Global Mala

I have my new schedule for fall. I have my Tuesday 6 am Hot yoga class, which is pretty much flow at this point. I teach 8 pm Bikram on Wednesday and 6 pm on Sunday Bikram and a Sunday 7:45 Yin Class. I am hoping someone takes at least some of the 4 pm Saturday Bikram classes so I can have a day off, but that is doubtful. Dar wants that time off and Alex isn’t teaching and Karen works her job during that time, so I probably will get most of them. I did not get a flow class but there are so many flow teachers I wasn’t surprised. I am on the sub list so will still get some experience.

Last night I did Alex’s 108 sun salutation class. It was very challenging. We did non-traditional poses in lieu of lung during most of it and we did it on our own, so we were coming up with interesting stuff. By about 74 my stomach hurt and I thought I was going to get sick, but we stuck with it and by the last 20 were re-energized. We did it. I had to teach the Bikram class afterwards for Dar and was sweating a lot just teaching. I drank a lot of water and was stiffening up but did a few poses with the class. Today I am not stiff but can tell I will be when the lactic acid decides where to settle. I thought I would get sore arms and shoulders from all the chatarangas but now am thinking the hips, hammies, and legs may be sore. Depending on how I feel tonight, I might go to Bikram. Dar is really working my last nerve though. She is whining all the time about things and I get tired of it. I hate going to class to take a class and have her pour her bs at me when I want to practice and then expect me to teach. Last night was twice in the last week. Then she wants to trade and wants to tell me what class is convenient for her. A lot of students are getting sick of her too.

I get complimented a lot on my Bikram classes probably because I am not focused on myself like she is all the time. I try to help people, not use it for my own self-therapy. I gave two people props last night. I know other teachers won’t do that but if they need it, I am giving it to them. This one girl who was new had really bad pain in her knees during bow so I gave her a strap and she had no pain. What could be wrong with that?

I feel crabby today though. I just feel like everyone is unloading on me, especially at work and I have problems and my own stuff to sort out and I just get so sick of everyone whining all the time. I will offer them a great big cup of STFU! LOL

Happy Monday

What a busy weekend. I taught four yoga classes.

My first was an hour and a half flow class. I was taking it over for Julie who was out of town. It is an intermediate class and I combined some choreography from Julie and incorporated some Astanga moves. I felt a little choppy teaching it and felt it might have gone a little too fast in the flow, but the students were not familiar with some of the asanas and I think they liked learning something new. Most of the students at our school do like a challenge. The floor series was challenging. I did a lot of hip work with strap and as Debra would say, the next day it was all “HELLO HIPS!” I could really feel it and wonder if they were all cursing me. I ran into a couple of students over the weekend and they indicated yes they did feel it but they liked it. I hope to teach that again, but if I do I intend to slow it down and not try to fit in so much.

On Saturday and Sunday I taught two Bikram classes. I am totally comfortable with that now and feel I do not sound so much like a robot now. I have been doing a lot of reading for my home study and my yoga therapy book and am taking that and trying to apply that to my teaching while staying true to the Bikram series.

Last night I taught a late Yin class. Everyone loves that class. It is so relaxing and I was able to practice that with them after having already taken a Bikram class in the morning. It felt great. What a great way to wind down the weekend.

Last week I went seven days without a Bikram class and focused on my home Yin practice, other than the hip torture class I taught on Friday and my Tuesday am class. My hips are opening up and I was very relaxed but I always miss Bikrams. This week I intend to do six Bikram classes, but tonight am doing a home practice and will kick John’s butt since he was lazy all weekend. He tried to fool me by being in bed on the bolster when I got home all night but that is all he did. The bolster is really opening up my shoulders and he needs to be consistent too. Mr. Petrified Spine and Shoulder Man.

I had a student ask me about his back issue last night and I was able to answer his question! I really am getting in to the therapy aspect of this. It just so happens I had been reading about this particular problem. I felt so knowledgeable and was so glad to give him specific suggestions that were accurate and I wasn’t just grasping for easy answers! It felt great. I love love love love love teaching and all the students I have contact with.

