Monday, Wed. and Fri. are my double yoga days. I used to do double Bikrams, but now that I'm trying to establish a vinyasa flow practice I try and do one of each. I soon plan to drop Bikrams down to a minimum, but I have to admit that I'm a bit addicited to the heat and the sweat.
Anyway, I look forward to my practices on the days I don't have to train kettlebells so when I showed up for a 7:15am Bikrams class and no teacher showed up to lead...well, I had to take matterss into my own hands! Lucky me I have a key to my yoga studio. A good friend of ours and fellow HKC Mike Mayle, owner of Balance Yoga Center supported me in trying to establish some sort of KB lessons there, and provided me with my own key.
I knew the heat would be on, but I didn't know how to work the humidity! Didn't matter anyway....I was stuck there because of traffic, it would have taken me more than 30 minutes to get back home....to do what? I would have happily lead the other students there through class, even though I'm not a Certified Bikrams teacher, it was more about the liability of letting them inside of a Studio I didn't own. What if someone slipped in the bathroom, or some other crazy accidient? It wasn't my place to let anyone inside of the business, not so much about letting them practice.
So here we are, finally, to the point of this blogpost. Is it fun, or easy, to do a workout on your own, especially when you planned having the energy of a group, or partner to pull you along? It's one thing to plan a workout on your own, but when something happens beyond your control that breaks momentum, how do you react? Well, on depending on the day, it can have a different outcome...or will it?
Here are some other questions. Even if you train on your own, or decide to go ahead and not let anything get in your way of your training, do you still do the hard stuff? the boring stuff? Do you do the stuff you don't like? Do you do the Get-ups, squats, lunges, heavy presses, pull-ups, crunches, swings? Do you shorten the workout? Do you short the rep count? Will you train at the end of the day if you are used to early morning workouts, or the opposite....will you get up early to train when you can't do an evening workout?
I'm proud to say that my self lead Bikrams practice lasted exactly 90 minutes....all directed in my head. I didn't skip any poses, I didn't shorten any poses, not even the savasanas! I completed my practice with the last breathing exercise as I started to hear people arrive for the next classes. I rolled up my mat, set it down in the vinyasa yoga room, changed my clothes and did my second practice of the morning!
The only thing left I have to say is....there better be a teacher there tomorrow morning!
picture above right, me and Mike Mayle at the Reifkind/Whitley/Reifkind Workshop....he's probably going to kill me for writing this post....but I don't think he reads my blog...whew!
7 comments:
Wow, I'm impressed you did it all on your own. I mean, I could do it, but I would still need the CD or someone to talk me through the poses. In fact I'm planning a trip back home in April, where it will be 105 and 98% humidity, and I downloaded the official beginners class from iTunes so I can practice while I'm there.
As for working out on my own, I love the discipline and flexibility you're teaching me. There have been times I can't make it to yoga, but I have my kettlebells at home and I don't think twice to just do a KB session on my own (with the help of your archived routines).
Maribel,
I've done just the standing series on my own while at Certs (finishing in the 55 minutes), but somehow the floor series did not seem attractive, lol!
I'm glad you see the value in my archived KB workouts, but I'm confident now, even if you didn't have them you've learned enough to ad-lib.
I guess considering I ran 10 miles in 10 degrees with a -10 windchill this morning pretty much answers the question of whether or not I'd would not skip the hard stuff!
You may feel this as well with losing major poundage, but now that I "CAN" do this stuff-I "WANT" to do this stuff-so there is NO skipping the easy or the hard.
Diana,
You know you burn more calories training in the cold than the heat, right? LOL!
I would like to think I would do the hard stuff. I know at times I've bailed on the hard stuff as I always train on my own.
I lead a KB class, too and know that most of the class would bail if only one showed up.
With what you've blogged in the back of my mind now, I think I'll be more mindful of dropping the hard stuff.
I've also found, the biggest challenge is not the weight we move, but the brain.
yadmit,
I still bail on some of my weak areas of training. Thanks for reminding me that I'm not all that badass, lol!
The last time there was a no-show at yoga, I met you and introduced to the world of KBs!!! Love it! Since then I've bought a hot yoga mp3 for those no-show-yoga-teacher days.
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