@Iruka where do you go, if you don't mind me asking?
@Lost Salient Yoga con amor. Its north-ish, off burnet. Not sure where you are, but the studio has a nice vibe. Our teacher is cool and takes the breathing/meditation pretty seriously, she also does private sessions that are even more into that (we take the beginner class, so its kinda light) We usually do the sunday noon class, hit me up in PM if you want more direct info.
Cool! That's probably too north for me to just do a drop-by - I live right downtown and don't end up north very regularly. But maybe on my way back on Sunday from the birthday party I'm going to on May 2nd up in those parts!
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
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TL DRNot at all confident in his reflexive opinions of thingsRegistered Userregular
Yeah I think had I done that the time, it would have been fine, but now the problem comes not so much with pressure on the knee as even weightless deep bends. Like sitting on the ground with my feet tucked in might irritate them. I did PT for awhile, it didn't really stick. Doctor told me recently I just need to do extensive biking in high gear, but olol colorado weather. I think the biking will do the trick, just going to take awhile.
I wonder if he might be able to recommend some indoor-friendly strength exercise; squats or something similar.
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TL DRNot at all confident in his reflexive opinions of thingsRegistered Userregular
though within like 1 mile of me there are probably a million yoga studios
poo
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TL DRNot at all confident in his reflexive opinions of thingsRegistered Userregular
Yep, yoga as a business model is kind of fucked.
Classes are unprofitable due to a glut of teachers -> studios offer teacher training to make money -> more teachers enter the market, further depressing prices.
Not that it's inherently a bad thing, because yoga should be available for everyone. It's just up to us who can afford it to make sure our teachers are compensated well.
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Lost Salientblink twiceif you'd like me to mercy kill youRegistered Userregular
edited April 2015
I don't really mind being in close quarters in my classes (which is good when they offer Groupons at my studio, oy), but I was totally floored in a busy hot yoga class when this woman came in and proceeded to just ignore the instructor and do whatever she wanted on her mat for the next sixty minutes. Like, I don't care how badly you want to show off your flexibility, it is so not okay to roll out in a jam-packed studio and just do whatever postures you want whenever you want. The only reason busy classes are still doable is because everyone is moving their bodies more or less together.
Then on top of that during part of the claass she put her block down on top of my yoga mat and tossed her towel at me
I wanted to destroy her like a Japanese hornet killing a bee
Lost Salient on
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
TL DRNot at all confident in his reflexive opinions of thingsRegistered Userregular
I've heard of that once before, also at a heated studio. It was only 2 students; one was the special snowflake who just wanted to pay to use the room, and the other was a first-timer who kept getting distracted and trying to emulate her. My friend teaching the class was furious.
I've heard of that once before, also at a heated studio. It was only 2 students; one was the special snowflake who just wanted to pay to use the room, and the other was a first-timer who kept getting distracted and trying to emulate her. My friend teaching the class was furious.
what
seriously what haha only two people there and you still feel like you should act like a dick?
I think using someone's mat for block storage is pretty disrespectful, but as long as the person is keeping to their own space, I don't care if they follow the poses I or the instructor give. And in the case of a super-heated room, I would totally understand someone just wanting to use the space, since achieving that heat at home might not be possible. That said, you need to not interfere with the movements/mats of other students. If you're distracted by someone not doing exactly what everyone else is, I see that as a reminder to bring your focus back to your own mat and your own body.
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TL DRNot at all confident in his reflexive opinions of thingsRegistered Userregular
I think using someone's mat for block storage is pretty disrespectful, but as long as the person is keeping to their own space, I don't care if they follow the poses I or the instructor give. And in the case of a super-heated room, I would totally understand someone just wanting to use the space, since achieving that heat at home might not be possible. That said, you need to not interfere with the movements/mats of other students. If you're distracted by someone not doing exactly what everyone else is, I see that as a reminder to bring your focus back to your own mat and your own body.
I agree that the message to the student should always be to focus on their own practice, but we're talking about someone going completely off-routine in the presence of people who are new to yoga. It would be a different story if this was a case of a simple modification, I think.