Thursday

Tomorrow I am teaching my first Intermediate Flow to sub Julie’s class. I am using bits of choreography from other classes, my 6 am class, and some Astanga asanas that are a little more advanced than some of the flow classes at our studio. I really want to challenge them so I hope they like it. I have to find some music too so I have a lot to do before tomorrow at four.

I haven’t gone to the studio to practice since Sunday but am focusing on my home Yin practice. I am going to Bikrams tonight because I feel I need to work it out really hard.

I am experimenting with my diet and am going raw for a week. I hope I can do it for more than a few days but right now really have my mind set on a week. I feel very heavy and like things are not flowing right. I need to unclog the drain or something. I don’t feel very energized lately and am not sleeping well.

Marit sent around the new schedule for fall. She is adding quite a few classes so I hope to teach more. I have been teaching a lot but mostly just taking sub classes and I only have two scheduled classes. I would like more and since I teach Yin and Flow now, I can pretty much teach everything they offer so that gives me more flexibility. I am low on the Flow list though since we have Baptiste and Shiva Rea trained teachers but that is okay. I don’t mind just subbing for those for a while and I need to practice teaching that a while so I get in my comfort zone with teaching Flow. It is so different from teaching Bikrams and I feel like I have to change it up more whereas with Bikrams I always am teaching the same thing. I like the flexibility of flow but I also like not having to prepare for classes.

Monday

Although this journal is to record my yoga experiences and that I might be leaving a lot of my other life out, that really is not the case. My life and schedule seems to revolve around yoga at the present moment. I did three classes over the weekend and taught two, one of which I participated in. I also worked on my homestudy and choreographed two classes. Plus I did extra reading in the yoga therapy books I bought recently.

The weekend was short. I have to teach tomorrow morning and am going to practice at home tonight and kick John in the butt to practice too. I am also choreographing a flow class and might be teaching my first one on Friday. Julie asked me to sub so I told her to ask Marit. My Tuesday class is basically a flow as it is so I just need to lengthen it a little.

My Yin class is going really well and Yin is the practice I am using to try to be less of a pusher in my normal 5-6 Bikram classes each week. Yin is easier to do at home and more relaxing. I practiced with the Yin class I taught last night and the women loved that class. I had John do a class at home with candles and he complained much less than he normally does. He is my worst student. He does nothing but whine and complain and keeps telling me he can’t do it. I am pushing him though. His spine is practically petrified and it will just get worse as he ages.

This man who works with financial reporting with me at work came over today and told me about his back. Talk about a candidate for yoga therapy. He is 69 and just discovered he has quite a back problem. His spine is totally misshapen because he lies on the floor and has for 30 years. I thought he meant while he sleeps, but no. He lays on the floor every night and watches tv and reads the paper. He went to a doctor who gave him muscle relaxers which of course did nothing. So now he has gone to a chiropractor for a couple of months and claim it has helped. I mentioned yoga to him but he had no response to it. I am sure the chiro can help, but would love a patient like that for yoga therapy. Of course, people want a quick fix. He would expect results immediately, but I can only imagine that getting his spine in line would take a long time. I think I will research this a little.

Related Sutra to Life

Today I was doing my home study and writing notes on the Sutras and one particular Sutra related to what was going on in my life.

I had an amazing interview for an amazing job and was supposed to hear from them today so by now I assume I did not get the job. Instead of being disappointed and depressed I realize in the big scheme of things it does not matter. God has something better for me. I have already let it go. It would have been nice in light of all the things I have gone through in my career which I am not satisfied with but something better will come of it so I have to let it go.

I have a lot of home study this weekend and have been working on it today. I am going home now to do more. Yoga will be home practice tonight. I have to come up with another Yin class for Sunday and another class for Tuesday morning. I don't think I will have a focus class on Tuesday but a review of the previous classes. I don't want to throw entirely new poses for them every class but will give them the opportunity to practice what they have learned. I will have one or two new ones per class from now on but my class is really different from the other classes at my studio. Everyone seems to love flow but I just don't find it as rewarding as regular hatha practice so am focusing my teaching that way.

