New yoga mat

  

My old yoga (above) mat was actually loosing structural integrity. 

Clearly I needed a new mat, but it is super hard (psychologically) to buy a new mat because -

It is an investment

The right mat is important

Mats are pretty much on line

I asked and the two suggestions from classmates and instructors were Jade and Manduka. (Both companies have an online quiz, that can help.)

A classmate had just researched/shopped/bought a mat by Jade. I was able to see/touch it in class. 

I hesitated for a few weeks. I would not call it analysis paralysis. It was just paralysis. 

Finally, I took the quizzes and called oldest and his wife, they had been waiting for me to think of something I needed. This was a delayed Mother’s Day present. We wait until I really need something. 

My DIL took the mat ordering in hand. She bought from Dick’s so I could return it. It was a relief to have her just do it.

It arrived by fed ex and I left it on the porch for my husband because I knew it was going to smell. This is a thing with some yoga mats. 

He put it in the garage, on a bed sheet, with a fan blowing on it 24/7.

It stayed there for nine days. The pups made a beeline for it every time they were in the garage. We had to wipe a lot of puppy prints off it. 

It is now in full use and perfect. 

Yoga block

Tracy Anderson

People tend to either love Tracy or not.

I personally like the fact that she does not talk a lot.

I like the fact that she is dance oriented.

I have done most of her moves in classes. 

So, I am familiar.

I do the videos with her, I keep them playing.

(I do not pause and do it solo like I do with other videos). 

If you are new, start very, very slowly. 

And in everything I do, I suck in my gut and hold it firm to protect my lower back.
I do not arch my back.

I keep my shoulders down and back.
Controlled moves, no swinging.
If something does not feel right, don't do it 
(thinking of lower back and shoulders specifically).

I warm up, cool down, and stretch.

This is a Tracy Anderson arm only video.
Brenda found it a long time ago. We both really liked it.

http://youtu.be/I27ybiXgKck

(The music on this one will not play on my iPad, FYI.)
And her movements are very controlled. Be careful not to swing your arms. 

Again, me personally, I do my regular free weight work, using 5 and 8 pound weights, 

and then I do one if these short videos, switching to 2-3 lb weights, with already fatigued muscles.

ADDED LATER-
Another good set is to write the alphabet, in the air in front of you, one arm at a time, holding a light weight, big movements. One arm at a time, through all sets - upper case and then lower case. Then switch arms. Need more? Upper case printed, lower case printed, upper case cursive, lower case cursive. Keep arm up/shoulder height. This is surprisingly effective.



This next set I do as a stand alone workout.

(If you love the clips listed below, they are available on a DVD on Amazon, it is called her mat workout, I think. This (links below) is a good way to try her. I have no idea if the whole video is on the bootleg copies below.). 

Warm up

http://youtu.be/GAqmg3oZ5Qs

2.1 legs

http://youtu.be/aOfduIreS48

2.2 legs

http://youtu.be/5TD3Ux-KWmI

3 abs

http://youtu.be/5TD3Ux-KWmI

(FYI This one is hard to follow and tends to get bad reviews)

ADDED LATER - here is a standing abs class with explanation:
http://youtu.be/lDmouHToqf8

4 arms

http://youtu.be/4dQOBbLnk7o

5 arms

http://youtu.be/ExbZe7N-yFo

6 legs and abs

http://youtu.be/IjqIdOngjWA

7 cool down

http://youtu.be/Kuh8CM9-k5I

(I do major stretching after the cool down.)

20 lb rice bag for passive yoga poses

I mentioned, months ago, I bought a 20 loud bag of rice to use as a weight (pushing my body down, deeper into poses) at home, in passive yoga poses. Mostly on my lower back in child's pose.

If you google "sandbags in yoga" and then click on the "images" option, there are some great pictures. Look for the one with the mother in child's pose with the toddler on top of her. (Youngest was a moveable weight for a Pilates class long ago). And look for the one with the woman covered in sandbags in corpse pose.

A weight in passive poses allows one to sink deeper into the pose.