+1
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Powerpuppiesdrinking coffee in themountain cabinRegistered Userregular
Yeah I think had I done that the time, it would have been fine, but now the problem comes not so much with pressure on the knee as even weightless deep bends. Like sitting on the ground with my feet tucked in might irritate them. I did PT for awhile, it didn't really stick. Doctor told me recently I just need to do extensive biking in high gear, but olol colorado weather. I think the biking will do the trick, just going to take awhile.
I wonder if he might be able to recommend some indoor-friendly strength exercise; squats or something similar.
He specifically recommended against squats, but said I should keep going to yoga. It's so hard when I'm busy
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TL DRNot at all confident in his reflexive opinions of thingsRegistered Userregular
For the first time in months, my Sunday practice was not following a week of heavy lifting.
Two rounds of forearm balance for 5-6 breaths and it felt amazing.
I have started going to a heated more "advanced" vinyasa class and it is great
but I am also trying to figure out what to eat before classes that happen at noon or like, 5:30
a 7 PM class I just eat dinner at 6 and I am fine, the other classes sometimes I feel like I don't eat enough and get low blood sugar (or prob dehydration in the heated class) near the end of class
also in the sweaty classes man I sweat a lot, I feel like I need three towels instead of just two, oi
TL DRNot at all confident in his reflexive opinions of thingsRegistered Userregular
Why three towels? Wicking fabrics, grippy mat, embrace the sweat and just throw everything in a bag when you hit the showers.
I'd kill to be able to hit a noon class during the week, but there's no way I could take 2 hours out of my day to drive to a studio, practice, change and maybe shower, and return to work over my lunch break.
Personally, I've been going inconsistently on Sundays to the same teacher I've been seeing for ~3-4 years now. It's a pretty rigorous class but accessible to newcomers, and I'm really feeling that the path forward is developing my personal practice. To that effect, I practiced once at home last week for 45 minutes, which was nice. I'm not thinking it needs to be a daily thing like the Ashtangis, but twice weekly to warm up with some flow and then explore other postures would be amazing.
I'm quitting my current gym at the end of December and I think I'll have more time and interest to dedicate to it then.
it's a pretty fast flow class, which I like. we do some core in the middle (situps etc). about 3/4 through she gets us into a pose like an inversion or uh, this one where you hold your body/legs up on your arms and lift up off the ground (which I couldn't really do ha)
then after that more cooldown like stuff, stretching etc into savasana
sorry I am still a noob about most of the poses
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TL DRNot at all confident in his reflexive opinions of thingsRegistered Userregular
this one where you hold your body/legs up on your arms and lift up off the ground
Side crow?
That's cool, sounds pretty active. My regular class is enough to get you sweating (in a non-heated room) but not a really fast flow like you'd expect from classes with marketing like 'power yoga' or 'rocket yoga'. Enough to warm up the joints before getting into deeper poses as well as a good number of balances (tree, half moon, dancer), inversions, back bends, and arm balances (usually crow or forearm balance).
My least favorite is a routine based on locust post. Lay facedown and do backbends of various flavors, including one with the palms down beneath the belly, pinkies touching each other - ideally you can engage the biceps and lift the legs into the air. Ugh.
TL DR on
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silence1186Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered Userregular
My weightlifting coach has recommended I do Yoga to improve my decidedly mediocre flexibility. I'm not sure I can find time in the week, and also $$ in my budget. What kind of commitments does Yoga require?
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TL DRNot at all confident in his reflexive opinions of thingsRegistered Userregular
Classes are generally about an hour and cost around $12-15. Call a few local studios and ask what they recommend for a newbie who needs to improve mobility and already has a weightlifting practice (ie you aren't looking to yoga primarily as a muscle building endeavor). Then check out a few of them over the course of a number of weeks and see what you like. Once a week would be good, twice would be better.
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TL DRNot at all confident in his reflexive opinions of thingsRegistered Userregular
edited October 2015
@So It Goes maybe bring a banana for ~30 minutes before class? I try not to eat a big meal, though yoga isn't as unforgiving as my gym workout in that regard.