Shive Rea Yoga

I went to a class last night with a teacher who just got back from training with Shiva. It was an interesting class and I am glad I went. I was not wildly excited about it. There were a lot of flowly movement types of yoga and that was fun. It felt very goddess-y. The teacher was really good. Again, I wasn't wild over it.

I taught aBikram class after to 36 people and I thought it went well. There was about 8 new people and I was able to touch base with them even though it was a big class. It got very hot in there and it is very draining being in a hot yoga room for four hours. I was very drained when I went home and slept like a baby.

The yoga bolster came in the mail. I pretty much got it for John and his petrified spine and shoulder problem. I showed him how it loosened things up just by relaxing on it. I think he saw almost immediately how it opened his shoulders up. I need another one though. Will have to find one right away.

One of the flow teachers has disappeared abruptly from our studio and turns out the props I was using were hers but the studio owner said she would buy some blankets and more straps. I almost ran out on Tuesday. I just love teaching with them and the students use them if you show them how. Big surprise. Think I will encourage people to buy them and use them at home.

I bought the book Yoga for Wellness by Gary Kraftsow. Now if I only had time to read it! I am actually finishing my yoga sutra written assignment.

I have to work the front desk tonight and will do a Bikram class. I hope they find a replacement for me real soon at the front desk which stresses the heck out of me.

We Will Never Forget

Another entry how being a busy yoga teacher affects and diminishes your practice.
Just kidding. I am actually increasing the intensity of my practice and trying more things. Getting to a class at my studio 5-6 times a week is just not always going to be possible.

One thing I am doing is trying to practice more with the class I am teaching. This is not possible in Bikrams, but it is in my Tuesday morning class. Today I had 11 people! That is a LOT for 6 am class. I did practice some with them but I really had to help them this morning. The students at my studio are just NOT used to props. We sell them, but they don’t know what to do. I am using them heavily in that class and they are really loving it. So I helped them out a lot this morning. It was fun and so rewarding when they come out of a class they loved and you taught it. I felt good all morning. I love creating a different class for them every week. Today we focused on hips. I pulled some advance asanas out and taught them all modifications and what to work towards for the advanced postures.

I taught my first Yin class Sunday evening to four people. So I was able to practice with them. It was a nice class. Easy to teach. I taught Bikram right before that and that class just rocked. Lots of class energy and everyone was sweating buckets and working hard. I love it. My practice at home is mostly Yin. Or practicing what I want my Tuesday morning guinea pig class to do. Or working with John, my absolute worse student. He hurts all the time, his spine is petrified and he whines about it the whole time. I think he liked my Yin experiment though. He didn’t whine as much. He also has the tightest hamstrings I have ever seen in my life.

My homework right now is the Yoga sutras. I am reading them carefully and making notes and am getting a lot out of that about the practice of yoga and the practice of life. I think I was experiencing a lot of this without realizing it but am now aware of the journey and can better define.Tonight is a Bikram class. I am really ready to work out some stress. I do love the other yoga I do, but Bikram is still my method of just tearing it all out of me, the anguish and stress of every day life.

I remember six years ago today. I was at work and my very quiet coworker who had his radio on low came over to my desk and said something happened at the twin towers. I remember going in the lunch room and watching the tv they put out. I remember going to the gym and watching the news when I was on the treadmill. I remember the memorials. We have learned a lot since that day, but I will never forget the details of that day. I feel the same about Katrina. I have to say those two events shook up my life more than any. I was 5 when Kennedy was killed and remember that vividly. I also remember RFK. You just wonder what is next.....

TODAY

How time flies. I have been busy teaching. I taught three classes last Saturday and Sunday and got to practice two Bikram classes on Saturday and Monday. Monday there was one class due to the holiday and 41 people showed up. My fellow trainee from Marit’s group, Karen, taught and the class rocked. She is getting her PhD in Kinesiology and Movement so her detail and understanding of how the human body moves is amazing. Plus she is an Olympic athlete. She was awesome. The class was great. I love being in a big class. I was in the little pocket of right side of the room yoginis I love to practice with, Ryel, Angie, Mary, Diana, Eric, etc.

