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!

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Posts Tagged ‘yoga students’

« Previous Entries

Yoga Quotes

Posted by terrepruitt on April 5, 2021

So recently I participated in a discussion on Facebook that had me thinking of a few of my favorite yoga quotes.  I thought I would share them here.

The last one really is my favorite.

“Yoga is not for the flexible. It’s for the willing.” -I don’t know

“Yoga is not about touching your toes. It is what you learn on the way down.” – Jigar Gor

“We don’t use the body to get into a pose, we use the pose to get into the body.”-I don’t know

People often ask me what they can do to “get into” a specific pose and the best way to learn how to do a specific pose is to DO the specific pose to the best of your ability.  It is a practice.


Do you have any favorite yoga quotes?  Do you have any favorite quotes about one of your hobbies or practices?  Please share. 

Posted in Yoga/PiYo/Pilates | Tagged: , , , , | 6 Comments »

Daily Log For Movement Or Whatever . . . .

Posted by terrepruitt on January 6, 2021

There are so many fabulous things about taking trainings online. When I took the FIRST EVERY Nia Belt Training Online there were people from all over the world participating. As part of the training live virtual Nia classes are included. It was super fun to dance with people all over the world. I am teaching classes virtually myself so unfortunately I was not able to attend a lot of the classes because my classes are on the optimal days at the optimal time – and so are a lot of others. So when there was a class offered I was usually teaching. BUT, I did take a class with one Nia teacher in New Zealand. She is hilarious.  She just sent out a Daily Log which is perfect. I have been wanting to do something with MY students that is easy and fun and she found it.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia online, San Jose Virtual classes, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, Nia Technique, Yin Yoga, stretch classes, online exercise, Zoom classes, virtual yoga, City of San Jose online exercise, live classes via ZoomSince she sees her students in person she is able to give them a printout if they want. I am having to have you print your own, so I Googled it and found a few versions online (Popsugar posted about it in 2020). This one is slightly different than the one Stephanie sent out. The font is different and the background is white so as not to have to print a colored background. But the idea is the same and I LOVE IT!

What a super easy way to keep track of ANYTHING! Just color in the number and then at the end of the month you will have a colorful word and at the end of the year you will have a color paper!

I am inviting my students to use it as a movement log. So whenever they get some exercise in their day they color in the date. There are so many ways it can be done . . .

If you want to set some guidelines it could be that you color in a date when you have done at least 30 minutes of exercise/movement. If you do a variety of movement forms you can use a different color for each activity. I am going to use a separate color for yoga, Nia, and stretch. I will have an “other” color and a color for none, but for the “none” I am going to use the color and line through the day. I will probably change colors during the year so I can end up with a colorful paper.

You can find a blank one to download (JPEG) for printing for your use on my site by clicking here. The numbers might not print very clear, but it it easy enough to figure out. I can’t read the tiny URL on the page to know where this came from but – thank you, Creator-Of-This-Cool-Tool!

Remember it is ok to have days where you may not have gotten in any documentable movement (it happens) so if you want a colorful page go ahead and pick a color for the time when you are giving yourself a rest.

And like I said this is good for more than just keeping track of days with movement, it could be for days you meditate or days you talk to friends or loved ones, it could even be for keeping track of daily medication or days you eat veggies . . .the possibilities are endless. It is an easy way to keep track of things.

Thank you to Stephanie for sharing. I am so excited. I hope you will join me on this coloring journey. With my students we will have a monthly show and tell . . . seeing each others’ coloring progress. You can always join in on that too!  I can’t wait to see how it looks at the end of the year!

Don’t you think this is a cool way to track completion of daily movement or log completion of a daily task? 

Posted in Exercise and Working Out | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Online Changes

Posted by terrepruitt on May 25, 2020

Teaching online is different than teaching in person. As you can imagine. If you have taken an exercise class online, especially from your same teacher, you have probably noticed some differences. I thought I would just share some of the things I am doing different.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia online, Zoom meetings, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, Nia Technique, Yin Yoga, stretch classes-I am facing my students. When teaching Nia I like to face away from my students because one of the thirteen principles I was taught when I attended my White Belt training about 12 years ago was “Teach what you sense.” So it is easier for me to teach to my left arm (as an example) when I am actually USING my left arm. Now when I instruct students to use their left arm I am using my right.  So I am not using sensation to teach as much. When I had taught yoga in person I often faced my students, but pretty much always faced away when doing twists. It seems twists really twist people’s brains.