I've still been teaching four classes each week, but this month decided to focus more on my home practice (in addition to teaching). Been doing 3-4 nights each week for about 1.5 hours each. I love teaching immensely, but nothing compares to getting to focus on yourself.
Yoga 3x week (classes or home practice at least 30 minutes)
Join me yogis! Even on holiday weeks! Home practice! We can do it!
Also at my Sunday class our teacher made some references in her opening remarks to the Paris events and how we should focus on kindness to ourselves, to others, to people different than us as the mantra for the day. Be kind. At first I was like "ew politics" but thinking on it during class I appreciated it and I felt like she walked the line of "too political" very well and said just enough and not too much.
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TL DRNot at all confident in his reflexive opinions of thingsRegistered Userregular
As my schedule has been fucking my gym routine all to hell, I'd love to sign on for an increased frequency of yoga practice and would appreciate having to be accountable to this here thread.
Yeah! Sorry only one teacher uses it and that's what she calls it
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TL DRNot at all confident in his reflexive opinions of thingsRegistered Userregular
Gotcha. I'd ask her for tips. It may be a matter of alignment, or you may need to draw tension somewhere different. For an example of what I mean, I had a lot of difficulty with handstands before learning to draw the hands toward one another as though I was trying to create a crease down the center of my mat - the effect is that it engages the shoulders and adds stability.
Half Moon is much easier for me if I'm up against a wall or if I have a block to put under my hand. When I'd go to gym yoga classes and didn't have a block with me, I'd use my water bottle.
I don't regularly practice horizon lunge, but it looks like it wouldn't be very kind or gentle to knees and ankles.
I took a weekly vinyasa yoga class through a community program a year ago, but I quit after a semester - partly because money got a little tight, but also for other reasons. The class was geared for beginner and intermediate students, but I felt frustrated because I wasn't getting enough feedback to know if I was doing the poses correctly. The routine was different every week, apart from the opening sun salutation; so after learning a pose for the first time, it might be a month or more before we revisited it.
I want the physical benefits of yoga - flexibility and core strength - but I need a more methodical approach, both for learning and so I can track improvement. I actually hate the feeling of tendons stretching, so I can't enjoy yoga for its own sake - I need a concrete routine for each session, so I have a goal to work for: namely, knowing I've done a theoretically productive session so I can stop.
When I was in the class, I half-joked that I hated doing yoga, but I liked having done yoga. My body felt good afterward, but the actual class was mostly frustrating.
I feel like part of doing yoga is becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable, and that there are benefits to be gained from not being methodical and precise with your yoga practice. I would argue that while there are certain physical alignment cues to keep in mind so you don't injure yourself (knees going in the same direction as your toes, keeping a straight and long spine-especially for twists, etc), each pose is going to look and feel different in each person's body. In a sense, there is no "right" way to do a pose. I know that's probably not the answer you're looking for.
That said, I can appreciate the frustration at not getting to practice the poses frequently enough to remember all the cues and positioning for each one. Maybe something like a DVD along with a mirror so you can check your alignment and positioning would be a good place to start back up with your practice. That way you get the same class each time, and you can verify you're doing the pose "right". I'd encourage eventually ditching the mirror and focusing on how the pose feels over how it looks, but obviously that would be after you became comfortable with the alignment.
Iyengar yoga focuses a lot on alignment, and I believe the classes are more structured as to the order in which you do poses, so you might look into something like that, too.
I do appreciate classes having some consistency, but at the same time I like a little variety so I don't get bored. Going to a class with the same teacher consistently might help you, you can also tell that teacher you want specific feedback.
Can someone explain to me how yoga is any different than chiropractic 'care'? There are the same appeals to supernatural and/or questionable at best explanations for the efficacy of different poses & exercises, and the only measurable benefits can be similarly achieved via any other aerobics class, weight lifting, etc (just as the only measurable benefit of chiropractic 'care' is the accompanying muscle massage). And now, of course, this has started to invade actual medicine, with people deciding to do yoga exercises (often at the behest of some guru) rather than physio and becoming permanently injured as a result.
