When I get home at noon on Wednesday it seems like the day goes by really quick. I am working on my Nia routine for class the next day. I am working on the stretch routine for class the next day. I might have to put together something for yoga for the class the next day. Plus I have a blog post I would like to write. So I just don’t have a lot of time to think about dinner. Well, tonight was one of those nights. I hadn’t even really thought about a blog post during the day. And I was making up dinner as I was cooking it. I really didn’t know what I was doing. Cooking the steak we have is always an adventure. I hadn’t really thought about a blog post as I was flying by the seat of my pants as I cooked dinner. At the last minute I thought well this might work and I snapped a couple of pictures. I didn’t really know how I was going to cook the meat or gnocchi. I had taken out two packages of meat. I thought each one was a steak, but it turned out each one was two cuts of meat. Yay. Now, we have dinner for tomorrow, well at least the meat part. I always try to have some gnocchi in the freezer, I thought it would go well with the steak. But I wanted it different – normally I just boil it. I thought after I boiled it I could pan fry it, to give it that crispy brown. My friend taught me that.
I have a friend who used to make . . . now I don’t even remember what type of gnocchi was . . . I think it was butternut squash gnocchi. Perhaps it was sweet potato. I didn’t even like gnocchi until she gave it to me. She apologize when she gave it to me because “it didn’t turn out right” and she recommended pan frying it. I thought, “Ok, whatever.” It wasn’t potato gnocchi so I thought it must be better cooked differently. Turns out ALL gnocchi is better cooked that way. But her gnocchi was THE BEST. It was sooooooo yummy.
Most gnocchi has to be boiled first and then it can be pan fried. Well, that is the way I like it best. With a little bit of browning on it. I had never done such a large batch before and some of it broke up and got a little mushy, but then the mush browned so I was ok with that. I threw in some kale and it rounded off our steak great.
Do you like potato gnocchi? Do you like it boiled? Have you ever tried browning it?
In January of 2016, I decided to post on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Since 2009, I had been posting on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. I thought, since I didn’t teach Nia or yoga on Mondays or Wednesdays it would be easier. Well, you might have noticed I have missed posting a few times. Sometimes I am busy with something else or I can’t think of anything to post. The latter is the really big one. I can sometimes rush out a post when I am busy but I know what I am going to write about. But sometimes I know what I want to write about but the research or the pictures end up taking longer than I thought . . . so I end up not posting. A couple of times I had written the post and I planned on posting it after I read through it one more time, then I have gone about my evening and forgotten to publish the post. All types of things can come up. Having no idea of what to write is a deal breaker, though. Can’t write when you have no idea! Anyway . . . Fridays seem to be the most difficult. So I am going to change my Friday posts. I am going to post a photo on Friday. I’m gonna call it Friday Photo. Not original, I know, neither in name or format, but I often have photos I want to share, but they don’t have a story, it could be that I just like it.
A picture on Friday. These will not be works or art, by any means. They will just be a photo of whatever I want. So just like my blog posts where I post pictures . . . . you will see a lot of our cats, a lot of flowers, a lot of birds, and just ordinary things. I am just gonna see how it goes.
The photos might even be from years past. It just depends.
Thank you for hanging out with me for a moment on Friday. Here is my first Friday Photo:
Currently I am lucky enough to teach yoga classes and a stretch class. And I say “lucky” because I was asked to do these classes but they can be cancelled at any time. Class attendance needs to stay up or the classes can get cancelled. This is the case with pretty much any type of exercise class at any type of place . . . a gym, a club, a parks and recs department, etc. Ok, but where I am actually going with this post is: people ask me all the time what the difference is between yoga and stretch. Well, my first thought is my post “More To Yoga Than Just Asana,” but that would only help to explain what yoga is and not what we do in a stretch class. Because I teach gentle yoga classes people are curious about the difference. It makes sense since they seem the same, but there are differences. In addition to breathing yoga is different from stretch by a few points.