-I am moving “smaller”. For Nia, the space I am using is large enough to move around fully, but if I use the whole space it can take me off camera. So I try to stick to what the camera can see.  Staying in camera might have me focused on that at times.  Sometimes I might go out of view a bit, but hopefully that is on a repeated time of a move and students know by then what the choreography is – and this is in regards to Nia.  With yoga I make sure students can see head and feet and I am not moving enough to move out of frame.

-I am quieter. I used to be loud and make all kinds of sounds, while dancing, but since I am in a house where someone is working, I don’t make as much noise. I do hope my students do. I sometimes felt they didn’t make noise because they didn’t want to be the only one, but now that they are home, I am hoping they are taking advantage of the benefits sounding provides. I do make sounds, but not as loud.

-I point more. It is kinda like in Zumba where I point or make a hand signal because I am not sure they can hear me (and again I don’t want to shout all the time).  I talk less

-I “check in” differently. In-person I would ask how people are doing and encourage them to answer. That allowed me to know how they were doing and (instructor “trick”) forced people to breathe. Now I try to be very conscious of the pose/stretch because I don’t always want them moving their head or arm to give me a thumbs up. And we mute people because we are all doing this in our homes where there is other stuff going on. I have to restrict my “check-in” to in between poses/stretches.  So I am not getting to use the “trick ’em into breathing” instructor thing.

-We start standing then go to the earth. In stretch and yoga we used to start one way and then switch off. We would move up and down (or down and up) to enable us to retain that ability. But with the devices it is easier to start up and then when it is time to get down – stop and adjust the device, then get down. If I start yoga in corpse pose then I don’t instruct on any poses that I may need to see so we just leave the camera “up” and then when we get up it is set fine, then we do our standing poses then adjust and get down.

*****Update 05.26.20*****

I forgot one of the most important ones, I kind of said it when I said I point more, but that is for Nia.

-I don’t always demo the pose or DO the pose/stretch.  When I have my face on the floor or in my lap, no one can hear me.  When I am talking and my voice is too muffled for people to hear they look up to see what I am doing and they are not doing the pose.  So I don’t always do the pose/stretch.  I didn’t always put my face down when teaching in-person classes either, but online there are a few more poses/stretches I don’t do just so I can instruct.  And, honestly, sometimes I forget.  This morning while I was talking to my lap I realized I needed to be up and not folded over – AND, I realized I didn’t include this change in the post.

**********

I am very grateful to my students who have joined the Zoom classes. They have helped me keep teaching and I love that.  I hope to continue teaching online so I imagine these changes will change and adjust over time.

What have you noticed is different on your Zoom/online classes?  What changes have you seen in the way your instructor teaches?

Posted in Online Classes, Zoom | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

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?

Posted in Misc | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

A Clowder Of Cats

Posted by terrepruitt on January 12, 2018

My family, students, and friends know me so well. I received such cute cat things and wonderful yoga related things this past Christmas season. Look at these super cute mugs. Such a bright addition to the kitchen. Now, if I could just get the Christmas stuff put away!

Here’s this week’s Friday Photo.

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: , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

I Asked For Help To Help

Posted by terrepruitt on August 16, 2017

I am shipping out the first batch of coupons this week! You may have seen my post I’m Clipping Coupons, Want To Join Me? about how the military personnel and their families can use expired coupons overseas. There is a program called Troupons which involves collecting and sending MANUFACTURERS COUPONS overseas so that people in the military and their families can use them to help stretch their dollars. I learned about it when I came across Cheryl Wright’s post Overseas Military Coupon Program. She has kindly offered to accept coupons then forward them on to the Troupons program. Because, if you don’t know, cutting out coupons takes a long time. First you have to make sure they are the correct coupons (MANUFACTURERS COUPONS) then you have to cut them out. Then separate them into the correct categories, then separate them into expiration date piles. Originally when I posted my post saying I was going to send her coupons, I didn’t have that many. I don’t get many coupons.  I don’t get the newspaper and that is where the bulk of MANUFACTURERS COUPONS come from. But I realized that there are a few Nia and yoga students that actually get a newspaper and they would have access to coupons. So I asked my students for help collecting coupons to help people in the military overseas.