I feel like part of doing yoga is becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable, and that there are benefits to be gained from not being methodical and precise with your yoga practice. I would argue that while there are certain physical alignment cues to keep in mind so you don't injure yourself (knees going in the same direction as your toes, keeping a straight and long spine-especially for twists, etc), each pose is going to look and feel different in each person's body. In a sense, there is no "right" way to do a pose. I know that's probably not the answer you're looking for.
That said, I can appreciate the frustration at not getting to practice the poses frequently enough to remember all the cues and positioning for each one. Maybe something like a DVD along with a mirror so you can check your alignment and positioning would be a good place to start back up with your practice. That way you get the same class each time, and you can verify you're doing the pose "right". I'd encourage eventually ditching the mirror and focusing on how the pose feels over how it looks, but obviously that would be after you became comfortable with the alignment.
Iyengar yoga focuses a lot on alignment, and I believe the classes are more structured as to the order in which you do poses, so you might look into something like that, too.
That's helpful, actually. As a beginner, is it safe to try to learn on my own, from DVDs? The classes I have access to tend to be at inconvenient times (generally on weekday afternoons when I'm working, or early in the morning when I'm not getting out of bed for anything less than a paycheck).
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TL DRNot at all confident in his reflexive opinions of thingsRegistered Userregular
Can someone explain to me how yoga is any different than chiropractic 'care'? There are the same appeals to supernatural and/or questionable at best explanations for the efficacy of different poses & exercises, and the only measurable benefits can be similarly achieved via any other aerobics class, weight lifting, etc (just as the only measurable benefit of chiropractic 'care' is the accompanying muscle massage). And now, of course, this has started to invade actual medicine, with people deciding to do yoga exercises (often at the behest of some guru) rather than physio and becoming permanently injured as a result.
They're entirely different things. It sounds like you don't know what chiropractic involves (it's not a form of massage) and that you're taking an uninformed and uncharitable position on yoga.
Can someone explain to me how yoga is any different than chiropractic 'care'? There are the same appeals to supernatural and/or questionable at best explanations for the efficacy of different poses & exercises, and the only measurable benefits can be similarly achieved via any other aerobics class, weight lifting, etc (just as the only measurable benefit of chiropractic 'care' is the accompanying muscle massage). And now, of course, this has started to invade actual medicine, with people deciding to do yoga exercises (often at the behest of some guru) rather than physio and becoming permanently injured as a result.
They're entirely different things. It sounds like you don't know what chiropractic involves (it's not a form of massage) and that you're taking an uninformed and uncharitable position on yoga.
Did you read the OP?
Yes, I read the OP.
The comparison to chiropractic work is that massage often accompanies the 'adjustments', and is what causes victims to believe that the adjustments are what made them feel better. Likewise, Yoga often accompanies routines that are difficult to separate from the meditation & poses in terms of measuring efficacy.
I wouldn't object to this because, hey, getting active is good by itself. But now we have Hatha Yoga instructors & practitioners leveraging the activity's perceived wellness legitimacy to sell it to the alt medicine crowd, securing rather badly flawed cancer treatment & depression studies. That is probably not the sort of thing we need more of.
With Love and Courage
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Powerpuppiesdrinking coffee in themountain cabinRegistered Userregular
if yoga is only as effective as the poses that is A-okay with me
it is a really super way to exercise for someone like me
also i met a lady in denver on saturday and we are going to be yoga buddies so we both have to actually go
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Powerpuppiesdrinking coffee in themountain cabinRegistered Userregular
I feel like part of doing yoga is becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable, and that there are benefits to be gained from not being methodical and precise with your yoga practice. I would argue that while there are certain physical alignment cues to keep in mind so you don't injure yourself (knees going in the same direction as your toes, keeping a straight and long spine-especially for twists, etc), each pose is going to look and feel different in each person's body. In a sense, there is no "right" way to do a pose. I know that's probably not the answer you're looking for.