Tuesday I taught by FYB type class and got to practice. They seemed to love it. I really have them using the props. My emphasis was spinal work and I really felt it the day after and still do today. Next week I am preparing a hip opener class which will be an energetic standing series and then a Yin type of floor series that will cause them to not walk the next day. The reason I say that is that I am preparing a Yin class for Sunday night. I am taking Alex’s Yin classes for the next month and read the Paul Grilley book, did a mini-Alex workshop in Yin, emails with Alex, and last night practiced what I intended to teach and changed it up and can barely walk. So I will incorporate that into my Tuesday class. I came up with some creative Yin types of asanas.

I am really enjoying teaching a variety of classes. I love teaching Bikram but like making up my own classes. I have to get going on my Flow class. I am coming up with a lot of creative ideas but am really crunched with time with all the “real” work I have right now in my “real” job. I am also going to start hanging out with the Iyengar people once a week starting next Monday. I feel that will change up a lot of the way I teach.

TODAYS LESSON IS

Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat: Endurance training is antithetical to anti-aging. So it amazes me when guys in their 40s and 50s who are training for a marathon or Ironman suggest that doing so will keep them young. It won’t. You may feel like a stud now with your shaved legs and your magic marker biceps tattoos, but endurance training speeds up the aging process almost as fast as watching TV, drinking sodas and eating potato chips. Actually, in some cases, it speeds it up even faster.I know, I know, you’ve been told that exercise is the great panacea -- the fountain of youth -- and that the more you do, the greater the benefits will accrue. Well, science has started to prove that concept wrong, and I suspect the evidence in support of my thesis will accumulate exponentially now that the first generation of Frank Shorter "psychophants" has started dropping. There is a middle ground where there's a perfect balance of diet and exercise that will lead to the longest, most productive and "youthful" existence possible. But it certainly isn't found in endurance training. That said, I do think there are ways (some legal, some not) to mitigate the damage and extract the healthiest life possible if you do choose to train long and hard.
First, if I may, a little history lesson:Humans were just not designed to work for extended periods of time at 80-90% VO2max. Our evolutionary blueprint, the last draft of which was completed well over 10,000 years ago, set us up as great slow-movers and occasional fast sprinters. Our two primary energy systems are: (1) fat-based, which allows for long slow steady walking across the Savannah (or the Queen K after dark); and (2) ATP-based, which gave our ancestors 20 seconds of balls-out sprint speed to escape the charging saber tooth tiger (or let grandma lift the '67 Ford truck off gramps when the jack failed). We just weren't designed to operate at high revs for long periods of time. Doesn’t mean we can't, we can, but it's at an appreciable cost that I will explain shortly. It just means we weren't evolved to. Even our hunter-gatherer ancestors probably relied more on superior tracking skills and walking than they did running for hours or days after their prey. In fact, the energy costs of doing the latter were so high as to almost guarantee extinction. (Imagine your predicament when you run after an antelope for four hours and he gets away. Now you not only don't have any food, you’ve used up all your glycogen and, oops, there’s that frikkin' saber-tooth again, licking his chops.)But our bodies are among the best in Nature at adapting to hostile environments and self-destructive lifestyles. It's that capacity to adapt that allowed our ancestors to pass along their DNA blueprints to us, but it's also what allows us to today to weigh 500 pounds when we overeat a little, or allows addicts to thrive on a 60 Vicodin a day, when the rest of us would die taking 10. During the Irish potato famine, many went from living on nothing but 14 pounds of potatoes per person per day to living on nothing but seaweed and shoe leather for months. Now that’s what I call adaptation. But, I digress.Back when the concept of extended games playing was invented -- long before Dan Empfield was even born -- it was a natural alpha male thing to want to test the endurance of one guy against another. And because the first real endurance games probably only happened after the introduction of agriculture around 10,000 years ago, you could say that it was largely because of access to these new-fangled high-carbohydrate grains that we could first fully explore our adaptive endurance mechanisms. You could even argue that grains and sugars fueled the endurance fire as our early frat-boy ancestors attempted to one-up each other every generation