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, SJCityFitMy students came through.  They are helping by cutting out coupons. They have brought me enough that I can sent a batch off to Cheryl. I have separated them into three categories: Non-food, food, and pets. I am going to leave the expiration date sorting to her because she will have a better idea of when the coupons will get to the program. At this time most of the coupons are NOT expired, but by the time they get overseas they will be, but hopefully they will be in the acceptable time frame.

I am so grateful for my students contributions. I really wouldn’t have had enough to send to feel like I was contributing, but with their help I think we are making a worthwhile contribution.

The non-food coupons make up the bulk of the coupons. I am sure that there are plenty of uses for many of them. There are coupons for hair dye, shavers, allergy medicine, probiotics (in many forms), heart burn medicine, and more.

I am just fascinated by this whole program. I love that coupons can help the military overseas. I think that is amazing. I appreciate the people that work to make this happen. So thank you to my students. Thanks for taking the time to cut out the coupons and bring them to class. Thanks to Cheryl for volunteering to get the coupons to the program. And thanks to the program organizers for doing it all.

I think that cutting out coupons and sending them in is an easy way to help out those that are making sacrifices for us.  If you are interested in learning more about the Troupons program click here. If you are interested in sending your coupons to Cheryl click here.

Posted in Misc | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 4 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 »

Guidance – Not A Personal Attack

Posted by terrepruitt on June 21, 2017

In the two Nia Intensives I have attended, one of the things we cover first is the Energy Allies or more commonly known as the Four Agreements. As I attend many classes and teach many classes I am reminded over and over again how important these ideals are.  In this post I am talking mainly in reference to #3 (Don’t take anything personally). What must happen is there needs to be an unspoken agreement that students and teachers have when they enter a class, the student agrees to not take things personally — a correction or attention given by the teacher is not personal, the student is there to learn and improve so guidance is given as needed and as time (in class and holding the pose) allows.  Perhaps  it would be a good idea to remind everyone at the beginning of a session of classes or a workshop.  A yoga instructor has to have confidence and faith that the students know they are not being picked on or singled out for any type of personal reason. The teacher is there to help them do the poses to the best of their ability. If the student feels picked on then they will not be open to adjustment and guidance. So while it is “personal” in the sense that it is to help you personally, it is not an attack on your person.

There are so many things going on in people’s lives and I understand that a student can walk in and be in a tender state, but if they are there to learn the instructor cannot be concerned with the question of “will adjusting their form hurt their feelings?”  And believe it or not, there is also the other side of the coin. Where some students feel if the instructor doesn’t correct them or give them attention the teacher is slighting them. See how this type of “taking things personal” can just completely affect the effectiveness in class?

If a person is new to yoga and has never been in a class, unless they are at risk for injury, I might not say anything. Yoga is so much about sensing your body, that I believe it is important to let the person get a sense of things. If I say to move the left foot forward about a foot and have the toes point forward, I probably won’t correct a new student right away if they move up a few inches and the toes point off to the side. I want to give them a chance to learn how their body responds. But, if we do that same move multiple times in the class, I might see if they can nudge their foot forward and turn their toes. But I try not to adjust them much in a first class situation. It just seems more appropriate to let them learn some before starting to adjust.

It is very helpful when the instructor knows the students. If a student has been coming to class for a while often times the instructor will learn what that person is capable of. And it could be that someone walks into one of my classes and sees things that they would “correct” if they were a teacher. But perhaps they don’t know that the person whose toes don’t turn out all the way just had leg surgery. Or the person barely bending over has back issues. Or it could be that a student has been adjusted before, but it is just more comfortable for them to do it they way they are doing it. There are so many reasons why an adjustment may not be done.

I just wanted to remind people that teachers do not “pick on” students. We see potential and we are there to help a student reach it. Try not to take it personal either way (if a teacher adjusts you or not).  Hopefully you are able to learn as you go and enjoy what you are getting.

Do you like it when a teacher adjusts you (either verbally or physically)?

Posted in Yoga/PiYo/Pilates | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Last Few Days Of The Goodie Jar

Posted by terrepruitt on December 28, 2016

So we are in the last few days of the year.  2016.  I am seeing so many posts on Facebook about what a terrible year this has been and the majority of those posts have been associated with the fact that a celebrity has died.  Yes, I, too, feel sorrow when someone has died even when it is someone as distant from me as a celebrity.  I certainly feel loss and sorrow when someone close to me, like my father, has died.  It was so unexpected I am still, as times, unbelieving of the fact.  But I don’t condemn the whole year.  There has been a lot of things that have happened in 2016 that have been sad or could be considered “bad”.  But there are a lot of things that have transpired or a lot of things that I experienced that were good things.  Things I wrote down so that the big sad/bad things are not allowed to take over.  So, I am not ending the year saying 2016 was a bad year and I am glad to see it go.

