictures, but to teach yoga so I was usually in a rush (to get back to my class and focus on creating space). Sometimes I didn’t have time but would snap a quick picture anyway. Funny how it seems like so long ago. Here is a beautiful elephant.
I hope you enjoy today’s Friday Photo . . . even thought I am posting it almost on Saturday.
Posted in Friday Photo | Tagged: brown elephant, Friday Photo, gentle yoga, Senior Center, water color, Willow Glen Community Center, Yoga class | Leave a Comment »
#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.
We haven’t even been doing it a week. I am e-mailing some people and texting some people. Some of us are communicating about it. I just thought it would be fun and it is turning out that way.
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: asana, Bound Angle, cobra, Cypress Community Center, locust pose, Pose, Sphinx, Stork, Twitter, Upward dog, Upward Salute, Willow Glen Community Center, Yoga class, yoga poses | 2 Comments »
Stressing Not Stretching
Posted by terrepruitt on January 20, 2020
I teach a stretch class. In that class we do static stretches that are meant to stretch our muscles. Sometimes to get people into the stretch I use the name of a yoga pose, but because we are stretching our intent is different. If we were actually in yoga doing the pose we would be including breathing and strengthening, but in the stretch class I try to just make it about stretching the muscles. I may have mentioned before, when I started learning Yin Yoga I was frustrated because the names of the poses were different. I kept saying, “Why are the names different? They are the same poses?” Then I realized that the intent of the pose is different. So it really does serve the student better to call it something different. If I were to instruct students to move into Bound Angle, then people that know this pose would pull their feet in as close as they could pressing their knees towards the earth and lengthening the spine, but in Yin calling it butterfly lets them know that they are not doing the same thing as they would be in a yang class. There is no need to pull the feet in as close to the middle as you can get them and press the knees down, the idea is to soften and round, the head and knees hang resting where they are to help the connective tissue stress (FKA stretch). So the names are different to help remind us that the intent is different. We are not working (stretching, strengthening, moving) muscles; we are relaxing muscles and letting our bodies hang into a pose. In Yin Yoga we are not stretching we are stressing.
I often use the same description – stretch – when I am teaching Yin yoga, although that is not the intent. First of all we are focusing on connective tissue and not the muscles, but we still are not trying to STRETCH the tissue. That is what we say, but that it not really what we are doing. Saying we are stretching it does sound better than what we are doing. We are actually stressing it. It seems as if we have been programmed to think that stretching and lengthening are good so that is usually how we describe it. Even when someone goes to the gym they say they are going to “build muscles,” people don’t say they are going to the gym to “break down their muscles” – even though that is actually what they are doing. It is the breaking down of the fibers and the stressing of the fibers that we are actually doing. Then when we rest they build up again or in the case of fascia, return to its normal state stronger and changed for the better.
It is such a habit to say “stretch”. “In Yin Yoga we stretch our connective tissue.” I think I say it because it sounds a little better than stressing. I also keep saying lengthen because it sounds like a goal people want to hear. I think that for many of the people I have encountered stretching and lengthening are goals. Connective tissues doesn’t really stretch out, it gets stressed which helps hydrate it and strengthen it and allow it to move and support us better.
I also feel like some of this is in part due to the fact that many people think of Yin Yoga as Restorative Yoga. Restorative Yoga is more of a relaxing muscle stretching type of yoga. It can help heal the body. There are many props used to allow the participant to lie there in comfort. Yin Yoga is not about comfort. It about stressing that connective tissue which can make the part of the body feel like it aged years over the few minutes you were in the pose. But as long as it is not PAIN or tingling or numbing that is being felt it sounds as if you are doing it right.
In order for the yin pose to be effective it needs to be done for a long time. I was taught that it has to be AT LEAST one minute. But I see some information say it must be longer, but I have also been taught that for many people and for many poses we need to start at one minute because even that is going to feel like an eternity. As the body becomes accustomed to long holds then the time spent in each pose can be longer. I believe the ideal time is from three to five minutes . . . but it also depends on the pose.
Just like with all yoga it is important to listen to the body and not try to compete, the idea is to play the edge yet know when you must stop. Again, we are STRESSING the tissue but we don’t want to stress it past its breaking point. We still must be mindful.
