Seeing Bodies

Saturday, August 14
3-7 p
Teachers: $50
Beginning students: $25

Ever wanted to know exactly why your body is tight here and loose there? Want to learn how to lengthen those hamstrings for good? Want to find out what’s keeping you from enjoying backbends/forward bends? Come to this workshop and find out!

This is a private class with Kim, except with onlookers. Open to teachers, curious students, and/or beginning-level students, this Teacher Training workshop creates an environment of spontaneous learning. We will discuss and learn how to see, understand, and adjust different kinds of bodies in an open-level class. This workshop will take us all into a deeper understanding of how to help a student make her pose more transformative and meaningful.

Seeing Bodies

Saturday, May 15
3-7 p
Teachers: $50
Beginning students: $25

Open to teachers, serious students, and beginning-level students, this Teacher Training workshop creates an environment of spontaneous learning. We will discuss and learn how to see, understand, and adjust different kinds of bodies in an open-level class. All too often, teachers do not correct their students’ asanas (poses) in class; this workshop will take us all into a deeper understanding of how to help a student make her pose more transformative and meaningful (and, to be sure, less harmful if this is the case).

We invite beginning-level students to attend this workshop to be “adjusted.” Ever wanted to know exactly why your body is tight here and loose there? Want to learn how to lengthen those hamstrings for good? Want to find out what’s keeping you from enjoying backbends/forward bends? Come to this workshop and find out!

One Pose at a Time: Wide-legged Standing Forward Fold

Sunday, April 25
2:15-3:45 p
$10

The One-Pose-At-a-Time classes are designed for beginning and intermediate students desiring to learn or review the fundamentals of yoga postures. Vinyasa lovers will also benefit by learning safe and effective ways of performing each pose outside of flow sequencing.

At the end of each class, students can expect to have a thorough foundation in the pose that they can cultivate and work with on their own or in yoga classes.

Benefits of Wide-legged Standing Forward Fold (Prasarita Padottanasana):

• Strengthens and stretches the inner and back legs
• Tones the abdominal organs
• Lengthens the spine
• Calms the brain
• Relieves mild backaches

* Next series begins in the Summer

Note: Online registration is not available for this class

One Pose at a Time: Warrior II

Sunday, April 18
2:15-3:45 p
$10

The One-Pose-At-a-Time classes are designed for beginning and intermediate students desiring to learn or review the fundamentals of yoga postures. Vinyasa lovers will also benefit by learning safe and effective ways of performing each pose outside of flow sequencing.

At the end of each class, students can expect to have a thorough foundation in the pose that they can cultivate and work with on their own or in yoga classes.

Benefits of Warrior II (Virabhadrasana 2):

• Strengthens and stretches the legs and ankles
• Stretches the groins, chest and lungs, shoulders
• Stimulates abdominal organs
• Increases stamina
• Develops concentration, balance and groundedness

* Next week’s pose: Wide-legged Standing Forward Fold (Prasarita Padottanasana)

Note: Online registration is not available for this class

One Pose at a Time: Warrior I

Sunday, April 11
2:15-3:45 p
$10

The One-Pose-At-a-Time classes are designed for beginning and intermediate students desiring to learn or review the fundamentals of yoga postures. Vinyasa lovers will also benefit by learning safe and effective ways of performing each pose outside of flow sequencing.

At the end of each class, students can expect to have a thorough foundation in the pose that they can cultivate and work with on their own or in yoga classes.

Benefits of Warrior I (Virabhadrasana 1):

• Stretches the chest and lungs, shoulders and neck, belly, groins (psoas)
• Strengthens the shoulders and arms, and the muscles of the back
• Strengthens and stretches the thighs, calves, and ankles
• Improves balance, concentration, and core awareness

* Next week’s pose: Warrior II (Virabhadrasana 2)

Note: Online registration is not available for this class

One Pose at a Time: Triangle Pose

Sunday, April 4
2:15-3:45 p
$10

The One-Pose-At-a-Time classes are designed for beginning and intermediate students desiring to learn or review the fundamentals of yoga postures. Vinyasa lovers will also benefit by learning safe and effective ways of performing each pose outside of flow sequencing.