That said, I can appreciate the frustration at not getting to practice the poses frequently enough to remember all the cues and positioning for each one. Maybe something like a DVD along with a mirror so you can check your alignment and positioning would be a good place to start back up with your practice. That way you get the same class each time, and you can verify you're doing the pose "right". I'd encourage eventually ditching the mirror and focusing on how the pose feels over how it looks, but obviously that would be after you became comfortable with the alignment.
Iyengar yoga focuses a lot on alignment, and I believe the classes are more structured as to the order in which you do poses, so you might look into something like that, too.
That's helpful, actually. As a beginner, is it safe to try to learn on my own, from DVDs? The classes I have access to tend to be at inconvenient times (generally on weekday afternoons when I'm working, or early in the morning when I'm not getting out of bed for anything less than a paycheck).
I really don't think it is safe for most people. I have a persistent problem in my knee as a result of an injury I sustained doing yoga wrong
edit: I would emphatically recommend shopping around different studios until you find a class and an instructor that suits you well and gets you the feedback you're looking for, except in my experience (Boulder, CO) such places are way more expensive
Posts
This is across the street from my apt
I should go to the Basics class I guess
Cool! That's probably too north for me to just do a drop-by - I live right downtown and don't end up north very regularly. But maybe on my way back on Sunday from the birthday party I'm going to on May 2nd up in those parts!
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
I wonder if he might be able to recommend some indoor-friendly strength exercise; squats or something similar.
Oh hey New York yoga
3 inches between mats
cool sliding scale donation pricing, though
Classes are unprofitable due to a glut of teachers -> studios offer teacher training to make money -> more teachers enter the market, further depressing prices.
Not that it's inherently a bad thing, because yoga should be available for everyone. It's just up to us who can afford it to make sure our teachers are compensated well.
Then on top of that during part of the claass she put her block down on top of my yoga mat and tossed her towel at me
I wanted to destroy her like a Japanese hornet killing a bee
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
what
seriously what haha only two people there and you still feel like you should act like a dick?
I agree that the message to the student should always be to focus on their own practice, but we're talking about someone going completely off-routine in the presence of people who are new to yoga. It would be a different story if this was a case of a simple modification, I think.
He specifically recommended against squats, but said I should keep going to yoga. It's so hard when I'm busy
Two rounds of forearm balance for 5-6 breaths and it felt amazing.
I have started going to a heated more "advanced" vinyasa class and it is great
but I am also trying to figure out what to eat before classes that happen at noon or like, 5:30
a 7 PM class I just eat dinner at 6 and I am fine, the other classes sometimes I feel like I don't eat enough and get low blood sugar (or prob dehydration in the heated class) near the end of class
also in the sweaty classes man I sweat a lot, I feel like I need three towels instead of just two, oi
also how is your yoga going yogis?
@TL DR @desc
I'd kill to be able to hit a noon class during the week, but there's no way I could take 2 hours out of my day to drive to a studio, practice, change and maybe shower, and return to work over my lunch break.
Personally, I've been going inconsistently on Sundays to the same teacher I've been seeing for ~3-4 years now. It's a pretty rigorous class but accessible to newcomers, and I'm really feeling that the path forward is developing my personal practice. To that effect, I practiced once at home last week for 45 minutes, which was nice. I'm not thinking it needs to be a daily thing like the Ashtangis, but twice weekly to warm up with some flow and then explore other postures would be amazing.
I'm quitting my current gym at the end of December and I think I'll have more time and interest to dedicate to it then.
What's your advanced class like?
then after that more cooldown like stuff, stretching etc into savasana
sorry I am still a noob about most of the poses
Side crow?
That's cool, sounds pretty active. My regular class is enough to get you sweating (in a non-heated room) but not a really fast flow like you'd expect from classes with marketing like 'power yoga' or 'rocket yoga'. Enough to warm up the joints before getting into deeper poses as well as a good number of balances (tree, half moon, dancer), inversions, back bends, and arm balances (usually crow or forearm balance).