In regards to the way I do my gentle yoga and my stretch classes here are some of the differences:
—In yoga we work on more than just flexibility, we also work on balance and strength. In stretch we focus mainly on STRETCHING muscles and, to a lesser extent, connective tissue. We are not working either in a stabilizing or strengthening capacity.
—The poses in yoga have names, at least two, the English name and a Sanskrit name. In stretch my instruction is usually something like, “move your arm here or there” as I show them how to get into the stretch. Sometimes I do refer to an asana by name that is similar because many of the students do take yoga also, so they know what to do when I say the name of a pose.
—Some people “can’t do” yoga, but they CAN stretch. 🙂 Seriously, invite someone to a yoga class and they will say, “I can’t do yoga, I’m not flexible enough.” Invite them to a stretch class and they say, “Oh! I need to stretch.”
—With yoga, people seem to want to “get” somewhere. They want to be able to “do” a specific pose. With stretching, even though they might be able to bend deeper or more fully as time goes on, there doesn’t seem to be the urge or need to “get there”. With stretch the journey seems more important than the destination. Although it really is supposed to be the same way for yoga.
Another question I am always asked is, “Are you on the floor the whole hour?” No, but we don’t go up and down as much as in my gentle yoga classes. In both my gentle yoga classes and my stretch classes we do poses/stretches standing up and on the floor.
Stretching is so good for you. We all should be doing it, even if we don’t weight train or run marathons, it is really good to stretch the muscles. But many of us need a class, something we are committed to doing in order to actually take the time to stretch. I am happy to help in that area and teach a class.
Earlier this month I taught a yoga class. I was subbing for someone at a community center that I don’t teach at very often. In the past when I taught there I was usually subbing a Zumba class with Nia. I don’t care what class you are going to take, when you show up and it is not that class, it kinda is a bummer. Some people get very upset. Some people leave and even though they made all the effort to get to the class, they decide not to stay. Some people shrug their shoulders and say, “Well, I am here. I might as well give it a go.” I don’t blame anyone for being upset. As I said, it is kind of a bummer when you show up for one thing and there is another. Oh, I digress . . before the yoga class a woman asked me if I taught Nia. When I said yes she asked if I could do some Nia. I told her that I would be happy to lead her through a song AFTER the yoga class if she would like. The demo was awesome. I was amazed.
After the yoga class, I asked a few of the members that regularly come to Nia if they would mind dancing a song with me and the student who asked about Nia. So a few of the woman who dance with me regularly stayed to help out. But others stayed too. It was really cool. I did one song and they were so enthusiastic, I did another song. I bet I could have done an entire routine and they would have stayed for it.
It was really cool to have people who were new to Nia . . . who had never even heard of it . . . dance so enthusiastically. And, the most amazing part to me . . . they sounded. They shouted and whooped and hollered. That was really amazing. It is a challenge for so many of us to make noise while we exercise. So many of us were taught to be quiet. You weren’t supposed to grunt or huff-n-puff or even breathe loudly. So not a lot of people are used to making noise. These women jumped right in on it!
As I wrote in my post, One Person Making A Lot Of Noise, it only takes one person to help encourage the others. I think the members that were from the regular Nia classes helped a lot. It was really fun.
I am always happy and grateful when I get to introduce Nia to someone. So this really made me super happy and grateful because I was able to introduce it to a handful of woman. It helps a lot that the members that come to the Nia classes regularly talk about it to other students.
The members are really good and generous in talking about all the classes they like. They share with others all the information about each class and they encourage others to attend. Somewhat like the sounding . . . they make noise and others join in.
I was sitting here wondering what to write about. Needing to go make dinner and I thought of that class and it made me smile. And I thought I would share. While it might not make you smile . . . it will make me smile again, in the future when I read this post. You know most of this is for me anyway.
I’ve talked about Sounding in Nia before. Do you go to an exercise class where you make noise? Perhaps a yoga class where you chant? Perhaps another type of dance class where you hoot and holler?