At the end of each class, students can expect to have a thorough foundation in the pose that they can cultivate and work with on their own or in yoga classes.

Benefits of Triangle Pose (Trikonasana):

• Stretches and strengthens the thighs, knees, and ankles
• Stretches the hips, groins, hamstrings, and calves; shoulders, chest, and spine
• Stimulates the abdominal organs
• Helps relieve stress
• Improves digestion

* Next week’s pose: Warrior I (Virabhadrasana 1)

Note: Online registration is not available for this class

One Pose at a Time: Cobra Pose

Sunday, March 28
2:15-3:45 p
$10

The One-Pose-At-a-Time classes are designed for beginning and intermediate students desiring to learn or review the fundamentals of yoga postures. Vinyasa lovers will also benefit by learning safe and effective ways of performing each pose outside of flow sequencing.

At the end of each class, students can expect to have a thorough foundation in the pose that they can cultivate and work with on their own or in yoga classes.

Benefits of Cobra Pose (Bhujangasana):

• Strengthens the spine
• Stretches chest and lungs, shoulders, and abdomen
• Firms the buttocks
• Stimulates abdominal organs
• Helps relieve stress and fatigue
• Opens the heart and lungs

* Next week’s pose: Triangle Pose (Trikonasana)

Note: Online registration is not available for this class

Advanced Asana Clinic

Intermediate/Advanced Arm Balances II
with Kristen Krash
Saturday March 27
4-6 p

Cost: $30/Boundless pass holders, $35/non-pass-holders

Building on Liana’s February 13th Intermediate/Advanced Arm Balances I, this session will focus on core strength and integrating through the shoulder girdle. Through both sessions, students will learn to use strength and determination balanced with ease and lightness.

We highly recommend attending both sessions.

One Pose at a Time: Locust Pose

Sunday, March 21
2:15-3:45 p
$10

The One-Pose-At-a-Time classes are designed for beginning and intermediate students desiring to learn or review the fundamentals of yoga postures. Vinyasa lovers will also benefit by learning safe and effective ways of performing each pose outside of flow sequencing.

At the end of each class, students can expect to have a thorough foundation in the pose that they can cultivate and work with on their own or in yoga classes.

Benefits of Locust Pose (Salabasana):

• Strengthens the muscles of the spine, buttocks, and backs of the arms and legs
• Stretches the shoulders, chest, belly, and thighs
• Improves posture
• Stimulates abdominal organs
• Helps relieve stress

* Next week’s pose: Cobra Pose (Bhujangasana)

Note: Online registration is not available for this class

slow lane

In a previous post I suggested a couple of after-swim poses, which I did again yesterday, and which felt great again.

Yesterday, after an all-night bender with the daughter, I was exhausted and honestly interested in splashing around in the pool instead of trying to keep up in the Medium Lane. (That organization, by the way, seems to keep people sane in an East Coast Pool. Otherwise, Grandpa with the snorkel isn’t in the way of Type-A-even-in-water-Guy lapping everybody in .5 seconds).

So it was Grandpa and me. He, with the snorkel and flippers, and me, with the bags under my eyes and a kickboard. This Pitta woman has a hard time slowing it down, and later, in yoga class as my teacher instructed this pose and this pose and this pose, I was, again, in the slow lane.

I am slowing down, of course, because I just had baby, and the first of the problems in a postpartum body is a weak core. Add bouncing baby 10+ hours a day, and you’ve got a tight neck and shoulders, and often, low back pain.

These physical issues, though, sound like a lot of America. So it occurred to me yesterday, as I observed the others — from pool to yoga classroom — speeding past me and creating shapes beyond me, that there are advantages to slowing down and looking around.

Slowing down gives you the opportunity to create a reality with (probably, but not always) more intention, and in the asana (pose) context, it gives you the chance to observe more deeply what what’s really happening in your body. To be sure, John Schumacher was instructing poses deliberately and slowly, and most of the class had few problems manifesting his information. But what worked for me in class, especially, was watching the others make these shapes based on his instructions, and to imagine that information ultimately making its way into my body.

I will find these shapes soon by taking it slowly. You will, too.