Wrap-Up: Movement Unit

After two and a half weeks of posing, stretching, aching, and sweating profusely, we have finally finished with the "movement" section of our project. We managed to attend many different types of classes, and sometimes even mustered up the willpower and energy to attend two classes per day. We took these classes at two different locations, Equinox Gym in Palo Alto and Being Yoga Studio in Burlingame. Here's what we did:

Bikram Yoga
This cleansing type of yoga is also known as "hot yoga" because the class is conducted in a room heated to 105°F. In this hot and humid environment, participants strike over 20 different poses and customarily do 2 breathing exercises as well. Like many other varieties of yoga, Bikram Yoga works by stretching and strengthening the entire body. However, there are also a few ways in which Bikram Yoga is unique; it is intended to detoxify internal organs and also stimulate the body's glandular systems. Many Bikram Yoga students believe that it is more effective than other varieties of yoga for achieving weight loss, possibly due to the cardiovascular challenge that this class involves. Unfortunately, beginners in this class sometimes cannot feel the benefits right away; it is very common for newcomers to experience nausea or dizziness. But, in our experience, we did not notice either of these unpleasant side effects. On the contrary, we enjoyed this class a lot. Even through the sweat and the stench (which was truly terrible in the yoga studio), we both agreed that this class felt very rewarding afterwards. As we slipped on our mats and dripped sweat from our foreheads, we struggled to hold difficult poses and slow down our rapid breathing. The class was a challenge, but we left feeling as though we had really gotten a full-body workout. And, we had the sweat to prove it.

Deep Flow Yoga
The Deep Flow Yoga class at Equinox is a spinoff of Vinyasa Yoga. The two classes are very similar in several ways; both focus on movement from one pose to the next, and are designed to improve balance, alignment, and physical awareness. The key difference between the two classes is that in Deep Flow Yoga students hold individual poses for much longer than in the regular Vinyasa Yoga class, and the poses are slightly more basic. As a result, this class focuses much more on the individual student's goals, breathing, and overall experience. Both of us enjoyed this class much more that its' more vigorous counterpart; Deep Flow Yoga felt simple and soothing, and we left the studio feeling relaxed. Some of the poses were challenging, but there was almost always a "beginner" version of the pose that was much easier. In Vinyasa Yoga, on the other hand, we were constantly scrambling to hit each pose and left the studio feeling dejected. The Deep Flow Yoga class allowed us to focus on our breathing patterns and short-term goals for the class. Overall, this class felt very satisfying; we were able to leave feeling as though we had succeeded, for once!

Kriya Yoga

The main objective of Kriya Yoga is purification of the body, mind, and spirit. Through a slow series of different poses and rotations, yoga students direct their life energy to revolve around the body. This is supposed to purify the student and bring them closer to spiritual enlightenment. In practice, Yin Yoga is very similar to a meditation session; the poses are not strenuous or difficult, and there is a strong focus on breathing. Physically, we both found this class to be manageable. For once, we actually had good enough balance and flexibility to work through the poses with the rest of the class (we kept up, too!). Mentally, it was a little bit more difficult. During some of the longer meditation periods, we had a hard time maintaining focus and staying present. Throughout those long sessions, our instructor repeatedly told us things like, "let your thoughts pass by like clouds in the sky." Both of us agreed that this was much easier said than done. Whenever a foot itched or a muscle was sore, it was difficult to stop thinking about it and focus instead on breathing or "thought itself." Afterwards, we felt as though we hadn't gotten as much out of the class as many of our classmates because we both struggled so much with meditation.

Nia

Nia is a combination of martial arts, dance, and poses designed to provide a cardiovascular workout as well as muscle strengthening and conditioning. The class is very fast-paced, and it incorporates dance-step combinations that involve each of the above elements. As a pair, we definitely lack rythmic coordination, and both of us would describe ourselves as terrible dancers. So, Nia was a challenge for us. The movements and poses were generally manageable, but repeating and combining them was more than we could handle. For the first half of our first class, we pathetically tried to imitate the instructor but were constantly lagging behind the rest of the class. Slowly, we were able to pick up our pace a little bit, but our fundamental lack of rythm still held us back. This class is intended to restore the body, mind, emotions, and spirit, but unfortunately, we had a hard time experiencing these uplifting benefits and instead suffered serious injuries to our pride.

Pilates Mat

This class provides an introduction to the principles of pilates. It emphasizes strength, flexibility, and agility through series of movements and gentle repetition. Unlike Pilates Power Play, this class is not much of a cardiovascular workout, but it does condition and stretch the muscles. The class also incorporates a mini yoga ball to provide an extra challenge and improve stability. This class was challenging but not frustrating; in other classes, we often felt as though we were falling behind or failing to hit the correct poses but in Pilates Mat we were able to challenge ourselves to a comfortable level. Using the mini yoga ball was often difficult, and because both of us have fairly poor balance we found ourselves falling over or shaking more than our experienced classmates. But, since the class was comfortable and slow-paced, it wasn't frustrating when we couldn't stay stable or had to re-start a pose. This was another class that felt rewarding afterwards; our aching muscles were proof that we had worked hard and conditioned our bodies, but we also left the studio without a sense of embarrassment or failure (we weren't quite proud of our performance yet but at least we weren't ashamed!).

Pilates Power Play

For more information about Pilates Power Play, check out our blog entry about this class!

Vinyasa Yoga

For more information about Vinyasa Yoga, read our blog entry about this class!

Yin Yoga

Most yoga directs stimulation and conditioning towards muscular tissues, often known as the yang tissues. Yin Yoga differs from other types of yoga in that it directs the stimulation deeper than these muscular yang tissues, but rather to the connective tissues. The connective tissues, or the yin tissues are the ligaments, bones, and the joints. More specifically, Yin Yoga targets the connective issues in the hips, pelvis, and lower back. Yin Yoga is believed to lengthen the connective tissues, improving one's range of motion and flexibility more so than lengthening muscular tissue can. In order to lengthen these tissues, students are forced to hold positions for a much longer period of time than regular yoga, which requires much patience and relaxation. For us, Yin Yoga was indeed very different from the other types of yoga we had practiced. We often had to hold positions for a long time - mostly about 5 minutes, but we held one for 12 minutes! While many like to practice Yin Yoga during the day so that muscles are not warmed yet, we went to a nighttime class. Our instructor told us that he believes practicing at night is psychologically soothing. With Yin Yoga, we were really forced to fully relax our muscles and let them go, rather than than strengthen them and push them to hold difficult positions. Yin Yoga poses are much simpler and easier than poses we did during other types of yoga, but we found it more relaxing rather than boring. We both agreed that this was our favorite type of yoga; it was the most relaxing and we felt an immediate difference on our joints afterwards.

Yoga Tune-Up

This class is very similar to another Equinox class, Yoga for Beginners. The class went over basic yoga poses, when to breathe in and out, and how to hold and maintain difficult poses. We both enjoyed this class because we didn't struggle to keep up with the rest of the class. It wasn't necessarily easy, but it was much easier than the rest of the classes we did. We wish that this had been the first class that we had attended, but it was comforting and confidence-boosting to know that we could keep up with a class and that there were others in our same position!