Last week I was walking to my car from class. I had just taught yoga and Nia, so I was feeling tall and in good posture. I was sensing the spaces that allows for comfortable movement. I looked up at a woman coming towards me and at first I thought it was a woman I knew. The woman walking toward me bore a resemblance to my friend, but as I watched her it occurred to me that the woman I was looking at had completely different body language than the person I thought it could be. The woman I was thinking of walked tall and erect. She exuded confidence. The person walking towards me didn’t do that (stand tall) or give off that impression (confidence). It made me pause. It made me think. It had me saying to myself, “Egads, what does my posture say?”
When I am walking on a campus of one of the places I teach, I try not to use my phone. There are occasions where I have gotten delayed by traffic so I am turning my phone to airplane mode and preparing my music because I am going to be walking in with less time than I would like to have before starting class. But, I think of walking to class as a time where I might have an opportunity to engage a member or student, so normally I am not on my phone. I don’t usually walk bent over/looking down. But I see a lot of people who are.
I AM normally juggling with my stuff, I take in my purse, a canvas briefcase, a water bottle, my phone, my keys, sometimes a jacket, sometimes other papers, sometimes my yoga mat. So I am sure my posture is not very regal looking. And when I think about it, I love the people I see who walk tall and look out at the world.
I often think about my posture while I am sitting at my desk, or watching TV, in a yoga class, or teaching a yoga class, but I don’t usually think of it while I am walking. And I don’t usually think about it as an identifier. As in I saw this stranger’s face from afar and thought it could be my friend, but then her posture and her gait made me realize instantly it was not my friend. Even though I don’t think about it all the time, it is something we do, right? We include body movement in the way we identify people. The way we carry ourselves is part of our identity. Well, duh, huh?
Sigh. I don’t really know where I am going with this. Perhaps I want to be more conscious of my posture. Not just because I believe standing tall and having good posture is good for me, but I guess I would rather have part of my identity be tall, erect, confident, than bent over, slumped, and juggling. Hmmmm.
What do you think? Do you think about your posture at all?
Yoga has been around for thousands of years. There are so many translations of the documents that talk about yoga that there doesn’t seem to be a definitive way to do things. The poses all seem to have different names, and when you hear a name you’ve heard before it can be done entirely different from what you were taught. Pronunciation is all over the board. There just doesn’t seem to be any way to know what you are getting . . . exactly.
I have been taking a few different classes to check things out. And this is what I have come across. There is “Flow Yoga”. That is where the class is done in a flowing manner. The participants move from pose to pose using the breath. There might be poses where we stop and stay in it for a few breaths, but basically we are flowing from pose to pose. Then there is the Vinyasa style. Now Vinyasa is a flowing class. It might not be called “Vinyasa Flow”, but that is usually what it is. With a Vinyasa class participants flow from pose to pose and they are done on the breath. There might be some stopping and holding, then flow to the next pose . . . but there is also “a Vinyasa”. You can look it up and you’ll see vinyasa is defined as “arranging something in a special way.” That can be applied to the class as already mentioned, but it can also be applied to a small sequence of poses.
In a Vinayasa class, in addition to flowing from one pose to the next, you “take a” or you “do a” vinyasa which is a specific set of poses. It is generally the same, but it might be modified for the level of the class, but “a vinyasa” is typically plank pose, to knees-chest-chin or chaturanga dandasana, to cobra pose or upward facing dog pose, to downward facing dog pose. The less intense vinyasa would be the one with the knees-chest-chin and cobra pose, whereas the more intense version would include the chaturanga dandasana and upward facing dog pose. You could also do a combination and do knees-chest-chin with the upward facing dog or the chaturanga dandasana with the cobra pose.
What you also might experience in a class is something that really can’t be defined. At some venues where they do yoga . . . like at an actual yoga studio . . . they might have classes that are separated into levels. So a level one flow class will be different, probably less intense than a level two or three. But at some places every class is expect to be an “all level” class . . . and that is where you will probably experience something that can’t be defined.