Posted in Yin Yoga, Yoga/PiYo/Pilates | Tagged: connective tissue, Formaly Know As, mindful, stressing tissue, stretch class, stretching muscles, yang yoga, Yin Yoga, Yoga class | Leave a Comment »
Oriole In The Bath
Posted by terrepruitt on June 19, 2019
Once a month after stretch class, on the last Thursday of the month, a group of us meets for coffee. Sometimes it is a very small group and sometimes it is much bigger, but it is a way for us to keep in touch and for us to check in with each other. Sometimes after yoga on Tuesdays we go for lunch. At a recent lunch the conversation came around to birds – it was a very windy, crazy, fun-filled path that got us to birds, and I was telling them about our bird bath. A couple of us stated that we love to watch the birds bathe. If you have seen any of my bathing bird posts you know I love to watch them. Because how the conversation started I wanted to show them a picture of our bird bath. Then I remembered I had a video of an oriole bathing. Then I was kind of sad because none of my students had seen it, then I realized I had tweeted it and not posted it on my blog. So . . . I decided to post it here to share.
You know how I love to watch birds bathe. They just seem to enjoy it with all that fluttering and hopping around. Since the orioles are so cautious I was super happy to catch one in the bath. It is a quick bath, but still pretty cool. I do actually have another video of an oriole bathing, but I will post this one first.
Such a gorgeous color. So very yellow. Perhaps they are feeling a little more comfortable since they’ve come back for a few years now . . . if, in fact, these are the same birds.
We keep the bird bath bath clean and full. I don’t do either (clean it or fill it) as much as my hubby. We love to have birds visit so we make it as inviting as possible.
Do you like to watch birds bathe? And drink?
Posted in Birds, Misc | Tagged: bathing birds, bird bath, oriole, stretch class, visit after class, yard birds, yellow bird, Yoga class | 2 Comments »
Colorful Giraffe
Posted by terrepruitt on May 24, 2019
I have three photos left of other water colors not including this one. I check every week at the community center before I teach yoga to see if there are new ones. I would like to let the artists know that I have posted their pictures and give them credit but I don’t know how to get in touch with them. I especially like the ones like this one with the different colors making up the animal face.
This giraffe makes me go, “Awwww!” when I look at it. I thought I would share it with you for today’s Friday Photo.
Posted in Friday Photo | Tagged: community center, Friday Photo, water color, water color giraffe, watercolor, Willow Glen Senior Center, Yoga class | 6 Comments »
Meant To Be Together
Posted by terrepruitt on February 13, 2019
I heard a funny story the other day as I was leaving the community center where I teach yoga. My friend had asked me if I had any plans for Valentine’s Day. I replied that I have a yoga class that evening so we wouldn’t be going out and asked her about her plans, she explained that it was her wedding anniversary a couple of days ago which reminded her of a funny story. She had went to the store to buy her husband an anniversary card. A couple of days later she went to look for the card, but did not find it in her usual “card hiding spot”. While she was doing something else she happened to look up and see the card on the bookshelf. So she took it off the shelf and signed it. Later that day she was out and her husband texted her and asked her if she had taken the card that was on the bookshelf and she said yes. She had actually forgotten that when she was at the store she didn’t end up buying the card she had picked out. But the card her husband had purchased for her was the same card. So she had thought she had bought it and put in on the bookshelf – although that was not her usually hiding place. She ended up giving him the card he bought her!
I thought that was so funny for so many reasons. I know that I have looked at cards and thought I had purchased them only to find out I hadn’t. I sometimes buy cards and misplace them. I know that multiple times my husband and I have purchased the same card and given it to each other twice. In some cases the sentiment was the same but the card maker had added a different picture. I am not sure if we have purchased the same card for each other, but I think we might have. But I know we have not used one another purchased cards. HA! So funny.
Do you have any funny card giving or receiving stories?
Posted in Misc | Tagged: card giving, City of San Jose yoga classes, community center classes, funny story, Valentine's Day, wedding anniversary, Yoga, Yoga class, yoga teacher | 13 Comments »
Colorful Hummingbird
Posted by terrepruitt on February 8, 2019
Here is another watercolor from the community center where I teach yoga. Every week I look to see if there are more that I really love, but I haven’t seen one. I have one more picture of one that I took at the same time as this one that I will post and that will be it unless I find another one I love.
Here is a hummingbird for my Friday Photo.
What do you think of these watercolors?
Posted in Friday Photo | Tagged: community center exercise classes, Friday Photo, hummingbird watercolor, Yoga class | 2 Comments »
Colorful Elephant
Posted by terrepruitt on January 25, 2019
In September of 2018 I posted a watercolor painting that hangs on the wall of the community center where I teach yoga on Thursday evenings. It was a painting of a flamingo. It is gorgeous. I have snapped a few photos of some of the paintings. I want to share them as my Friday Photo. Here is a gorgeous elephant.
Posted in Friday Photo | Tagged: community center, elephant, watercolor painting, Yoga, Yoga class | Leave a Comment »
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