My least favorite is a routine based on locust post. Lay facedown and do backbends of various flavors, including one with the palms down beneath the belly, pinkies touching each other - ideally you can engage the biceps and lift the legs into the air. Ugh.
Yoga 3x week (classes or home practice at least 30 minutes)
Join me yogis! Even on holiday weeks! Home practice! We can do it!
Also at my Sunday class our teacher made some references in her opening remarks to the Paris events and how we should focus on kindness to ourselves, to others, to people different than us as the mantra for the day. Be kind. At first I was like "ew politics" but thinking on it during class I appreciated it and I felt like she walked the line of "too political" very well and said just enough and not too much.
I have been meaning to mention as well some poses I find very difficult to see who has tips. It may be I'm just not there yet.
But I particularly don't like Horizon Lunge and I feel like I might just be doing it wrong, or don't like the feel of being on the edges of my feet.
And I am horrible at Half Moon and feel like I can barely get into an approximation of the pose.
Is this what you mean by Horizon Lunge?
I don't regularly practice horizon lunge, but it looks like it wouldn't be very kind or gentle to knees and ankles.
Last two weeks I met my goal of three classes a week. Woo!
I want the physical benefits of yoga - flexibility and core strength - but I need a more methodical approach, both for learning and so I can track improvement. I actually hate the feeling of tendons stretching, so I can't enjoy yoga for its own sake - I need a concrete routine for each session, so I have a goal to work for: namely, knowing I've done a theoretically productive session so I can stop.
When I was in the class, I half-joked that I hated doing yoga, but I liked having done yoga. My body felt good afterward, but the actual class was mostly frustrating.
That said, I can appreciate the frustration at not getting to practice the poses frequently enough to remember all the cues and positioning for each one. Maybe something like a DVD along with a mirror so you can check your alignment and positioning would be a good place to start back up with your practice. That way you get the same class each time, and you can verify you're doing the pose "right". I'd encourage eventually ditching the mirror and focusing on how the pose feels over how it looks, but obviously that would be after you became comfortable with the alignment.
Iyengar yoga focuses a lot on alignment, and I believe the classes are more structured as to the order in which you do poses, so you might look into something like that, too.
Can someone explain to me how yoga is any different than chiropractic 'care'? There are the same appeals to supernatural and/or questionable at best explanations for the efficacy of different poses & exercises, and the only measurable benefits can be similarly achieved via any other aerobics class, weight lifting, etc (just as the only measurable benefit of chiropractic 'care' is the accompanying muscle massage). And now, of course, this has started to invade actual medicine, with people deciding to do yoga exercises (often at the behest of some guru) rather than physio and becoming permanently injured as a result.
That's helpful, actually. As a beginner, is it safe to try to learn on my own, from DVDs? The classes I have access to tend to be at inconvenient times (generally on weekday afternoons when I'm working, or early in the morning when I'm not getting out of bed for anything less than a paycheck).
They're entirely different things. It sounds like you don't know what chiropractic involves (it's not a form of massage) and that you're taking an uninformed and uncharitable position on yoga.
Did you read the OP?
Yes, I read the OP.
The comparison to chiropractic work is that massage often accompanies the 'adjustments', and is what causes victims to believe that the adjustments are what made them feel better. Likewise, Yoga often accompanies routines that are difficult to separate from the meditation & poses in terms of measuring efficacy.
I wouldn't object to this because, hey, getting active is good by itself. But now we have Hatha Yoga instructors & practitioners leveraging the activity's perceived wellness legitimacy to sell it to the alt medicine crowd, securing rather badly flawed cancer treatment & depression studies. That is probably not the sort of thing we need more of.
it is a really super way to exercise for someone like me
also i met a lady in denver on saturday and we are going to be yoga buddies so we both have to actually go
I really don't think it is safe for most people. I have a persistent problem in my knee as a result of an injury I sustained doing yoga wrong
edit: I would emphatically recommend shopping around different studios until you find a class and an instructor that suits you well and gets you the feedback you're looking for, except in my experience (Boulder, CO) such places are way more expensive