SpyralBound
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No Hate Intended Ladies. Contort All You Like. i PersonallY Am More Disposed To Strength I Guess. (Damn What Is With My Phone And Caps?) I’m Impressed By Really Flexible People OfCourse But I Dont Always Think It Makes A Move Any Prettier.
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Vertical Art & Fitness magazine posted a photo on their Facebook today that made me want to come back to this discussion.
The photo was of a girl dancewear on the subway doing a crazy oversplit across the aisle with one foot on each bench, and all I could think was "Ew." Oversplits me no likey.
(And I feel bad saying that because I know there are a lot of Veeners working hard for splits/oversplits.)
I think I'm just a little grossed out by contortion moves/poses in general. Seeing limbs and joints going in directions they're not supposed to gives me the willies.
Sorry oversplitters!
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I feel huge pretty much every time I set foot in a pole class. Not height-wise (I'm only 5'5") but just in overall body shape and composition. So many of my pole classmates and friends have a long-and-lean physique, where I'm a little teapot, short and stout. 🙂
Find some clothes to practice in that flatter your figure. I know for me, if I'm poling in just a sports bra and shorts as usual, there are a few sports bras I have that make my already-big boobs look bigger, and some shorts I have that come up too high on my waist, creating unflattering muffin-tops and exacerbating my short torso. I never thought I'd actually PREFER myself in tiny bikini bottoms than something that covers more skin – but really, when I switched to smaller bottoms, I was way more happy with how I looked on camera.
And remember, if you're like most women, you're your own worst critic. I can't watch my own videos without pangs of UGH GROSS! when I see the way my belly fat folds over during floorwork or the way my breasts seem to be trying to eat my face when I'm upside down.
But I still post them here, because the ONLY person who has EVER made a disparaging remark about my appearance on this site is ME. I'm serious. If I'm the only one saying "UGH GROSS!" and everyone else is saying "OMG great job, you're improving so much, I loved your backbend" etc. it becomes that much easier to stop listening to my own negative commentary. Ask yourself this – when you watch other people's videos on here, how much attention do you pay to their bodies, and how much to their actual pole dancing? It's not a beauty competition around here – and I'm glad, because we have too many beauties in our midst to ever be able to declare a winner. 🙂
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I've actually come up with a few more since my first post and I figure it's not against the rules to add to my list!
Much like Ani above me, I'm psyched about the muscle definition in my upper back and shoulders.
I have really nice calves and should wear heels and show them off more often.
I love my tattoos!
And finally, I have a cute nose. :^)
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D, I've seen that one called Warrior 4 or Pose of the Dancer. It's a fun one and a great pre-pole stretch!
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It's a shame you can't Skype, Dwiizie, I'd love to do some one-on-one yoga with you. 🙂 Triangle does take practice, most students start out holding on to their ankles rather than hand on the floor. If you're struggling with Triangle, keep your gaze down to the floor or straight out in front of you at first instead of twisting all the way around and looking up at your hand. And keep a tiny bit of a bend in your knees.
I am dumbfounded by people who enjoy Zumba. Happy for them, of course, it's great they found something they love, but I just don't get it. I have come to the conclusion that I am just not a high-energy person. I get sweaty just watching commercials for P-90X, haha. I tried Zumba on and off soooo many times, and I really did try to have fun, but it just didn't click with me. Always seemed kinda cheesy and corny somehow, like those super-chipper happy cheerleader types that always leave me wondering, are you really that upbeat, or is it just an act?
Sun salutation is one of the most basic yoga flows. Learning that sequence will help you a lot in taking yoga classes. There are actually two variations of the sequence, which I usually see referred to as A and B or Salutations I and II. (The difference is mostly in which Warrior poses they lead you through, and B/II includes Chair Pose) They're a great foundation for any beginning yogi/yogini.
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Yes, I like surya namaskar for sure, and there's one for the moon too that I can't remember but I like it as well. I got a Shiva Rhea DVD recently that has "Agni (an-yee) Namaskar" which is Fire Salutations. It is exactly as tough as it sounds!
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Ninja that's a good point. One of my favorite poses is "Supta baddha konasana" which literally translates to Reclined Bound Angle Pose but I have heard it called Reclined Butterfly, Goddess Pose, and the most common is Cobbler's Pose. (But seriously, I could stay in that pose all day.)