I use bolsters and blocks in poses a lot.

I craved a weight (like a sandbag).

I craved a heavy weight.

If you buy a yoga sandbag on line, it comes empty and you add your own sand.

I did not want to deal with sand.

I decided on rice.

I bought 20 lbs in a very sturdy bag.

My husband asked if 20 lbs was too heavy. I replied that Yoga Lisa used to sit on me. It would be like having youngest sit on me. So, no, 20 lbs for an experienced person is not too heavy. I think 5 lbs is normal for a sand bag in case you are wondering.

I used the rice in the bag it came in for a long time. Eventually it sprang a leak.

And using it in the store bought bag showed the need for a non slippery bag/case. It slid off of me, all the time. I never was able to fully relax, because I was expecting it to slip at any moment.






I went to Joanns looking for non slippery fabric.

Not a lot of options.

I ended up with the dotted fabric used on the bottom of the feet in toddler footie pajamas.

I poured my 20 lbs of rice in a very sturdy plastic bag (Karen had warned me about bugs), squished all the air out, zipped the double zip locks, got rice gathered in a corner, wrapped the excess plastic around it like a Christmas present, and then packing taped the daylights out of it.

It ended up about 17" X 17". Most yoga sand bags are long and skinny. I wanted square.

That rice package then went in a casing I made from muslin.

And then all that went in a casing I made from the footie pj material.

I closed the last casing with Velcro so I can wash it. (Unfortunately the only color of the footie pj fabric readily available was white.)

It is good I used Velcro, because I have already flipped it inside out twice and made that outer casing smaller to really hold the rice. The picture above, shows my first try (before decreasing size twice).

So, it is not at all cute (in white) but it is very, very functional.

Feeling the footie pj fabric at the store, neither my husband nor I was convinced of the quality of the non slip-ed-ness. But an older clerk at the store said she put it in the bottom of her mother's chair cushions (wheel chair, kitchen chairs, lawn chairs) and they totally stay in place while her mother transfers herself. It was $12+ a yard for 50" width. I had a 60% coupon. So a yard was a reasonable investment.

And it definitely works. It does not slide off my back, at all.

I have quite a bit left of my original yard, so I can use it for other things too.

Yes, a twenty pound bag of rice now resides in the living room

Did anyone read that and know exactly where I was going before they clicked on comments?

Good ideas for aching neck and shoulders

Okay, when you click over to the link, just ignore the title.

These poses would be great for people who hunch forward a lot during their life.

These are chest openers.

Like I said, just ignore the title.

7 yoga poses to break up desk/computer work

Yoga Stretches at Your Desk
Poses you can do at the office

Yoga poses for people who hunch forward a lot during the day

Some of you will smile when you click over to this link because the header is poses for nursing moms.

But as I read, I realized nursing moms tend to hunch, so the poses are good for most desk workers.

One thing I would like to elaborate is Sphinx. You do NOT push back against the floor. Instead you pull your torso forward, through the arms as if you were trying to drag yourself forward. Any pose with this general type of positioning has a forward pull element to it. Up dog for example, you are not pushing body back from the hands, you are pulling body forward thru the arms to extend.

If you are looking for poses for other situations, such as lower back pain, here is the link. My suggestion, if these poses are new to you, and you have any type of health condition, is to start slowly. Not one a day, but yes, one a week. Then if you have a reaction, you will know the trigger.

If you have ever had an instructor teach this stretch, my way with supporting foot on the wall, please let me know, I am the only one I have ever seen do it

I mentioned a Piriformis Stretch last week.

To be honest, I have done that stretch in a lot of classes over the years. But I have never heard a name for it. I have just been queued for the moves.

This is a move that is used AFTER exercise to stretch butt and hip. REALLY EFFECTIVE.

Here I am in the traditional form.

And here I am, the way I do it, foot of the supporting leg on the wall. So, I have turned it into a supported pose.

And as I settle into the stretch, I slide that foot further down the wall, oh so gradually. Adds a whole new level to the stretch. I apply very gentle pressure with both hands.

