Yoga at Life Time Fitness Life Time Fitness in Columbia, MD Hot Vinyasa: Sun 11am, Mon 6pm, Sat 8:15am Yin: Wed 9:30am Hatha: Thu 6pm
American Tribal Style® Bellydance
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Testimonials
"I have had the fortune of watching Flissy turn from a student to a strong, giving and attentive teacher... Recently, speaking throughout the preparation as the students attempted a familiar posture, she taught an awareness of very subtle yet important ways to improve one's position in the pose..." read more
OK, so if you've ever taken a yoga class with me, or if you've even had a conversation about yoga with me, you might have figured out that I have an unconventional approach to the practice.
Here's the thing: I am 100% sold on the transformational power of yoga. Spiritual, mental, physical transformation, it is all available to you on the mat. I'm so confident about it, that I feel freed to do whatever it takes to get that experience, even if it deviates from tradition. Sometimes getting into a pose from a different angle can create a new and fresh perspective, and I want my students to share in that, too.
That philosophy prompted me to submit an article to Teachasana about Creative Modifications so that other teachers can be inspired to look at new ways to move through the practice, and so my students can have a behind-the-scenes look at why I do what I do.
I'll just warn you, I might sound like I'm gushing, but I really can't understate the importance of what Paul Grilley has to offer to yoga teachers and practitioners. Every minute of that workshop was packed with information!
Skeletal Variation: I encourage you to go take a look at Paul Grilley's Bone Slideshow, which illustrates the variations in all the major bones of the human skeleton. This isn't showing deformities ... this is completely normal differences that you would see from person to person, every day. Paul's message is that the alignment rules cooked up by the various schools of yoga and teacher training programs are simply not going to address skeletal variation. As practitioners and teachers, you must recognize this and understand that you will have to move in a way that works for your own body.
Here's a short video clip from Paul's Anatomy for Yoga DVD that illustrates compression in the shoulder joint, which is an example of skeletal variation:
Yin is good for you: Your ligaments are under constant contracture and it is perfectly safe and healthy to gently stress the fascia by holding poses passively for a long time. Yes, I have been told that it is "unsafe" to stretch your joints, and that hyperextension is dangerous and you should never ever do that! Paul makes a very compelling argument, backed up by scientific evidence that it is, in fact, healthy and good for you to stress your ligaments. Aside from that, my own personal experience: practicing yin yoga has completely rehabilitated my tweaked out sacroiliac joint.
Each day, we did a practice, and then in the afternoon, there was lecture time, which included slide shows (like the one linked to above) as well as analysis of skeletal variation within the workshop participants.
The practices were great. We held the postures for five minutes at a time (usually). While the catalog of yin poses is pretty limited, we still did a different practice every day, which was interesting. One day we did a little yang warmup, and some yang between the poses, then one day we did straight-up yin without any warmup. The third day was definitely the most intense. We did a yang practice and then in the yin practice, we repeated postures, which meant a total of ten minutes in caterpillar (forward fold), ten minutes in snail (plow), and ten minutes in saddle (reclined hero). Then the fourth day, we were able to choose the most effective poses for our own body, and the fifth day, we did the "infant" series, which started on the floor and ended with yang. This gave me some ideas for my own classes and how to introduce variety, however, I must admit that my favorite way to practice is just straight-up yin, no warmup! It's hardcore yin! Kinda.
Paul and Suzee are both fantastic teachers. They went through a tremendous amount of material in 30 hours, and they presented it in a way that was easy to absorb, and with good humor. I left with a better understanding of anatomy in general, and I also feel like I improved my "X-ray vision," which is to say that I feel like I might be able to read my students' bodies better so I know what adjustments to suggest. I feel like every yoga practitioner, and certainly every yoga teacher, should view both the Anatomy for Yoga and the Yin Yoga DVDs and see what Paul Grilley has to say. He doesn't travel too much these days, except, apparently for 100-hr YTT he's now offering, but if you have the chance to take any kind of workshop with him, DO IT! You will not be disappointed.