until today, where we have type-As doing triple-ultra Ironman and Marathon de Sables back-to-back. Sure, they burn a little fat here and there, but most of it is based on a maladaptive second-rate carbohydrate energy system that was never contemplated in the original design prototype! OK, enough endurance history. What does this have to do with aging?Turns out that carbohydrate metabolism is an inefficient and costly way to locomote, especially if you intend to operate at high revs for long periods of time. Your muscles and liver can only hold 500-600 grams of precious glycogen (stored glucose) at any one time. Even for a well-trained runner, that’s only about two hours worth of fuel when you’re cranking sub-sixes. So it behooves an endurance athlete to consume lots of carbs -- the simpler the better -- and to accelerate the burning of fatty acids if s/he chooses to continue training and racing. And that's where the philosophies of endurance training and anti-aging agree to disagree.The requisite high intake of carbohydrates to provide fuel requires that an enormous amount of insulin be produced and circulated to help store it. Chronic high blood insulin levels promote inflammation. Anti-aging scientists will tell you that insulin is one of the best markers of longevity in all animals… that the less you produce (type 1 diabetics notwithstanding) the longer you live.Chronic high-level training naturally depletes glycogen, which causes the body to release the adrenal hormone cortisol to cannibalize muscle tissue in order to help make new glucose (gluconeogenesis). Besides tearing down valuable muscle, chronic cortisol release carries with it a litany of negative effects. It suppresses immune function, which opens the door not only for short term upper respiratory infections, but may leave the door open for longer term, more serious issues (asthma, cancer, heart disease [which we know has a strong inflammatory component]). Chronic cortisol release also reduces calcium uptake by bones, and it's not surprising that so many runner/triathletes -- especially women -- have low bone density. Anti-aging experts will tell you that among elderly, low bone density is a pretty accurate predictor of mortality. Break a hip bone when you're older and your chances of dying skyrocket.Speaking of cortisol, not only does training and racing tend to produce it, but even the training meals can produce it. A meal high in sugar and other simple carbohydrates can cause a dramatic rise in cortisol (as part of an insulin-adrenaline cascade). That's one reason why sugar is known as a powerful immune suppressor.The beta-oxidation of fats during heavy training generates oxidative fallout (also known as "free radical damage") at a rate that is often 20 times what you generate at rest. Oxidative damage of cellular constituents such as DNA, proteins and lipids can result in progressive destruction of cells and tissues. This oxidative damage is believed to be a contributing factor to many diseases including cancer, heart disease and aging in general. Your body has natural antioxidant systems designed to keep pace with your normal low-level fat-burning systems (walking and at rest) and even your occasional ATP-based "life or death sprint" systems, but it really wasn't designed to compensate for hours of high-level aerobic performance. Oxidative damage to cellular DNA is usually cleaned up by the immune system, which destroys damaged cells, but if your immune system is compromised, it may set the stage for major problems later on. The cumulative effects of oxidative damage are visible on the faces of many long-time mileage junkies, but it's the damage underneath that most aggressively counters any anti-aging efforts.Lean mass in general is one major defining predictor of longevity. The concept of dying of "natural causes" is, in reality, better described as "dying from organ failure due to loss of organ reserve and lean tissue." Organ reserve (the functional capacity of any or all organs necessary to support life) and skeletal muscle mass tend to increase or decrease together depending on the stimulus or lack of it. So, as a rule of thumb, anything you do to build muscle generally tends also to build or improve other tissue, including vital organs (heart, liver, lungs, kidneys, etc). Similarly, anything you do to diminish muscle tends likewise to have a negative effect on organ reserve. We call it "atrophy." Of course, the old adage "use it or lose it" has significance here, since it is presumed that by moving about, by doing work and generally being "vital" you give your body a reason to "adapt" to the work. Furthermore, because your muscles are generally fed either directly or indirectly by those organs, they are also called upon to adapt and stay vital. Stay in bed for a few weeks and you'll lose both muscle mass and organ reserve. If you are young, you can build both back with diet and minimal exercise. If you are old, it's often the beginning of the end.Generally, exercise is a great way to