In order to allow “all levels” to participate the instructor will modify and change what she can in order to make certain that everyone can participate. This, to me, is where a lot of the changes in yoga has come from. So the need to alter it so it is accessible to the general public in combination with the fact that the translations are so varied has resulted in no definitive way of things being done or described.
So, my conclusion and definitions say: Vinyasa yoga is flow yoga, but flow yoga is not vinyasa flow. In Vinyasa yoga you do vinyasas.
The BEST way to know what you are getting is to talk to the instructor and/or take a class. It helps to see for yourself. You can always tell the teacher that you are taking the class to see if it a fit for you, then do the best you can. If you like the class return to take it again. If you don’t like it, you can always let the instructor know it was not what you were looking for.
When attending a class for the first time it is good to keep in mind that you might get a little different than you expected, but hopefully you will be able to enjoy the class for what it is.
Wow. We are having the best weather here in the South Bay Area. It is June and I have my windows open! Usually it is too hot and we have everything shut up until it cools down. At about 8:30 or 9:00 pm we open the house and try to let it cool down. We keep the windows open for as long as we can hoping that will help keep it cool for the next day’s heat. But we have not been having heat! YAY! So excited. So loving it. The other day when I got up, I was enjoying the hummingbirds around the feeders. There was four to five of them. When I got home from teaching Nia and yoga, I noticed the feeders were empty, so I texted my hubby asking him if he would make food that night. He is the expert hummingbird food maker. That is his job. I made sure they were cleaned out so all he had to do was “cook” and fill the feeders. And, today, I was able to enjoy the fruits of his labor. With the weather being so awesome, I had the doors open so I could hear their chittering. I can also hear the buzz of their wings. So awesome. I love it.
I was watching them fly all around and I was able to take this video. As I often say when I take pictures or videos – and it sounds lame, but hey, that is the way it is – I couldn’t see what I was shooting. The sun was very bright and I was at an odd angle – half in, half out of the house. I was trying not to disturb the birds. I THOUGHT I was capturing two birds on the feeder. I also was fascinated by the crazy one that is off in the distance. See him? He was flying around as if he were drunk. It was so funny. When I looked at the video I was so surprised to see FOUR on the feeder. I mean, that happens, that is why I wanted to be sure to fill the feeders again right away. But I didn’t even see them, when I was recording. That portion of the feeder was out of sight. Basically only my arms were sticking out of the house trying to capture the birds eating.
I could sit there all day and take pictures and make recordings, but . . . I do have other things to do.
I have not been able to get a good picture of an oriole yet. They are very shy and fly away the moment I move towards the door or window. I hope to have all summer long to try to get a good photo.
I love our hummingbirds – oh, except the on that was getting back at me for walking by him. I was outside, there was a bird on the feeder. I didn’t want to wait for him to finish so I squeezed by as close to our yard furniture as I could . . . giving him as wide of a berth as I could. He flew off the feeder. I turned around to and said, “Sorry about that.” And he flew up and then flew straight at me! Bugger!
They are so entertaining.
As a note . . . there is no added coloring to the water, it is that color because of the sugar. You can read about that in my post Another Case Where Less Might Be More.
Do you have hummingbirds? Do you have other birds?
I am just going to put this out there. I have this on my website, but not everyone goes there and someone might see it here and . . . well, why not, right? I could be teaching a class at a time when you want to take a class. You could be somewhat curious about Nia, but maybe haven’t gotten around to clicking on my website to see my schedule. It could be on your list of things to do. Maybe you are looking for a yoga class. I teach Nia three times a week. I teach yoga twice a week. I just started teaching a stretch class but we are taking an eight week hiatus (until August 11, 2016) during the busy summer months because the community center doesn’t have the room for us. They have so many summer programs for kids, it is crazy (good). I am subbing a gentle yoga class for three weeks at Mind Body Zone. And I have one Sunday Nia class rotation at the NW YMCA this month.
