Yoga Man Roll Call

Reviewer: A viewer (Alabama)
I didn't actually do the exercises on this video because the instructor suggests that you watch the video first. I watched the video and I have to admit that it was very hard to watch the video. One, the video is too long. The case states the video is 68 minutes and, in my opinion, if an exercise video is going to be that long it needs good music and, if it is yoga, it should be a flow series.Second, this video is in "sets" which means that the instructor does each group of exercises about 3-4 times and then moves on to another set. Yoga is not the most exciting exercise in the world so to break it down in sets made it even worse. In addition, I think doing each set 3-4 times is a bit too much.What I liked about the video is the excellent instruction given and the modification for the beginner and the advanced. I think you will definitely develop a hard body using this tape. The problem is that not many people will be motivated to do the tape to get the hard body.

(from the amazon review to the video refez linked)

I have 2! (inches).

And I agree with Remy-- Amazon reviews suck.

1) I can't stand heat
2) I can't stand smells
3) I can't stand up for an hour, let alone and hour and a half

Adam if you are serious about learning yoga even as a physical discipline and nothing else, I recommend reading Autobiography of a Yogi first.

it is funny how few blokes do yoga, considering that women weren't allowed do it until recently.

-- DV (dirtyvica...), November 3rd, 2004. (dirtyvicar) (later)

?!??

I chose my class strictly by convenience (the place is a five-minute walk from my house and the class is at one of my few free times during the week) and was a little disappointed by my teacher at first glance--she's a little old lady from Homeland. But after about 15 minutes the first day, I realized a) she has the all-supple-muscle bod Demi Moore has spent years shelling out $ for, and b) she could kick my ass at yoga, and probably in a couple of other ways as well.

I don't do yoga that often, I'm lazy.

lulu lemon make magical pants

Yoga Man Roll Call!

I will go back next week, and the week after that, and the week after THAT etc. I am not going to let yoga beat me.

Yeah, I've started going to a place in downtown MV that has the distinction of using Comic Sans for their signage.

brilliant! if i find myself down the peninsula of an evening i will have to check it out.

In that case, you should know that there are TWO yoga studios in the vicinity. I haven't gone to the other one but the studio I'm talking about is this one.

i knew that ;-)

comic sans 4vr

ps based on yr posts itt and in fitchix, if u ever want to join me here i promise you will enjoy: http://www.urbanflowyoga.com/

lolol

I never go up to the city anymore but now maybe... (that is a hueg class!)

Vis-a-vis the search for an adequate top for a yoga man -- anyone try compressions shirts, like those Under Armour tops?

yeah - they work but it can get pretty hot in there and I'm vain enough that i'll only go there if i'm in game shape.

this is my current go-to: http://shop.lululemon.com/products/clothes-accessories/men-tops/5-Year-Basic-V-240350

haven't tried but this might have potential: http://www.underarmour.com/shop/us/en/mens-charged-cotton-vneck-undershirt/pid1234032-001

I know what you mean! FWIW, I'd probably just wear it under another tee (I need shoulder support).

Jeez! $52!

jaymc, how much are yr yoga classes?

I tend to wear the black Dickies t-shirts that have developed holes / frayed colors / excessive fading / stains and are therefore no longer suitable for daily wear.

I am the same, fashion-wise. My yoga class is all 18-22 year old undergrad women with like three or four undergrad guys who are serious jocks. I am the old professor dude in the back in the punk rock t-shirt w tattoos, sticking out like a sore thumb. But the class rules so why not? nobody is looking at you in yoga, everybody turns inward anyway.

why dont u guys just not wear shirts its way more comfortable

This is an hour long neck and shoulder yoga. You feel really great after doing this. Heck, just after the first 5 minutes (the neck stretches) it wakes me up every time.

― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Saturday, September 8, 2012 11:00 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

imna try this, i love rolling my head around

anyone here a yoga autodidact?

Tried another heated yoga studio this weekend (not quite Bikram hot, but I was melted all the same). Noticed the demographics are a lot younger, and the yogis wear fewer clothes. Huh.

I wanna get back into it, but only after I read The Science of Yoga : The Risks and The Rewards, by William J. Broad. Though mainly known for reporting on environmental issues, he's also been doing yoga for a long time. The book apparently tells quite a bit about good and bad teachers, judging by recent interviews (check the one in Fresh Air's archive, for inst).

I've read most of it, but Broad seems a little too sanguine and credulous at times, though I confess I'm not familiar with his work. (I did hear the Fresh Air interview.) Still, I've taken to heart some of the warnings he mentions (and I think that the Fresh Air interview is pretty good for getting them, without necessarily going through the book.)

been jogging for three weeks, legs are starting to scream at me. maybe it's time for a one a week again.

Broad is clown tbh.

Bad form to post pictures of oneself doing headstands, wheels, etc. in this thread?

/humblebrag

You can do wheel? Fuck you.

My regular weekly class, which I'd been doing for almost 4 years, came to an end recently. So I have not been doing yoga as regularly. Tonight I went to a class at my wife's gym, and the teacher reminded me of Paul Giamatti.

