Teacher Training
I decided to double up on yoga classes tonight. I started the evening off after work with a Hot Power Fusion class with Jill and then stayed for her C1 class right after. I hadn’t taken a C1 class since I first came to CorePower Yoga to check out their yoga classes and decide if I wanted to sign up for the yoga teacher training program, which was way back in November of last year. I think I might have taken one or two C1 classes before I discovered the Hot Power Fusion classes. The rest is history.
C1 is a Vinyasa flow class. There’s no heat and there’s no humidity. Jill’s C1 class tonight was packed, as in three rows deep! I kept my original spot in the room from the earlier HPF class, up in the front row. As class started, I looked around and saw a whole lot of people in the room. I wondered if I should have moved to the back so I could watch the people in front of me. At this point, it was too late to move so I just had to roll with it and do the best I could in class.
There was one particular flow I remember doing quite a bit in class tonight. It was Downward Facing Dog to Chaturanga to Upward Facing Dog and then back into Downward Facing Dog again. Before we got too far into class, Jill did a really nice demo of the Chaturanga posture and also broke down each of the postures in this flow in front of everyone. From Chataranga to Upward Facing Dog, she was on the tips of her toes. It was quite impressive.
Apparently there’s much more to Chaturanga than I had originally thought. I’ve been in a Bikram Yoga bubble for the last six years and have only started branching out to discover other styles of yoga this year. Chaturanga hasn’t been in much of my own yoga practice, if at all. In fact, Chaturanaga to me has always been my favorite style of Athleta pants/leggings. I own several pairs in several different variations. In class tonight, I learned all about Chaturanga, the yoga posture. It’s quite a tough posture to do correctly. As Jill broke down the posture in her demo, I realized Chaturanga is essentially a low plank. In the posture, the body is straight and parallel to the ground, held in this position by the toes and palms, with the elbows a right angle. This posture helps build upper body and core strength. Chaturanga arms anyone? Since my core and upper body are quite weak sauce at the moment, my body shook the entire time I held it in this posture. And we did A LOT of these in class tonight.
I noticed some key differences in two of the postures we did in the C1 class tonight that are also done in all of the HPF classes I’ve been taking and even in Bikram Yoga. In C1, since this a Vinyasa flow class, both the Tree and Triangle postures are done way differently than what I’m used to. A hot yoga style Tree means you can take the bottom of the foot and put it all the way up on your thigh, either holding it in place with one hand or releasing both hands and putting them into prayer position. A Vinyasa Tree is done correctly by placing the bottom of the foot along the side of the standing leg, either below the knee or above it, but not on it. I couldn’t get my knee up very far up my leg. I wanted so badly to grab it and put it up on my thigh because that’s what I’m used to doing.
In Triangle, I’m used to bending the front leg over the ankle and reaching one arm up over my head while the other arm goes straight down to the ground, elbows at the knee and fingers reaching in-between the big and second toe. A Vinyasa Triangle is done with both legs straight without the arm coming all the way down to the ground. I struggled with this one big time once I realized I was doing something very different from what everyone else was doing in the class.
I’m slowly learning that even though the postures might be similar, not all yoga is the same. It’s been quite a fun journey so far discovering all of the differences among the different yoga styles.
Class #15, C1 at CorePower Yoga Ballard with Jill (Other CPY Class-3)