When “bad” things happen, I don’t condemn the whole time in which they happened.  I wrote about something like that in my post I Had One Of THOSE Days.  I don’t think the day is bad when things go “wrong”.  I don’t think the whole year is bad because many of the celebrities from my childhood have died.  I don’t think 2016 is a bad year because my dad died.  It is just a year.  Things happened.  Good things.  Bad things.  Whatever the label.  The things that happened are just moments in time.  There are so many things that transpire.

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, SJCityFitWe are still doing our Goodie Jar or Good Things Jar.  This is our fourth year.  We have been writing down the things that make us smile or we have saved a ticket to a show or game, then we put it in a jar.  Right now it is not actually a jar but a Christmas dish.  We have a few more days left to add things to it.  Traditionally, we have read it on New Year’s Eve, but this year we might actually do it on New Year’s Day – depending upon the timing of things, we will have to see.  But the same principle applies.  We are going to read through the notes, printouts, tickets stubs, whatever we used to remind us of all the good things that happened throughout the year.  To be reminded of all the things that made us smile.  Then we will be smiling again.  So it is like a double smile.  All of these things are what makes life good.  All of these things, all of these smiles are what makes us able – make us strong enough – to deal with the “bad” things.

That doesn’t mean we can’t cry or lie around and mope for a few days . . . but it does mean that we can’t ignore or belittle all of the great things that happen in our lives.  This just helps keep us anchored and steady.  The Good Thing Jar is needed sometimes.

In the past our jar has been filled with notes about my Nia students, my yoga students, our cats, our niece, our jobs, our friends, the weather, our house, our food, all the things we are blessed with, all the things that make us smile.  Oh!  I can’t wait.

So what about you?  Do you have any good things that you can reflect upon that happened in 2016?

Posted in Good Things in the Goodie Jar, Misc | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Where You Sit

Posted by terrepruitt on October 17, 2016

I always thought it was sitz boneS, but Wiki says it is sitz boneZ.  I will probably continue to call them sitz bones.  Or get really fancy and call them by the correct name: ischial tuberosity.  I thought I should post a picture of them since I am often instructing students to sit on their sitz bones.  I wanted to make sure that people knew where they were and what they were.  It is easier to consciously sit on something or affect something when you are aware of what it is and where it is.  While this (see below) is not the best rendering of the bones in the hip area I think you can get the idea.

Typically the front upper part of the hip bone structure is thought of and called the hip bones.  But actually the entire bone is the hip bone.  The hip bones are part of the pelvic girdle.  The front portion somewhat at the top, the area we often refer to as the “hip bone,” is the Iliac Crest which is on the edge of the Ilium.  The bottom portion is the ischial tuberosity or sitz bonez.  The sacrum and the coccyx are part of the vertebral column and not considered part of the pelvic girdle.  There are names for other portions and areas of the bones, but since this post is about the sitz bones, I’m not going to list and label them all.

We are all built differently so some of us will have more flesh to get through to actually feel the sitz bones.  And some of us will feel them rather easily.  Either way . . . . we all have them.  We sit on our sitting bones or sitz bones.  My drawing does not clearly show the acetabulum, the place where the head of the femur (thigh bone) fits.  It is about where the words “Tail Bone/Coccyx” is.  You might be able to imagine when the thigh bone is moved to a sitting position, the sitz bones protrude a bit.

In yoga often times the correct way to do the pose is to have both sitz bones on the floor.  In stretching having both stiz bones on the floor is sometimes the way to get the most out of the stretch.  At times the way to do the yoga pose it to be sitting directly “on top” of them.  Other times they might be used as reference points or points of focus.  When in downward facing dog the instruction might be given to reach your sitz bones away to help lengthen the spine and take the weight off of the hands.  For one stretch, one might instruct to pull your foot directly back to your sitz bones.

In Nia we occasionally use the sitz bones and the floor to give our glutes a massage.  Gently moving around on them, perhaps rocking and/or rolling, while sitting on the floor can be a great way to ease the muscles we just danced during the class.

Sitz bones are used a lot and referred to often in yoga, stretch, and Nia, so I thought I should highlight them.

Are you familiar with your sitz bones?

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 Misc | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

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