Clouds, sorry I missed your question from 2012!

too late, i'm dead now. :C

Hilarious that a yoga men thread exists, and that it has hundreds of posts.

Been posting bits and pieces on my six months so far:

Yoga - CD/SD

I think my fear is that my yoga teacher might disappear (unlikely) or I might not be able to go to her if my life changes. I am, it seems, dependent on her (a couple of other teachers are not the same at all). No one's fault - but I don't like it. I'll enjoy this class for as long as I can but it is important to find other Iyengar/Hatha practitioners that are nearly as good/build a network.

But it is important to always be instructed, exchange ideas - much more into it as a lifetime's practice than mere exercise - that angle is ok but I don't care for that very much.

I finished Mark Singleton's book charting the genesis of modern postural yoga (The Yoga Body). It's an amazing and beautiful academic study (he goes through hundreds of yoga manuals and exercise books from the early 20th century). The book is written for a general audience though it helps if you've done some practice as you know the names of the poses.

He writes an article and summarises it here.

https://www.yogajournal.com/yoga-101/philosophy/yoga-s-greater-truth/

There is also an excellent podcast where he talks about the book ten years on from the publication.

Amusing to read about his crisis of faith in that piece (which he doesn't talk about in the book). I am now halfway through my own teacher training course, but there isn't any of that from me.

Since that book some old Hatha yoga texts have been found and translated. The Hatha yoga project at SOAS has delved into that. There is a book compiled which lists 112 asanas, with six sequences. These findings don't invalidate Singleton's book as Sun Salutation is very much a modern construction but all of this shows how a thing such as yoga changes and adapts over a very, very long period of time. It's all fascinating history as much as anything else.

Here is more details on that Hatha book.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ha%E1%B9%ADh%C4%81bhy%C4%81sapaddhati

good article

Singleton's work is reminiscent of recent research on the history of karate and other martial arts, where checking the folklore against the historical record turns up similar 19th century Western influences and 20th century processes of systemization

in any context where oral traditions and lineages are central to the production of styles, organizations, and schools, a lot of practitioners just don't want to hear this stuff

I think it's uncomfortable because a lot of exercise and physical cultures veered into eugenics and fascism, and some of that goes into modern yoga - and you see glimpses of that when anyone who isn't thin or young who talk about their struggles in a yoga class where the teacher doesn't know what to do because they paid for a quickie course to become a teacher and have no experience. Or don't know what to do or care.

it's much easier to say "my teacher and our past masters did it this way" than to find better answers to questions like "what is this for and why are we bothering?"

authenticity based on lineage is also a quick way for new teachers to get some status and authority -- not necessarily a bad thing unless it blocks them from thinking critically about their practice and learning from research, other styles, etc.

I like Mahler's line: "Tradition is not the worship of the ashes but the preservation of fire."

lineage is bad but no lineage is worse. if your teacher can’t name their teachers, that’s a big red flag.

that said, 100% agreed on the Mahler line, and 1000% agreed that lineage cannot be treated as a substitute for svadhyaya

The teachers that don't adhere to a lineage would need to have spent quite a bit of time learning other lineages of postural yoga for me to go to them.

The algs pointed me to this piece. Basically covid has hit yoga studios badly and it might be the opportunity for a reset. I don't think you can teach in depth online though.

Yoga being less of a business would be good.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/white-middle-class-yoga-teacher-problem/

rogermexico OTM about inability to name teachers being a red flag

It's also a red flag if I ask a young person about their studies and they reel off a long list of disparate teachers and schools.

I tracked down Yoga Body and enjoyed it a lot. Singleton keeps his debunking to the necessary minimum and instead emphasizes the creativity of modern yoga systematizers and the role of print and photography in the propagation of 20th century physical culture.

It’s also a red flag if I ask a young person about their studies and they reel off a long list of disparate teachers and schools.

I tracked down _Yoga Body_ and enjoyed it a lot. Singleton keeps his debunking to the necessary minimum and instead emphasizes the creativity of modern yoga systematizers and the role of print and photography in the propagation of 20th century physical culture.

This book was doing the rounds a couple of months ago. I won't read it and from the articles it doesn't sound like she has a lot of practice to back what she's saying. But the message of affordability and taking this to people is an excellent one.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/03/yoga-white-wellness-industry-21st-century-colonialism

rogermexico otm obv

I love how the author of that Guardian column echoes the standard folklore ("The origins of historical Indian traditions are notoriously difficult to date, but it is thought the ancient practice of yoga may have emerged between 2,500 and 10,000 years ago ...") as the basis on which she tries to wrestle with present-day whitewashing and decolonization. Before attempting judgments about appropriation, it might be useful to consult some evidence-based history about how she and the people she's writing about received their yoga.

I am not a yoga man so as a guest on this thread I should be polite. Appropriation, colonization, and whitewashing are real and relevant in this context, but those concepts can't be much use when one premise of the analysis is a handwavey orientalist "tradition" with limited demonstrable relationship to the existence of yoga in the modern world.