Like I said, I like the Sanskrit names, they're fun to say and I know exactly what they mean (at least, the ones I've memorized). But I get a little irritated when a teacher uses nothing but the Sanskrit names because it does strike me as show-offy. Maybe because I feel like *I* am showing off when I use Sanskrit? LOL. My favorite teachers are those who say both names – that's how I learned them in the first place! I can see the benefit in having the universal Sanskrit names in addition to the English names – like "inside leg hang" vs. "Scorpio."
(My studio doesn't use the Gemini/Scorpio names and I'm constantly catching myself saying "Oh yeah you can get into that from a Gem…outside leg hang.")
Maybe we should get pole move names translated into Sanskrit? LOL!
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So theres a Yoga Nidra (what is that?) Yin and Yang (Again…?) Tai Chi (I actually know what that is, but its not Yoga is it?) Hatha Yoga. Yoga for the People which is the free class that’s hard for me to follow. Mixed level Vinyasa. Feel Good Friday Night Flow. Gentle Yoga for Everyone (Would that be good for me?) Acro 101 which is the one I want to go to with Adam. Workshop, finding balance. That’s this month’s schedule….
Not sure about Nidra, you'd have to ask the instructor. Yin yoga is restorative, gentle, "feminine" yoga – you hold the poses a long time and you don't push yourself too hard. Yang is the opposite, active, strong, "masculine" yoga, where you do push and work harder. A Yin & Yang class probably has a good mix of both (sounds like a class I'd enjoy, actually!) But out of all those listed, I suggest Hatha Yoga, that's pretty basic and will get you acquainted with all the poses so you can start memorizing them and maybe be able to follow along easier with a Vinyasa style class. Vinyasa is intense for the beginner, but a lot of fun when you know what you're doing. Gentle Yoga for Everyone would probably be another good choice.
The other Yoga studio I know of (that’s not Hot Yoga) has level 1 which is all levels, level 2 mixed and level 3 expansion. You buy a weeks session, 13 weeks, enrollment for spring ended the last day of March. They have “get moving” Core Flow, On the Go Flow, Vinyasa Flow, Yogaworks Flow. “Slow down” Deep release, gentle, restoratives and pranayama. “integrate and harmonize” hatha iyengar “specialties” laughayoga sustainable vinyasa. I can’t tell one thing from another.
Out of these, go for Hatha Iyengar – Iyengar is a very adaptable style of yoga, developed to help people who physically couldn't do the more intense Ashtanga style. Lots of modifications, variations, and use of props to help you. Anything with "Flow" in the title, think of it like cardio + yoga, there's going to be a lot of moving between poses and probably not a lot of instruction. Pranayama = breathing meditation, probably a very un-intense class. Some people find this kind of yoga boring (but hey, I find Zumba excruciating, so whatevs).
Laughter yoga, I'm surprised to see that on there! That's a pretty obscure practice. And, to me, kinda weird. From what I've seen, it's a bunch of people gathered together to just laugh and laugh, at nothing in particular, to get all the feel-good effects of laughter. Personally I don't think I could take that kind of yoga seriously (and yes I see the irony in saying so). I'd be laughing AT it, not WITH it.
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There's a difference between instructional yoga classes and guided yoga classes – and sadly, they're often not even labeled that way, but you'll definitely get a sense for what kind of class you're in once you're there.
One thing you have to realize about an all-levels class is that, guess what, all levels will be there, so hell yeah there will be people who are WAY farther along in their yoga journey than you are. Just like in pole – you must resist the urge to compare yourself to them. What happens in yoga is between you and your mat, not you and your peers. I do feel for you, though. There are some girls in my Intermediate pole class who are way more advanced than I am and sometimes I'm like "What are you even doing here? What am *I* even doing here?"
I would suggest getting there early and talking to the teacher before the class, saying that you're pretty new to yoga and haven't taken many classes yet, and don't have all the poses memorized. They will then know to give you additional instruction instead of just naming off the poses. And they may even say that this is not the class for you. And you probably don't want a teacher who only names the poses in Sanskrit, either. (I've always found that to be just a touch show-offy.) I've learned many of the Sanskrit names for poses but still like it when the teacher says "Triangle Pose" instead of "Trikonasana."
And yeah, if you can find some classes that are specifically Beginner or Fundamentals, go for those first over an all-levels class if being around the more advanced practitioners makes you nervous.
That scared run-away feeling you describe is what happened when I took my first Bikram yoga class. Bikram is a VERY intense style of Ashtanga yoga, done in a 100-degree-plus room. It's almost more like military drills than a "class" by the general definition. And OMG, worst yoga experience of my life. I spent most of the class in Child's Pose because I was literally and physically panicking. I couldn't deal with the heat (I was just getting over a head cold, probably not the best time to try Bikram) or the intensity or my own sweat making it impossible to do pretty much anything. It's a 90 minute class and I wanted to run away after the first 15 minutes. I don't think you could pay me to go to another Bikram class at this point. And that's OK! You don't have to love every style of yoga.