My books - The Language of Yoga (2005) by Nicolai Bachman

Here is what I originally wrote, months ago:

The same way it was darned well about time I learned to read translations and was exposed to Hemingway and Steinbeck and Dickens, I decided I needed to mature myself with Sanskrit for yoga.

If you do not know what I am talking about, here are some examples:
Downward Facing Dog - Adho Mukha Svanasana
Extended Side Angle Pose - Utthita Parsvakonasana
Pyramid Pose - Parsvottonasana
Raised Hands Pose - Urdhva Hastasana
Standing Forward Bend - Uttanasana
Standing Straddle Forward Bend - Prasarita

If you are a long time yoga person, you probably know more Sanskrit yoga pose names than I do/should, after all these years. I am embarrassing light/lacking in this area. There are a few names I sort of recognize. There are none that I can came up with and say, on my own. None.

To be very honest, it just sounds like gibberish to me. I suspect I am not a (foreign) language person.

When I am in a yoga class, I rarely look at the instructor. I listen to what the instructor says and I apply it to my own body.

When I am in a class with an instructor who uses mostly Sanskrit, I have to look, because I do not know the words. And that looking sort of moves me out of my own body, off of my own mat. And it (having to look) makes me realize this is an area ready for growth.

I am also an experienced enough yoga person that I really should be thinking in sanskrit as I work through poses in any situation.

Helen very kindly sent me Iyengar's Light on Yoga. I use it often. Great resource of names/poses. But the book does not talk to me. And as you know, in my world, books talk to me. I realized I needed to hear the Sanskrit words to have them really sink into my brain.

That is the first half of this post, written months ago.



Part Two (written last week):

At this same time, I was tired of being in regular yoga classes where the instructors let people look like wadded up tissues in their poses. I do not think that each person needs to be perfect. I know my eyes should be on my own mat. But in classes, one can't help but at least noticing the person who is right in front or beside you, and I was not happy with the instructors who did not help these people. It is (pretty much) ridiculous for a person to have been in yoga classes for YEARS and still not have been helped. And not know they have not been helped. When I see that, this is where my mind goes - what am I doing that is not being corrected/helped either?

So, in the process of wanting more specific help in poses (not necessarily to do harder poses, but to have better positioning in all poses) and thinking that I needed to learn sanskrit, I considered signing up for a 200 level yoga certification class. I was not considering teaching, I was considering the knowledge I would gain. (These classes last many, many months and cost $2000-$3000 for the series.)



If you have been around for a VERY long time, you might remember I signed up for a Master Gardner's Class through the county extension office. And that did not work for me. It turned out that the class did not teach what I wanted to learn. I dropped out (which is very unlike me). And dropping out was the right decision. I signed up with a friend, and she dropped out too (before I did) for the same reason. I remember people in blog land saying they had friends who had done the same thing (when it was not at all what they wanted/thought).

So, as I was thinking about the 200 hour yoga certification class, my Master Gardener Class experience was very much on my mind.



One thing I thought to do was get a leg up on sanskrit. Because part of the 200 hour class requires learning sanskrit. So, I thought - since I know I am not good at it (does not come easily or quickly), I would be smart to get a head start.

I asked around and found The Language of Yoga book which comes with 2 CD's.

I was sorely disappointed. 

The sanskrit I wanted to learn WAS in there/on the CD's. But so was a whole lot of stuff I did not want to know.  A whole lot. And there is no easy way of getting to the parts of the CD with the words I want to learn.  And I realized the class was going to be the same way - I was going to have to learn a whole lot of sanskrit. I was going to have a deadline and a format and I was going to be tested in some way.

And then I realized that the people I was seeing, coming out of 200 level classes, were not so different than anyone else. There were some wadded up tissues in there. And I also realized that there are a lot of different styles of the 500 level instructors who teach the 200 level wanna be's.

By this point, I was pretty sure it was going to be a Master Gardener Class repeat.


I realized two things:
I am an Iyengar girl at heart. I would have to find a program that had that (type of) approach to positioning to really feel like it was a good fit. And it would not need to be a 200 hour certification. It could just be a really good class. (Like my beloved Yoga Lisa who moved to the east coast many years ago).