It's interesting to compare these yoga authenticity debates to the (less informed, less attractive) debates around authenticity in martial arts, where orientalism and the narcissism of small lineage differences have both lost ground in recent decades to the idea that the only authentic martial art is the one most efficient for (hypothetically) killing people or (less hypothetically) winning combat sports competitions.

In both cases (yoga and martial arts) there are a few historians working to document how these practices were formalized and reproduced, but that scholarship has little influence on "the yoga industry" and "the martial arts industry" (both allegedly expected to generate something like $10B in 2023).

Looking over this piece on Italian food. A tradition that has changed as time has. Really interesting how the right have used this idea, in the way the BJP use yoga in India.

https://www.ft.com/content/6ac009d5-dbfd-4a86-839e-28bb44b2b64c

i attended my first class in years at the nice climbing gym about 10 minutes' drive away. i signed up for a promotional 2-week discount pass with unlimited classes at the gym, which is about 3 double stories tall. i've already signed up for another yoga class tomorrow evening with a different instructor. i forgot how good a full class could feel. solid instructor, basic vinyasa sequences, uncrowded, high ceiling room on the third floor with lots of light. i've been doing the same handful of poses on my own for 3-4 years so it was funny how confident i was in a warrior pose while my pyramid pose was a mess. it was so nice. fantastic body high afterward. they also do bjj and tai chi. i signed up for a bjj class on wednesday night. i'm already thinking about how i can squeeze in the $129 / month membership fee once my two weeks run out.

sounds great. i found a really good class early this year (nice big room, good instructor with challenging sequences) but did something mysterious and painful to my left shoulder and haven't been able to go which is frustrating. i miss the focus i get from yoga.

sounds great. i found a really good class early this year (nice big room, good instructor with challenging sequences) but did something mysterious and painful to my left shoulder and haven't been able to go which is frustrating. i miss the focus i get from yoga.

ouch. shoulder injuries suck :(. hope it heals sooner rather than later.

Been doing quite a bit of Shadow Yoga to back up my Iyengar practice. Taking a class a week.

The issue in yoga is the stiffness in bodies through sitting on furniture / working on computer, and what it does to the joints (wrists, shoulders, hip joints etc.) and how yoga needs to tackle it. In Iyengar you do a lot of standing postures, which is not in any old Hatha yoga manuals.

I am very interested in the dynamic squats in this practice (the guy who set that up was with Iyengar for 20 years) and how it gets some of the 'stance' movements from Indian dance and martial arts.

The teacher is the very experienced and she really challenged me when I told her I was practicing this alongside Iyengar yoga, and she wanted me to give that up and do one thing.

I ignored it I am carrying on with both as I feel experienced enough to handle it, but there is something to what she says.

A common question in traditional martial arts is whether or when to cross-train in other systems. There is often wide variation in the way the most basic postures and movements are taught, and for new students simultaneous exposure to two or more systems interferes with the repetition-based learning that makes movement patterns smooth and accurate.

For more experienced practitioners, cross-training is valuable but sometimes difficult. When one version of a pattern is thoroughly engrained through long-term practice, it can be very hard to perform or even perceive the nuances of a similar but different pattern. With patience these struggles can be fun and help maintain "beginner's mind."

Martial arts schools and organizations often discourage or prohibit cross-training because it's seen as showing a lack of commitment (or, tacitly, because it's commercially disadvantageous). Sometimes this message goes along with an insistence that their own system is the one true lineage, other systems are fundamentally flawed, and so on. In other cases the message is: you're not going to be able to learn our system well at the same time you're learning another, so you should choose one and focus on it.

Appeals to lineage authority aside, any assessment by an experienced teacher is worth listening to, especially if their motivation seems to be more generous than simply wanting to recruit a new customer.

help maintain "beginner's mind."

this should always be the case imo. there is no such thing as mastery and beginner's mind is all there is.

someone demanding that i only adhere to their system = huge red flag. pretty much against all my values.

i heard the term "guru hunger" the other day. many teachers out there = hungry gurus. i liked what my instructor at the climbing gym said - she's just a "guide". different guides have access to different layers of the territory.

I would say she is generous as it's a fairly cheap class and she makes her money teaching private clients. She is v experienced in Iyengar and some Ashtanga. Her take was that she just wanted me to take it seriously and not muck about, and she was happy if I didn't see her again.

But that was all in my first couple of classes, we haven't talked about this in a couple of months.

I will watch the situation and see how this develops..

I (lacking allegiance to any yogic sub-discipline) stopped my yoga studio membership 2 months ago, to focus on cycling in the summer, but also because I started wondering why I was still doing it.

Of course, my plan to fill in the gaps with self-led yoga/pilates, and with my unimpressive office gym, have fallen short by about 98%. Hurting my back after post-vacation exercise also made me better realize how I benefit from regular yoga. So it’s back to the studio, I’m just sick of how some instructors use the same spotify-slop playlist over and over for years, or have a schtick that gets tiring the 50th time around. I’d try a different studio, but this one is otherwise good and very convenient. I don’t know, I wish I had the motivation and interest I had in my first few years, whereas now it sometimes just feels like the most convenient way of making my body look nicer.