Nia is a cardio dance . . . meaning it is an aerobic workout. It is low impact, meaning we don’t jump high and land hard, but it can be INTENSE. You control that part. If you get low and reach high and move a lot you will get a big workout, if you don’t get down and keep your movements small then you will get a smaller workout. You get to decide what type of workout you want when you attend class. The music is varied from a little bit of Pop, with some Jazz, all the way to Rock. It is a place you can go to get some “me” time and have fun.
Since there really is no standard definition of gentle yoga you might not know what you are getting when you go to a yoga class. So you might want to know that I make yoga gentle by not holding the poses for a long time or flowing through poses. We do a pose at least two times so that we can tryout the modifications. If you know a pose we are doing and you want to get right into it right away, that is fine. We general do a few poses either standing or on the floor then we switch. It is an important thing to be able to get down on the floor and get up again. So we make that part of the routine. “Gentle yoga” does not mean beginner, it means that we do yoga gently.
In stretch we just work our way down the body. We stretch from head to toe. We hold the stretch from 20 to 30/40 seconds. We do standing, sitting, supine/reclined (on the back), and even some prone (on the belly) poses. Sometimes we use straps. Everyone is encouraged to stretch honoring their own body.
Recently I attended a yoga class just to observe. Sometimes just observing is difficult because the desire to get up and participate is often there. But I thought this class was beyond my level of doing. I like slow mindful classes. I am not a fan of the speed of a flow class. I also know this teacher to be a bit of a tough cookie. And I have come to the studio AFTER this class – in the past – and the participants are just dripping and wobbly legged, so I had never thought to participate before. So . . . I thought that observing would be a piece of cake. There would be no desire to jump to participate. Now, let me explain this “observing,” it is for me to become a better teacher. I am not there to judge or criticize the students nor the teacher. But I am there to gain knowledge. Observe how one sequences a class. To observe how assistance is given. To observe the yoga teacher’s pacing and volume. To learn by observing. I have three separate papers for three separate types of notes. I have POSES, for poses I want to either do myself or bring to my classes. I have Cues and Things I want to bring to my classes. And I have just notes that I will refer back to. While I was doing my best to listen and look without staring at the participants I got a little misty eyed. My breath caught in my throat and I thought, “Damn! Bodies are beautiful!”
You probably know I have a tendency to ramble on and on when all I really wanted to tell you is – if you want to learn yoga stop staring at the Yoga Journal, stop looking at models on websites – GO TO A CLASS TO OBSERVE!!!!! Look at REAL people DOING yoga. Look at REAL bodies doing yoga. Just watch, just observe, don’t judge. We do this in Nia all the time, we call it witnessing. We “witness” without judgment. So just go to a class and witness. Appreciate what you see. Notice the strength. Notice the weakness. Notice the flexibility. Notice the stiffness. Notice the intention. Notice the determination. Notice the frustration. Notice the effort. Notice the triumphs. Notice the concentration. Notice the distraction. Notice the trying. Notice it all!
I was struck by it all when I looked up and saw someone in a pose perfectly. I thought, “Dang. I will glance back over throughout the class because that is awesome and I want to see more of that.” Then I looked back a few poses later and I thought the person had moved spots because what I saw was misery. The person could barely get into the pose. And the next person was Yoga Journal perfect whereas they couldn’t do the previous pose. A few of the people I noticed in pose “perfection” in one pose were in the total opposite of perfection in other poses. The class was full of perfect poses and not perfect poses . . . all at different times by the same and by different people. And I wanted to jump up and join in!
This was not a beginner class, it was a class of real people doing yoga in real bodies. Some bodies whose arms are not long enough to hold the foot when the leg is extended. Some bodies whose hamstrings are too tight or too short to do a straight legged fold. Some bodies whose bones or bodies get in the way. Bodies that come to class and do real yoga.
The models in the magazine and on the websites more-than-likely were chosen to do that particular pose because they can. Their limbs are just the right length to do the poses. Could also be that the model only did that one pose or was put into that pose whereas in a yoga class there is a sequence and it could be that by the time you get half way through your muscles are tired and so the poses might not be picture perfect. Yoga is a practice not a photo.
