Olivia DeBow: Yoga East Meets West

     This Astanga Yoga class was taught by Andrew Eppler and demonstrated by his wife. Before class started he showed us a short video of  Krishnamacharya and an interesting picture of him standing on a boy during an asana. This class felt to be more of an intermediate class, if I was comparing it to Anita's class. The calling was fast paced and the poses were kind of short, a few breathes each. I don't know if I was the only one sweating but I definitely had to turn my fan on. I had a hard time remembering to breath because of the fast pace. By the end and durning the salutations, in between poses, I finally got the breathing down. This was an interesting set of pose sequence I had not done before. I only remember doing sun salutations in between each pose in past classes however never upward facing dog to downward. I enjoyed this class. It showed me how out of shape I truly am. 

       This Iyengar Yoga class was taught by  Amita Bhagat. At the beginning of class Anita gave an overview of Iyengar Yoga and her personal yoga journey. This class was definitely for beginners as she made sure everyone was on the same page. As well as giving in depth instructions on how to safely get in and out of poses. I liked that she spoke about some of the postures in ways that it can help the body. As well as explaining how certain poses are good for women while menstruating or just good for reproductive health. Though this did not feel as though a fully flowing yoga class, I appreciated her explanations of the Iyengar practice and specifics of yoga poses.      Yoga as a medicine and healing practice is prominent as the weeks go on. Starting with the Bikram yoga class, that is specifically a healing yoga practice and you could see that in the poses taught. Similarly, I feel as though Iyengar has a healing property as well. This class was taught to show the poses and how they h

This week I took a 45 minute Power Vinyasa Flow with Briohny Smyth. I wanted to try a YouTube version of a class I have done before and Vinyasa was what I found. This class was very different from the Vinyasa class I have taken in person.  Briohny had a lot of inversion opportunities and I would have taken them if I hadn’t decided to take this class outside and on concrete. I was afraid to attempt an inversion without supervision and without a better base. However it was more of a power practice. She had a lot of strength involved.  I feel like yoga is a ritual on its own. Choosing to practice yoga on a regular basis is a ritual. The ritual starts when get ready and go to the studio is apart of the ritual on its own. As well as the individual practice on its own. The definition of a ritual is ceremony consisting of a series of actions performed according to prescribed order. This is similar to any one type of yoga practice.    For example in the Ashtanga yoga we did last week. That was

     Thursdays class was Bikram Yoga with Diane Polli. Taking this class was an interesting experience. I have not done any other yoga class like this one. Bikram is a scripted practice without a visual for poses. This forced you to listen to the instructions and words Diane was using to describe the poses and how to get into it them.       Though this was online and she could not see the whole class, but she was paying attention to how you (Prof. Greene) was going through the practice. She made sure you were to get the foundation down before going though the full pose. As she would most likely do during an in-person class. This felt like a more intense physical practice than what I have done in the past. Maybe not as intense as a strength yoga class because that is more a workout than a typical yoga practice. This feels like the bridge between traditional yoga and a strength yoga practice.      I am happy to have gotten the chance to do Bikram. It gives a different perspective on how