I might love a 200 hour class, but I would really have to shop around to find the right program (and I am not in a large enough town to do that, would need to be in Chicago or New York or the like for that to work).

I can buy a LOT of private instructor or take a whole lot of workshops for way less than $2000-$3000.


AND


I want to be able to learn things (like sanskrit) at my own pace, not under pressure. And I only want to learn what applies to my own practice, not animals and other sanskrit words. I can do that on my own. It would be better for me to do that on my own.



So, at the end of the day, a $22 book, with CD's included, saved me a lot of time and trouble and expense. I know that was probably not the author's intention, but in the end, that is exactly what happened.

What's in my yoga bag

If you are someone who carries one yoga mat (and that is it) into class, been there, done that. I understand and was at that point once upon a time.



I am in a wide variety of classes on a weekly basis.

I am at studios where props are used in every class.

I leave all the supplies (shown below) in my car trunk 100% of the time.  I simply grab what I need for each class.

I take my Kleen Kanteen into every class. Most of the time, by the end of each class, I have finished one full Kanteen.

I take my phone (on silent) into each class.

In the winter, I wear my boots and then take clean shoes (to change into) for free weights and stations.


For the rest of my supplies -


The simplest class is circuit/stations. For that class, I only take in my beach towel and my strap. I pull them out of my yoga bag and then replace them immediately after class. I use the beach towel under my knees in a lot of stations. Sometimes I use it to prop the back of my butt for better posture. Often at the end of class, there are more people than mats for stretching. I can either sit or lie on my beach towel (folded in half length wise my head and torso and butt fit just fine and it offers a bit of padding from the floor). I use the strap at the end of class to stretch my hamstrings in order to protect my lower back.

The next simplest classes are free weights and Pilates. I take the same supplies into these separate classes. All these supplies fit in my yoga bag (very old, no longer available, originally from Target).

In my yoga bag are the beach towel and strap (shown above).



Also included (in my yoga bag) are my mats. One is full length and the other is half length. When rolled they are exactly the same size in my bag, side by side.

The full length, lighter blue mat is the thinnest I have ever seen. It is 1/8 thick and has a lot of traction. It is a gripping type of mat that prevents slipping. The other, half mat that is more of a royal blue is 1/4 thick. (It started as a full size mat that I cut in half with my kitchen scissors. I gave the other half to one of the women in my free weights class.)  I use it under my hands and knees in free weights class. I fold it in half and then half again and put it under my hands for tricep dips in table stance. I use the half mat under my torso when we are on our sides in Pilates to protect my hip. When I am flat on my back or on my front or on my feet, I do not use the extra padding, I only use the thin mat. 

In the very bottom of my yoga bag are supplies that I sometimes need in free weights or Pilates and a pair of emergency socks.

In the pocket of my yoga bag are other supplies - tissues, foot moisturizer for after class, rescue inhaler, pad, chap stick and hair ties. My hair is not long enough for hair ties, but I keep them there for other people's hair emergencies (sometimes my own girls are with me).

All of those things (show above), stay in my yoga bag.




When I am going to a regular yoga class, I add my two yoga blankets to my bag. I use them (in some form) in every yoga class (under me in shoulder stand so my neck is extended and protected, as a wedge under the back of my butt for improved posture, etc).

For my 1 1/2 hour relaxation class on Sunday nights, I take in my yoga bag, my blankets and also my own bolsters.

My yoga bag, with the blankets, goes over my right shoulder. I can carry all three bolsters in my left arm/hand, that leaves my right arm free for carrying my Kleen Kanteen by its loop, opening doors and signing in at the desk. My car fob is around my neck. My phone is either in my pocket or my bra.  

The class is often crowded, there are not always enough studio supplies for everyone. My bolsters are old, but still very firm. The studio bolsters have lost a lot of their support. I am more comfortable with my face on my own bolsters instead of on studio bolsters where faces, bare feet and clothed butts have been for years.