I have been able to go to Palisades Park Bikram pretty consistently the last few weeks and am even more impressed with this studio. I have had class again with Eune and with Aldred Gonzales who is also very good. Aldred has so much energy he gives to those of us struggling on the mat, it is really a great thing to experience. Eune is so good at seeing where you are struggling or potentially doing a pose a bit wrong and fixing it, she knows her asanas inside and out. I will be going again today and I have to say that one of the things I liked the best is the size of their lobby and dressing rooms, so comfortable to not be squished after a class while you decompress and shower!
I went to a class at Be-Evolution Yoga last Tuesday. I had to go out near there to buy fabric for a project for work and so it was easier to go there than try to make a Palisades class. Dar the teacher was certified in 1976! She has a intuitive knowledge of the class and how to keep the students trying their best for 90 minutes. She has a website:http://www.certifiedbikramyogateacher.com/ and also teaches a Yin Yoga Aromatherapy seminar that I was going to get to but my schedule just does not fit it in. The Yin Yoga has some awesome meditation from what I have read and if you have read Bikram's book, you know how important that mental time is for you. And while Bikram states that American's don't stand much chance at developing a good meditation practice, this Yin Yoga is a great place to start. And as someone who spends a lot of time in stinky hotel rooms, the aromatherapy part was very intriguing!
There were a couple things about Evolution yoga that I wasn't fond of. The studio has more of a sweat smell than some and the dressing rooms were very small. Other than that, they have a great lobby and lots of reading material and lending library for yoga and healthy living.
And so I come to my excursion to NYC yesterday. I really do not care for the city at all. Maybe if the gazillion tourists weren't milling about taking up so much sidewalk that a person often has to walk in the street to pass a group? Or can I just call out the many people with strollers who were pushing one handed so the stroller took up its own lane? I mean, come on, look around you and SEE that you are wasting SPACE with that stroller, let alone not protecting it with your body. Ok, I am calm now, kind of....
So I put together a day that included seeing wonderful old friends at their theaters and doing yoga with the BEST, did I say ABSOLUTE BEST Bikram teacher I have ever had.
Had to go change my laundry around so let me repeat, Jena Blackwood is the best Bikram I have ever had which says a lot because I have met some amazing teachers in the last few years. Maybe because she has a Photographer's eye, maybe because she goes to teacher training often and teaches a ton of classes a week, whatever gives her the ability to tell people things in a manner which they can comprehend during a sweaty 90 minute class, it makes her invaluable.
I had accidently thoughtlessly ingested a Venti Green Tea with one of my friends a few hours before class and my standing series left a LOT to be desired. Jena still found something to compliment and a few things to give me for future improvement. I like to listen to all the slight corrections she makes and try them and see if they apply to me as well. She also has an energy like Aldred's that pervades the room and helps everyone try harder. It is kind of like we are trying harder to please the teacher but in trying harder we are really pleasing ourselves.
So for today's class, what I remember from yesterday, which might not be everything Jena said since I was having heart pounding dizziness during the standing series:
Standing Head to Knee pose, try to bring foot to hands instead of hunching and going so rounded and far down to foot.
Fixed Firm pose, try to keep knees closer together in the first set when my right knee usually aches. This will help the constriction and make the second pose even better. I had my knees about 8-10 inches apart to be able to go all the way down to the floor with my shoulders, this way, I will probably not immediately be able to go all the way down but as I progress, perhaps?
Rabbit Pose, Instead of going down and inching my knees forward, I have enough bend to aim for my thighs with my head and then guide my head down to the ground then curl my hips up.
Amazing what her hints do, and I don't want to discount any other teachers, recently Yuen has also given me some great tips.
SO, if you see Jena Blackwood on a teaching schedule GO TO HER CLASS!!! BUT, any class, any time, can help you fix your body and fix your brain!!
A toast to all who keep going to class! My friend Paul with the broken feet is still going and so is Ashley, my boss's wife, who is progressing amazingly fast!
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Bikram Yoga at Palisades Park
http://www.bikramyogapalisades.com/
Finally got back to Bikram Yoga after almost 2 months off! Really enjoyed the 4 pm class at Bikram Palisades Park in New Jersey. I believe the teacher's name was Yuen and she did a wonderful job of giving tips to first timers and veterans! My friend Ashley went for her first time and stayed in the room the whole time. She is awesomely tough! AND she agreed to go again tomorrow morning! Woo Hoo! Another possible convert!
The studio is pretty clean, it has carpet and so has that sweat smell that cannot be gotten rid of. (I know I have said this before but I LOVE the floors in Toronto, NO smell!!) Yuen monitored the heat pretty well and kept the fans going (even at a low speed it helps mentally to know there are ceiling fans on!). The dressing room for women was very nice size and had toilets and three clean showers. They have lockers and also lock the doors during class and so is very safe as well.