And I wouldn't expect you to "feel the energy" the first time in every class, you have to feel comfortable in the class before that will come through for you, and that takes some practice and acclimation. As for your foot sticking to the mat and preventing you from flowing – It's totally fine to make mini adjustments as you go, to reposition your foot before you sink into the lunge – even OK to fall over in tree pose! No one expects you to get it right every time or to perfectly and effortlessly flow from move to move, you're not getting dinged any points for having to fix yourself.
I actually have the opposite problem of slipping off my mat and I have started using Tite Grip on my hands and feet to help with that. I'm starting up a Hot Yoga series in May – not Bikram, just vinyasa style in a heated room – and think I will be using Tite Grip a lot just to keep me on my mat. 🙂
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I totally agree, Ninja. The right teacher can make all the difference. The studio I practice at is called yogahOMe and, corny as it sounds, going there does feel like going to a home, a safe, welcoming, comforting place. I never felt that way about the yoga classes I've taken at regular gyms before, those were far more about physical fitness. The teachers spent a lot of time talking about the muscles we were working rather than the poses, the breath, or mindfulness of any kind. There was a difference in language – "Contract your abs" vs. "Hollow your belly" (as Rodney Yee says on one of the DVDs I have from him). I'm glad you've found a practice and a teacher that you like!
One thing that fascinates me is that the difference between when I do a handstand/headstand/elbowstand for POLE, and when I do one for YOGA. Same move, but I experience it totally differently based on the context.
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Directing your flow of energy = directing your attention. My instructors often tell us to "breathe into" a certain part of our bodies. So for instance, if we're doing a standing side bend (stand up straight, arms above head, clasp hands, and lean to one side), we're told to breathe into the side that is being lengthened in the stretch. Of course physically, the only place you can breathe into is your lungs! But if you direct your mind to certain parts of your body while simultaneously focusing on your breath, you get a more intimate sensation of what's happening in that part of your body. You don't just feel the pull of the stretch, but the expanding of your ribcage, the way all the muscles are reacting to each other and the way they start to relax and settle into the pose the longer you hold it.
Think about splits training. It HURTS LIKE HELL for the inflexible. How do you ease the pain? Breathe into it. Direct your attention to all those muscles and tendons around your groin, or in your hamstrings, and "persuade" them to give in a little, relax a little, calm down. In yoga, my teachers tell us not to run away from the pain, but to confront it with calmness, patience, and gratitude.
With vinyasa yoga – that's flowing yoga, where you don't hold the poses and stretch so much as weave them together into movement synchronized with your breath – you do sort of feel the "energy" shifting between different parts of your body as you flow through the poses. In down dog and most forward bends, the energy is in the backs of your legs, your glutes, and your sacrum (tailbone area). Then you flow through Plank and Low Pushup into Cobra, and the energy is in your chest pushing forward between your shoulders, your neck reaching up, your lower back crunching. With practice you can become aware of all of these sensations at once – THAT's the energy right there. Hard to explain in words, I hope that gives the gist.
Chakra yoga is not something I know a lot about, though. A couple of my teachers have touched on it but not in depth.
My massage therapist practices reiki. I'd consider myself a reiki agnostic – I don't quite buy into it, but I'm open to it in theory. Reiki is a lot about gentle touch. I think it has the effects it does not because my massage therapist is actually manipulating my energy, but that most of us are touch-deprived in some way (think about how much of your day is spent in direct physical contact with another person) and the body does respond to that physical stimulus. When she runs her hands across my body, it does almost feel like my skin is leaping up to meet her. That's the best way I can describe it – like I crave the contact with her hands. (Gosh, it's hard to talk about this stuff without sounding like a whackjob or a pervert!) She also does this thing where she places the palms of her hands flat against the bottom of my feet. I believe that in Reiki terms, this action is supposed to be drawing the energy down the channels of my body and out through my feet and, yeah, to my immense surprise as a Reiki skeptic, I did feel something – sort of a warm, tingly, sparkly feeling right in the middle of each foot.
One of my regular yoga teachers also practices Reiki and includes it in some of her classes. At the end of a very long class on Black Friday last year, I was lying on the mat in savasana (corpse pose) and she kneeled behind me and placed the heels of her hands over my eyes, her fingers on my cheeks, and held them there for several minutes. The longer she stayed there, the deeper I sank into the relaxation of savasana. Was it because of her action, or something else? I don't really know for sure. But it was nice, and I thanked her for the personal attention.