I know I have said that if you are trying an exercise class go at least three times before you decide you don’t like it. Have you seen me say that before? I think that in order for you to decide you honestly don’t like it you need to try it at least three times. I think there are enough factors in a group exercise class that you have to experience it more than once to make an educated decision. I also think that sometimes what you want is not what you need, so you might want to step out into the unknown.
As I said there are many reasons not to like a class, if you think it is the instructor, don’t condemn the whole modality. If you go to a Jazzercise class and the instructor runs around the room shouting encouragement at individuals and that is not your style, try a different teacher. If the Zumba teacher only plays one type of music instead of sticking to the Zumba formula, try a different teacher . . . but it doesn’t seem fair to you nor Zumba if you claim you don’t like Zumba. If you can, it is really nice to give that instructor another chance, but time is short and so sometimes that might not be the answer. Every teacher has her own style and it might not be one you like, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t like the exercise.
Also keep in mind that you are only seeing one routine, and those change. If you go to a Nia class and think you don’t like it, try it again because the routines can be vastly different. It is good to check out the different routines. Also, find an appropriate class for your level. If you take a circuit training class and it is too difficult try a different one or talk to the teacher.
When it comes to yoga, though, I would like to suggest a way to find the appropriate yoga class for you. Try the opposite of what you WANT. If you want to lie around on cushions in poses for 5 minutes at a time, try a more active class. If you want a super aggressive active fast-paced class try a restorative class (lying around on cushions). If you want gentle yoga try a class that you think might be tough. You might walk out of class thinking, “Wow! That was great. I never would have thought.”
It could be that while you are in the class you are thinking that you wish the torture would end. And by torture I mean, if you are a very active person and you want to be in a power yoga class and you take a restorative class and are having to lie still for ten minutes . . . that can be torture. If you just wanted to lie around on props and you are having to hold your left leg up for 45 seconds while twisting to the right and grabbing your right foot that might be torture. But with the right teacher you will be able to do the yoga that is being taught in the class and you will walk out saying, “That is exactly what I needed.”
There are so many different types of yoga and yoga is only regulated when it is trade-marked and there are licenses to teach otherwise yoga class definitions vary. Classes with the same names can vary greatly.
I am not saying to go to a class that is way beyond your level, but I am suggesting to try something you may not have normally thought of doing. As I said, you might end up getting what you really need when you don’t go after what you want.
What type of yoga do you normally do? What classes have your tried?
When I get home at noon on Wednesday it seems like the day goes by really quick. I am working on my Nia routine for class the next day. I am working on the stretch routine for class the next day. I might have to put together something for yoga for the class the next day. Plus I have a blog post I would like to write. So I just don’t have a lot of time to think about dinner. Well, tonight was one of those nights. I hadn’t even really thought about a blog post during the day. And I was making up dinner as I was cooking it. I really didn’t know what I was doing. Cooking the steak we have is always an adventure. I hadn’t really thought about a blog post as I was flying by the seat of my pants as I cooked dinner. At the last minute I thought well this might work and I snapped a couple of pictures. I didn’t really know how I was going to cook the meat or gnocchi. I had taken out two packages of meat. I thought each one was a steak, but it turned out each one was two cuts of meat. Yay. Now, we have dinner for tomorrow, well at least the meat part. I always try to have some gnocchi in the freezer, I thought it would go well with the steak. But I wanted it different – normally I just boil it. I thought after I boiled it I could pan fry it, to give it that crispy brown. My friend taught me that.
I have a friend who used to make . . . now I don’t even remember what type of gnocchi was . . . I think it was butternut squash gnocchi. Perhaps it was sweet potato. I didn’t even like gnocchi until she gave it to me. She apologize when she gave it to me because “it didn’t turn out right” and she recommended pan frying it. I thought, “Ok, whatever.” It wasn’t potato gnocchi so I thought it must be better cooked differently. Turns out ALL gnocchi is better cooked that way. But her gnocchi was THE BEST. It was sooooooo yummy.
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