increase muscle mass and, hence, organ reserve. We were, after all, designed to move. The difference is that our DNA blueprints were fine-tuned to have us operating optimally when we walk long distances, sprint like hell periodically, move occasional heavy loads, climb trees and generally tap into our fat-based energy system and our ATP-based energy systems. The benefits of true low level activity are many: We develop an extensive capillary network to bring fatty-acid fuel to each and every muscle cell, we up-regulate the production of fat-mobilizing and fat-burning enzymes which take fat out of storage and present it to the mitochondria for combustion, we improve cardiac muscle efficiency and cardiac capacity and we increase natural internal antioxidant levels. As for the ATP-based system, intermittent heavy loads do increase muscle mass very effectively, also stimulating growth hormone release, as well as improving insulin sensitivity and promoting bone density. The net effect of surviving that run in with a saber tooth tiger was that you got stronger and better adapted to do it again next time.The problem with many, if not most, age group endurance athletes is that the low-level training gets out of hand. They overtrain in their exuberance to excel at racing, and they over consume carbohydrates in an effort to stay fueled. The result is that over the years, their muscle mass, immune function, and testosterone decrease, while their cortisol, insulin and oxidative output increase (unless you work so hard that you actually exhaust the adrenals, introducing an even more disconcerting scenario). Any anti-aging doc will tell you that if you do this long enough, you will hasten, rather than retard, the aging process. Studies have shown an increase in mortality when weekly caloric expenditure exceeds 4,000.That's why I stopped racing and training ten years ago and why I prefer hiking, sprinting and weight-training today. But what's a competitive type-A to do if s/he wants to kick age-group butt in Kona and NOT fade away prematurely?Given carte blanche to take advantage of all that medicine has to offer, I would aggressively consume antioxidants during my training (10-20,000 ORAC units per day), I would increase the amount of healthy fats (omega 3-rich) in my diet to 50% of total calories and I would only consume quality complex carbohydrates during my training. In fact, I would calculate my carbohydrate requirements on a daily basis and not exceed them. I would use simple sugars (e.g., gels) during long rides and races only to the extent they are necessary. That means I would do most of my training without them, saving them for races. I would work closely with a trained anti-aging doctor to monitor my fasting glucose, fasting insulin, free and bound testosterone, liver enzymes, cortisol, DHEA, hematocrit, ferritin and other parameters.I would incorporate therapeutic amounts of testosterone (yes, I know it's illegal, but I'm giving you the best-case scenario), to balance out high levels of cortisol when I have gone to the well too much. (On a side note, I find it doubly ironic that Floyd Landis was allowed to take thyroid hormone because of his exhausted thyroid and cortisone because of his necrotic hip, but was not allowed to take testosterone during training. If he had been allowed the testosterone, it's quite likely he would not have required the other two meds! And I believe he did not take testosterone).I would take at least 6 months away from training each year and focus on building lean mass and recovering from the prior season. Under those conditions, I am fairly certain that I could mitigate most of the damage done by any unnatural endurance endeavor I elected to do -- such as IM and marathons -- despite the known consequences.Now, what does all this mean for the generation of us who bought into Ken Cooper’s "more aerobics is better" philosophy? Is it too late to get on the anti-aging train? Hey, we're still probably a lot better off than our college classmates who gained 60 pounds and can't walk up a flight of stairs. Sure, we may look a little older and move a little slower than we'd like, but there's still time to readjust the training to fit our DNA blueprint. Maybe just move a little slower, lift some weights, do some yoga and eat right and there's a good chance you'll maximize the quality of your remaining years… and look good doing whatever you do.

In other words, DO YOGA!

This is what happens when a student turns teacher and tries to keep up yoga practice. (Along with full time job, relationship, etc)

NO time to post.

My morning class was fabulous. I have everyone using props and modifications and they love it! I had them doing hard stuff today, but using a block, strap, and blanket does NOT mean you are not doing hard yoga. I think I had them working harder and it is so much fun watching them try some new things. I had them using a strap with bow pose, standing and floor and they were huffing and puffing and really working hard I love it!