Day 2 and Day 3 : Death by Vinyasa

Date:  2nd October, Wednesday
Day: Day 2 and 3 ( making up for Friday this week: I'll be out of town - and no it's not cheating!)

Haha. Death is not really the term to use in a yoga blog. But when you go for two Hot Flow classes, then you are dead for sure. So I was in two minds about going for a Hot Flow in the evening. The Flow is drastically different from the hatha and hom classes, in the sense that there are NO breaks. It is exactly what the name suggests : flowing. There is no stopping, no lovely little savasanas  in between for you to catch your breath. You can of course take your own breaks and rest and have a sip of water if you feel it's too much for you. But the practice has no breaks built in. And a series of poses are connected to each other with the vinyasa, it's almost like dance, so beautiful to look at if you are a bystander and so painful to be in when you are practicing it. But like everything else in yoga, you learn to love it when you learn to do it well. And you learn to do it well, when you learn to control your breath and match each movement of your body with an inhale/exhale. 


I think if you literally translate "Vinyasa" from Sanskrit it means "connection". There are various levels of the vinyasa: from easy to complex. It can be a simple Cat-Cow posture, generally a warm up in an flow class that is good exercise for your strengthening your spine. 


                                 

A:  Cow : As you inhale, push your stomach towards the floor while lifting your head.

B: Cat : As you exhale, lower you head and wound you back to achieve a cat like posture.

The pose is a combination of two poses : Marjari Asana (Cat)  and Bitilasana (Cow). You can watch the lovely Shilpa Shetty demonstrate it on YouTube. The key of course is multiple repetitions of cat-cow. 

That's the easy vinyasa. I'll now talk about the difficult one : suryanamaskars or sun salutations. Here are the one we usually do in class:

(image courtesy : http://www.poweryogaottawa.com)

Now imagine doing that in a hot room, repeatedly. That too, in between other sets of strenuous core strengthening and balancing poses. It's absolutely like dance, a 60 minute dance! 

So for my evening classes I usually go for the 6:00 PM. I leave office by 5:30 and it takes me 15 mins to get to the studio, enough time to change and get used to the heat before you start twisting and turning your body in poses named after animals! But yesterday I saw that one of my favorite teachers in Hom : Daphne was back from her vacation and was taking Flow at 6:30. So I changed my schedule to go for the 6:30. Daphne's flow is a-b-s-o-l-u-t-e-l-y gorgeous. You'll almost kill yourself but the way you feel after you finish the class is incomparable to anything! In a flow class, there is no fixed sequence and each teacher is allowed to structure a class the way he/she wants it. They can make it as tough or as easy, they can choose to focus on your core or your arms or your hips or twists or inversions. Basically everything. Daphne does everything and you won't realize it, but by the end of the class you would have worked your entire body ! I love her flow classes because it embodies what a flow class is meant to be : a dance. 

But, what I didn't realize is that the 6:30 PM class is WAY more crowded than the 6:00 PM. So even though you get the energy of many many many more yogis, in a hot room it's pretty tough. Especially a class without breaks. It did get a little overwhelming towards the end. Daphne tried entertaining us as always, it's very easy to break into smile or laugh when you're in a downward facing dog in Daphne's class! Anyhow I survived it! 

With that, I smiled to myself. Before I went to sleep, I looked at today's schedule and I had signed up for hot flow on Wednesday morning, 7 AM. To tell the truth, I wanted to change it to something easier like Hatha. Haha. But I quashed that tiny little voice in my head and said "come on buck up and do it Nayana! " Of course, it helped tremendously that the teacher was Deborah. I LOVE her! I mean I LOVE her.  If you are in Singapore and want to try out yoga or are already a yogi, you NEED to check out Deb's classes at Hom. It doesn't feel like a class at all, i enjoy it so much. Deb is equally innovative and creative with her flow. And personally I prefer doing a flow in the morning than in the evening, it energizes you for the day and I think your body has a lot more strength, even though you have just woken up! I loved the flow this morning and so so so glad Deb was taking it. I met her after class and realized she is on a two week break starting tomorrow, so I am unfortunately going to see less of Deb during the course of my hot journey.  Can't wait for her to be back already lah!

So that's my day for now. I have a Hatha class lined up for 6 PM today with another star teacher  : Anton !

Namaste.