dodgerroger

While in NYC I practiced four times:

1. Brooklyn Heights - this studio was recommended to me by Valerie. It was cool practicing in the studio where one of my yoga heros cut her teeth. My first class was taught by Vincent, who was good. It was so interesting to take a class from someone who has the distinctive New York flava. Later I found out Valerie used to practice with Vincent all the time.

2. Downtown - The Wall Street area is very confusing. It’s just so disorienting. Even with the iPhone I experienced a bit of directional confusion. Valerie recommended I try to take a class from Courtney. I took a class with this really thin blond lady that was really good and wouldn’t let me sit in tree even though I was gassed from standing separate leg forehead to knee. They recently installed new carpet and the fumes made me a little loopy. I thought the teacher looked kind of familiar and after class I asked her name and found out it was Courtney (Mace). I think she was the yoga champ a couple of years ago.

3.  Brooklyn Heights again - and I had Courtney again. She corrected my triangle.

4.  Flat Iron - I went with Andrea, one of my favorite teachers from Pasadena who moved to NY. We hung out the whole day. It was great. Other than a going away party, I’ve never hung out with Andrea socially and I had a lot of fun. I also picked up a valuable tip for locust in the class we took together. After class they gave me a chocolate zico for free. It was surprisingly good. I drink it regularly now (I’m drinking it right now in fact).

Anyway, here are the three things I learned:

1. I need to lock my knees in separate leg stretching. I know, I couldn’t believe it. Such a basic move, but sometimes you need to revisit the basics. After getting corrected two days in a row I realized I had probably gotten lazy.

2. When doing triangle on the right side I need to be careful I don’t push my hips too far forward. This causes the feet, knees and hips to be out of alignment and causes me to backbend slightly. One of my favorite Bikram phrases - “Too good is no good.”

3. The teacher at the Flat Iron studio said something that clicked for me regarding locust. He said that when you go to the gym and start doing bicep curls you are working your upper back in addition to your biceps. (If you think about it, if you didn’t engage your upper back for support you would just fall forward). He said when you do locust you can almost think about doing a bicep curl, but with your arms straight. For some reason this really helped me, because I’ve always had difficulty figuring out how to use my arms in locust.

When I was on vacation I ate and drank with no restriction. Part of this is philosophical, and part of it is that I knew I would be doing a cleanse shortly after returning home.