Showing posts with label amy ippoliti. Show all posts
Showing posts with label amy ippoliti. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Morning Yoga!

Early morning yoga makes me happy and in a good mood.

 I realized that I have sort of not become attached to Ashtanga... which is good, in a way, because I know all about repetitive stress injuries. Not to say that Ashtanga gives you injuries, but you can get a little overexcited and overwork your joints. Especially in a practice that is as taxing as ashtanga. I am glad of my decisions to do ashtanga only 3 days a week, 5 max, but 5 is very rare. I like my cozy little ashtanga schedule - either monday wednesday and friday or tuesday thursday and saturday. And in between, I have fun with other types of yoga, my favorites would be a basic hatha, or a vinyasa flow, or restorative and yin! Before 'glow', I used to have my own fun with my own home sequence, taken off yoga journal's home practice. I still treasure them to be honest, and if in a pinch with no internet connection and resources I would turn to the home practices as a guidance.

But with glow now I am having a ball of a time discovering classes and teachers I would never though I'd have access to. Today I did a nice 20 mins sequence of morning yoga with Amy I. Very simple routine, cat and cow, downward dog, one legged downward dog, then with a twist, bow pose, warrior 1, half moon, bound half moon - that got me sweating - pigeon pose  and twisted pigeon. It was a very good workout for 20 minutes! I continued with Kathryn B, a 30 minutes flow with reclined hamstring stretches ala ashtanga, with you leg to the side and cross over while the other leg is flat on the floor. Then some thread needle with the thighs, then puppy pose, thread the needle with the shoulders, warrior 1 and warrior 2, triangle pose, and little handstand kicks, which I failed miserably. It then followed with some twisting poses, which felt good.

 Love it!! I feel like doing yoga all the time!

Friday, August 31, 2012

Teachers

I love yogaglow.

I do not know how else to say this but to really really feel grateful that I signed up for it. I knew from a start that I love the freedom of home practice. Which is why I took to ashtanga the way I did. Once you got the sequence memorized, you do not have to worry about anything else. And it's a good thing that I am a stickler to alignment and I love reading on basics and proper anatomy usage to really make sure that the poses I do are safe.

Prior to the website, I have been enjoying my own home practice - using the much appreciated yogajournal home practice. It was good enough for me, and most of the times I ended up adding my own poses that I seem fit to be included in the flow.

this website just made it easier. And it just strengthened my resolve. Sometimes I give up a little tad to early in  holding a pose, but when you have a teacher egging you on or encouraging you to just hold a little bit, you do. Like today's 90 vinyasa flow class I took with amy ippoliti, about chest openers and being happy. She did a killer sequence of urdvha  dhanurasana, which we have to hold for 30 seconds. I've never held for that long before. and 3 times! I was figuring out how to last for the last time until she said, "when you're in the pose and you feel like you can't hold it anymore and need to go down, that is the time for you to take a deep breath and hold on to many 3 more breaths. This is to let you know that you can persevere through hard times." That was a good thing. That is actually the essence of my journey of exercising and 'training', be it running, cycling and swimming. I think that's why I totally love solo sport - because the only real opponent if yourself. And if you can conquer it, then maybe, perhaps, your determination in life just got a little bit steelier. I always go back to the toughest times of when I don't give up to pull me through a current tough crisis - mentally, emotionally, and especially physically - that I am plowing through.

 So after that amy class I moved on to tiffany crushank's leg sequence, but eventhough its only 30 minutes I was tired halfway so I stopped. It's a good energizing sequence for sore legs. I did kathryn budig's shoulder stretcher and oh my god... my sore shoulders diminished. Even before the session is over I was freaking out inside on how much my shoulders don't feel sore anymore.

 I finished the session with a 7 second handstand x2, a 7 seconds pincha and a melted leg pincha, with a headstand with blocks. Felt good.

 Love it.

 Yesteday's ashtanga ended after Bandha konasana because I was too damn tired... and apparently it was because of the full moon. I thought I was pregnant. hahah.