I would recommend this studio to anyone looking to try Bikram espcially if Yuen is teaching!
I struggled a bit through class after not doing much physically for a while. I was in OH which doesn't HAVE Bikram yoga and since I was pretty much at my dad's hospital bedside most of the time, I might not have gone if they did have it. Spending weeks on end in a hospital and rehab home gives a person a ton of time to think though and that was very good for me. My father has been diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma and due to his bad heart and rhuematiod Arthritis, the Oncologist was not able to prescribe Chemotherapy or Radiation treatment. He is taking steroids and anti nausea medication to try to get him a little stronger and back on his feet which will help with his general health but his outlook isn't stellar right now. I feel like I float between being mentally all right with what is happening since we are lucky to have had this much time with him and then occasionally falling apart because no matter how much time I will have with him, it isn't enough.
I was reading a book called "Falling Man" by Don DeLillo, which I haven't finished but still....anyway, it is about 9/11 and the World Trade Centers falling and one of the lines was something about how heroic the people were who ran towards the fire. If I could write a book about my dad that is what I would call it "Running Towards the Fire". My dad is a man who raised himself with help from his sister's and younger brother after his father died and his mother, who drank a lot, married a greasy guy who also drank a lot. Dad was shipped off to relatives for summers and worked odd jobs from the time he was 7 or 8. He worked in a bakery, joined the Army, got kicked out of the Army for having bad hearing, and eventually married my mom and worked at the post office. This man with very little training on how to be a good Dad, has done an amazing job at it. He worked two jobs most of his life to provide for the three children and wife he had. He took great care of my mom as she was failing from Emphysema. And he has fought like a demon to stay alive to help my sister and I as our lives became tumultuous in the last few years. I truly do not know a better man. I ache so viciously when I think of life without him but I also know how tired he is and how much pain he feels. And above all, I know he still loves my mother with all his heart and that he believes they will be together again in death. And for him, I so pray this is true. It would be fitting to see their two angels sitting in lovely white wing back chairs reading together quietly for all eternity. That is heaven.
Finally got back to Bikram Yoga after almost 2 months off! Really enjoyed the 4 pm class at Bikram Palisades Park in New Jersey. I believe the teacher's name was Yuen and she did a wonderful job of giving tips to first timers and veterans! My friend Ashley went for her first time and stayed in the room the whole time. She is awesomely tough! AND she agreed to go again tomorrow morning! Woo Hoo! Another possible convert!
The studio is pretty clean, it has carpet and so has that sweat smell that cannot be gotten rid of. (I know I have said this before but I LOVE the floors in Toronto, NO smell!!) Yuen monitored the heat pretty well and kept the fans going (even at a low speed it helps mentally to know there are ceiling fans on!). The dressing room for women was very nice size and had toilets and three clean showers. They have lockers and also lock the doors during class and so is very safe as well.
I would recommend this studio to anyone looking to try Bikram espcially if Yuen is teaching!
I struggled a bit through class after not doing much physically for a while. I was in OH which doesn't HAVE Bikram yoga and since I was pretty much at my dad's hospital bedside most of the time, I might not have gone if they did have it. Spending weeks on end in a hospital and rehab home gives a person a ton of time to think though and that was very good for me. My father has been diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma and due to his bad heart and rhuematiod Arthritis, the Oncologist was not able to prescribe Chemotherapy or Radiation treatment. He is taking steroids and anti nausea medication to try to get him a little stronger and back on his feet which will help with his general health but his outlook isn't stellar right now. I feel like I float between being mentally all right with what is happening since we are lucky to have had this much time with him and then occasionally falling apart because no matter how much time I will have with him, it isn't enough.
I was reading a book called "Falling Man" by Don DeLillo, which I haven't finished but still....anyway, it is about 9/11 and the World Trade Centers falling and one of the lines was something about how heroic the people were who ran towards the fire. If I could write a book about my dad that is what I would call it "Running Towards the Fire". My dad is a man who raised himself with help from his sister's and younger brother after his father died and his mother, who drank a lot, married a greasy guy who also drank a lot. Dad was shipped off to relatives for summers and worked odd jobs from the time he was 7 or 8. He worked in a bakery, joined the Army, got kicked out of the Army for having bad hearing, and eventually married my mom and worked at the post office. This man with very little training on how to be a good Dad, has done an amazing job at it. He worked two jobs most of his life to provide for the three children and wife he had. He took great care of my mom as she was failing from Emphysema. And he has fought like a demon to stay alive to help my sister and I as our lives became tumultuous in the last few years. I truly do not know a better man. I ache so viciously when I think of life without him but I also know how tired he is and how much pain he feels. And above all, I know he still loves my mother with all his heart and that he believes they will be together again in death. And for him, I so pray this is true. It would be fitting to see their two angels sitting in lovely white wing back chairs reading together quietly for all eternity. That is heaven.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)