Yoga in Times Sq Part 2

Yoga in Times Sq for Summer Solstice webcasts!

timessquare on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

YOGA SAMMICH

A YOGA SAMMICH is when you sammich activities or things throughout the day in between 2 yoga practices. Today I sammiched my morning errands between two awesome and pretty challenging Yoga classes. You can sammich the whole day (I did that on Friday) OR you can sammich just a couple of hours.

You can also do a DOUBLE yoga. Which is doing 2 classes back to back.

Both often leads to extremely open hips and sore chattarunga arms. Lots of childs poses are a good thing!

After my Yoga Sammich I treated myself to POP burger sliders. And on that note...orchids in Flatiron District...

Let's try this again...July 1, Friday

COME ON! Everyone wants to practice outside.... SEE.

Restoring

I'm a New Yorker so I always like my Yoga a little faster paced but more importantly sweaty and challenging. For this reason I've always shied away from Restorative Yoga classes. They are usually just too easy and not sweaty enough, however I took a really amazing Restore and Flow class this weekend. The beginning of class was difficult and rigorous, so that when I got into restorative pigeon, it felt super yummy. Restorative bhadda konasana was like Snooze town and then savasana -I coulda stayed there FOREVER.I am now IN LOVE with the idea of restorative however I do feel I need to be challenged for at least the first 30 min in order to appreciate the restorative-ness. ISHTA Yoga is pretty friggin awesome.

Still feeling HIGH!

From the outdoor practice yesterday in Times Square. So since the Thai Spirit is closed the next 2 Fridays...I decided to hold my class outdoors!

6/24/11 4:19PM: The ground is wet and there is still chance of rain. We will try for next week! Sorry no class today. xoxo, namaste

Yoga in Times Sq

Summer Solstice is AWESOME if you can practice Yoga in the middle of Times Square. It was surprisingly serene, quiet and easy to tune out the traffic sounds. I hate balancing postures because I can't do them and surprisingly didn't have as much trouble with Warrior 3 today. Thanks for all the good energy, Yogi's in Times Sq. You all ROCK!

Supported Savasanas

I am such a prop-less Yogi. I just don't like using them and partially this is because my hips are pretty open and flexible that I don't tend to need blocks in side angle. Props I DO really like to have are blankets and bolsters because they make for an amazing savasana experience. So I am going to share with you my favorite supported savasanas:

1- Rolling a blanket or using a bolster under the knees.
2- Rolled blanket or bolster along the thoracic and lumbar spine, opening up the chest and shoulders. This is also great with the legs in a baddakonasana position
3- do both!
4- Rolled blanket or bolster horizontally across the shoulders, just above the lower back. This is also nice with legs up the wall.

Scorpions again

I have been revisiting my Scorpion pose. I may have held it once or twice for more than a second but since I can't just go into it, I don't really consider it a pose I have under my belt. Its such a work in progress!

Last week I took a challenging and amazing class at Thai Spirit. First we worked on doing handstand scorpion against the wall. I went into a handstand against the wall and then started to arch my back while I walked my feet down the wall. It felt pretty cool since it was my first time doing it but no way could I do something like that without a wall! THEN onto forearm scorpion. Here is my thing...I still don't really practice regular forearm stand! Previously, in my scorpion break down post I was attempting to get into scorpion from headstand. Its kind of a jolting way to get into it since you go into a headstand and then start arching the back, THEN plant the hands flat on the ground, which is where most people will lose their balance and which is why I only hold it for a split second. SO nowadays I started just trying to hop into it already on my forearms. This sort of works sometimes except most times I just flip over into a back bend.

So last week in class, I got this really helpful tip. I set my forearms up like I was going into headstand.
1- Sit on the heels, knees together.
2- place forearms on the mat by lining elbows up with knees BUT I bring my hands in towards each other. So elbows wider than hands and I even crossed my index fingers and thumbs, creating this sort of diamond shape with my hands.
3- Extend legs to a dolphin pose
4- apply mulabanhda and look forward
5- kick up with control, don't be afraid to flip over.

At first I really thought the whole overlapping of fingers would make the base so unstable. BUT that trick changed the pose so much for me. Don't get me wrong, I am still flipping over, but I am holding for a couple more seconds longer now! Kind of loving the scorpion now!

Closing

I really hate when I am in a Yoga class and I am set up for closing/winding down for savasana and on my back. Moving from a shoulder stand or a back bend and then all of a sudden they have me sit back up again to do forward folds! HOLY DIZZINESS. It always makes me leave the class with a fuzzy headache-y feeling. I enjoy closing with shoulder stands, back bends and matsyasana -fish pose.

How to get into fish pose:
1-Lay flat on your back and then inhale to puff your chest up, pulling the head back and slowly reaching the crown of the head to the ground.
2-Bend the elbows as your chest puffs up and let the weight fall into your arms
3-Point the toes
4-Feel good here? Let's go deeper! Use the strength of your belly or abs and life the legs of the ground while still pointing the feet.
5-Lift the arms and press the palms together for flying fish!

This is a great pose to do after shoulder stand and plow.

Benefits: back pain, respiratory issues, digestion, fatigue, anxiety and PMS.
Stretches the front of the neck and uses the strength of the belly. Stimulates the organs of the throat, thyroid and belly. Strengthens the upper back.
DON'T do this if: you have back pain or neck/shoulder pain.
Stop doing this pose if your neck starts to hurt!

A couple that breathes together, stays together.

I really like this idea of couples that help each other live awesome, healthy, active and happy lifestyles. Today I had a boyfriend and a girlfriend come and take my class together. Even though yoga is supposed to be your own moving meditation every once in a while in a difficult pose they would glance at each other and crack a smile like they were sharing an inside joke. I am not strict enough of a Yogi to think this is inappropriate. Instead I think its pretty friggin awesome. I like that despite the difficulties of what they were doing they helped each other keep it from being frustrating and instead fun -which is what I think Yoga is supposed be.

So, grab your significant other and take a class at Thai Spirit together! If you come together the class is only $10 each! Regular price is $15.