Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Vinyasa

The ‘holiday vibe’ is beginning to wear thin. I’m really starting to miss my routine: early to bed, early to rise, twice daily meditation, healthy meals. I was going to try to move back into that schedule this week, but it didn’t make a lot of sense, given that I’m up very late for New Year’s Eve anyway. I’ll definitely get back into the swing of things over the weekend though - I must.

For years, I’ve endured almost constant construction and renovation in this stupidly over-priced building with little benefit. But the amenities are coming: last week, management announced the opening of the gym. I checked it out and discovered it isn’t bad! There’s an elliptical trainer, a stair climber, a treadmill, some weight stuff. Lots of room for yoga. And free yoga classes, which happen to fall on a night that I already teach (not that I would be very interested in ‘beginning yoga’). There’s space for practising inversions and the gym seems to be empty during the workday.

For years, rumours circulated that there was a ‘hidden sauna’ in the basement. I always scoffed, but the those rumours were true! Who knew?! The sauna reopened along with the gym and it’s obviously an old, retro sauna that was cleaned up. But it works fine. I used it this morning. If I want a serious sauna experience I’ll need to heat it up ahead of time but I was toasty warm for my practice.

I also found out last week that I have free use of the gym facilities at the neighbourhood community centre I work at. This is a boon because they’re close by and they have particularly nice facilities - salt water pool, sauna, steam room, whirlpool and a full range of fitness classes. I have access to all of it now. No excuse for not going to the gym! I have three to chose from (I also can use the small gym I teach at downtown).

I had big plans for my practice this morning which fell through because I lost track of time. I had planned to do the free weekly class over at YogaToday, but ended up doing a shorter one, ‘Opening to Hanumanasana’ with Adi. I was not terribly impressed with it, given that the video froze up about 16 minutes into the practice. I already had the gist of what Adi was doing with the sequence so I improvised for the last 10 minutes and did a 5 minute Savasana. I may give this site another shot, maybe tomorrow, maybe the 60 minute class.

The announcement went out for WoYoPracMo yesterday and I’ll excited about it. Even though I’ve been practising daily all year, it’s a great boost to renew my commitment. Plus, I’ll have a posse again, at least for a month! Are any of you planning to participate?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Definitely give Yoga Today another shot. Adi, specifically, has done a lot for my home practice. I do one of her classes nearly once a week. They're usually very strengthening, and her alignment points are strong and persistent.

Kaivalya said...

@TheMisanthropicYogini
Good to hear some feedback about this teacher - I'll give her another shot, probably in February since I'm roped into my Astanga class for the balance of January. Cheers!