Today I'm heading down to Chapel Hill to complete a 30-hour Teacher Training with Paul Grilley. I'm super excited because I love his DVDs, Anatomy for Yoga, and Yin Yoga, and he has a reputation for being a really funny guy. He's someone who doesn't travel too much, so I feel very fortunate that he landed where my sister-in-law lives so I have the bonus of spending some time with her this week! I'll be sure to report back after my training!
Another local bellydancer, Latifa, linked to a fascinating article from Men's Health Magazine, Everything You Know About Your Muscles is Wrong. It's all about fascia! Fascia is the network of connective tissue that runs throughout the body. The myofascial net, in particular, embraces all of the muscle tissue. It was my understanding in my yoga training that fascia contains neurotransmitters that send signals back and forth to the brain (proprioception) and inform the brain of sensation and pain. This article is focused on new research that shows that fascia also displays a spring-like quality that can help your muscles act stronger, and accessing the fascia can benefit overall fitness training.
We all have specific habits and imbalances that affect our posture and how we move. Those habits become engrained in the fascia. Fascia is difficult to change, so this article is suggesting starting your workout by opening up secondary areas of the connective tissue. Even that is effective in bringing the body into balance. Oh hey look at that! Bring your body into balance and you won't hurt yourself! Isn't that yoga?!
The article led me to Thomas Myer's website, where I found an excerpt of a lecture about yoga and fascia. Muscles relax after the neurological signal from your brain that basically says, "OK we're just in triangle pose, no one is going to get hurt!" Depending on training, this can be as short as 30 seconds for your hamstrings (for example) to start to let go and lengthen. After, one to three minutes, you can access the myofascial stretch. Fascia stretches plasticly,and does not snap back like muscle does. So keep holding those poses and you'll break those habits and imbalances that are causing you pain!
While I was teaching and demonstrating bodywaves in my ATS class last week, one of my students asked me, "Are you doing a bellyroll?" and my answer was "Yes, sort of."
In a bodywave, the ribcage shifts forward and lifts, then the back body rolls back against an imaginary wall, with the shoulders touching first, then the ribcage, lower back, and finally the hips.
So, muscularly speaking, the latissimus dorsi contract to send the chest up and forward. Then, to bring the chest back, the rectus abdominis contract, first the upper section, then rolling down to the lower section. Finally, the contraction in the lower abs release, taking the spine back to the original dance posture.
In a bellyroll, the lats are out of the equation and the spine is held in dance posture. The rectus abdominis is still working, however, it's the obliques (mostly external, I think) that are driving the movement and the rectus abdominis is going for a ride on top.
Or at least that's how it's happening in my body.
Anyway, in my first go round at ATS General Skills, I learned about the latissimus dorsi driving the movement in Egyptian Basic. Try generating that movement ONLY using your lats. Amazing! You'll see in the attached image that the point of origin of the lats are way down towards the base of the spine, which gives the Egyptian Basic that dramatic swivel. In barrel turns, the lats are working to compress the side body for the initial "scoop" part of the turn. As mentioned above, in bodywaves, the lats are drawing together lifting the ribcage forward and up. I was under the misconception previously that the rhomboids were the inital part of the bodywave. While this will shift your shoulders back, your chest will not move up at all. You need to contract much lower down your back, towards the bottom tips of the shoulderblades to get that lift. So yay for the latissimus dorsi! To access your lats, transition between upward dog and downward dog. Down-dog lengthens the the latissimus dorsi, and upward dog works them.
It's very helpful for me to figure out exactly what muscle is working and how, both in yoga in dance, and I find descriptions like "this is a skeletal movement" to be frustrating and problematic. Bone doesn't move on it's own, so there must be some muscle taking that bone from point A to point B. You don't have to be an anatomy expert to investigate your movements and see how your body works.
If you've made a discovery of your own, please share! Also please let me know if my analysis make sense at all!