Anyway, like with most things, you do sort of have to "believe" in the woo-woo aspects of yoga and reiki to really get much out of it – but that doesn't mean they don't benefit you even if you don't believe. Even my favorite instructor sometimes says things in class that make me roll my eyes. But, you take what you can use and what makes sense to you, and discard the rest. Even in a group class setting, it's a very individual practice.
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Byrd is right, spreading the fingers is about distributing your weight across the whole surface of your hand instead of putting so much pressure on your wrist. If you're just passing through Plank on the way to another pose (like chaturanga/low pushup) it doesn't matter so much, but if you want to hold a Plank, or a Downward Dog for that matter, it does help to spread the fingers and press through to the finger tips.
I've been doing yoga since I was about 14 and I still struggle with this. I have a few routines and DVDS that have you stay in Down Dog for a minute or more and usually it's my wrists that cave in first.
Yoga has three main aspects (well, technically there are eight, but I won't get into that) – meditation, breath, and asana (poses). Combining them together is a whole different experience than practicing them separately, but they absolutely can be practiced separately. I got into yoga as a physical practice first but I actually really dig the spiritual part of it.
I think some people think that "feeling the energy" means you'll feel something special, magical, or unusual. In my opinion, it's more about consciousness. We go through most of our days relatively unconscious of what our bodies are doing, and our bodies do all sorts of things involuntarily. Right now my ankles are crossed under my chair. I don't remember crossing them there, it wasn't an intentional act, they just wound up there. As I type, I'm not paying attention to all the little muscle movements in my hands as they fly over the keyboard. In yoga, though, every movement is deliberate, every placement of a hand or a limb is conscious, every breath is felt fully through the lungs. Yoga lets me turn inward and see all the amazing things my body does for me. And yeah, it does give me kind of a glowy feeling – like that feeling you might get after a really hard workout, where your body is kind of vibrating or buzzy.
Of course, yoga also encourages deep breathing, which can lead to an oxygen high that very well may feel like "energy."
Anyway, sorry for the diatribe. Good luck with your yoga practice, whatever shape that takes! 🙂
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Ah, see, I can't do it if it's the challenge because most of the moves I don't like are wayy above my level anyway. Spatchcock is one … I actually find I have an aversion to most "daredevil" style tricks, the ones that are pulled out for shock & awe more than anything else.
I am personally really tired of the Vagina Monster and most floorwork that just involves laying back and moving your legs around, ribbon legs, and clacking the heels together. I am bored with it because I've just seen too much of it. Granted, there's only so much creative floorwork you can do, so I don't hold it against dancers who do it, but… YAWN. Next please.
I don't think the Meathook (and ugh, what a name) or the Janeiro are very attractive either.
And finally, Flag. What is the point of that move? How does it even fit into a dance (unless you go all the way into a Flag Invert)? It's a fun one for street poling, and I love that I can half do it, but I don't think it's a nice dance move.
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I suffer from hypothyroid too, I was diagnosed at birth and have been on supplements all my life for it, though I don't take anything for hormones.
For a while I was seeing an endocrinologist who turned out to be a quack – he put me on a much higher dosage than I needed. I dropped weight easily (I was also on the South Beach diet at the time) and felt better than ever. But his office closed all of a sudden, and I had my primary doctor take over my thyroid management. When I finally found a new endo, she winced when I said the quack's name and said he was known for over-prescribing. She said that while I may have felt better on the higher dose, over-dosing over the long term can be fatal. I had no idea!
I have to admit I was frustrated because I really liked the idea that if I could just get back on that dosage, I'd get back down to a better weight and would feel all happy and energetic again. Obviously it's not worth the risk, but still.
I did find out, during the process, that I can't be on the generic levothyroxine, I have to take Synthroid. Something about the way generics can come from different manufacturers and can vary a lot from batch to batch, depending where your pharmacy got it from, while Synthroid is more steady and stable. After struggling for a long time to level out my dosage, my doc finally said Let's just put you on Synthroid and see if that helps. So far, it has, A LOT.
That's one thing that continues to confound me when it comes to my weight. How much of my struggle is my own fault (not doing the right things, or not doing enough of the right things) and how much is because of my lazy thyroid? If my thyroid hormone levels are under control, does that cancel out any effect that hypothyroidism would have on my weight? Questions I need to be asking my doc, not you guys, obviously.