A couple of weeks ago one of my yoga teachers asked me how I was doing. At the time, it was kinda up and down. Mostly moving towards up, but slooowwwwly. I've been doing a variety of types of yoga, and she suggested I focus on one, and that I am more likely to make better progress that way. My automatic response, of course, was YOUDON'TKNOWWHATDOYOUKNOWYOUDON'TKNOW. Fortunately, I know not to articulate my first reaction because it's usually wrong, so I just took the coaching and went home to think about it.
Turns out, of course, that she was right on the money.
For now, I will focus mostly on Iyengar yoga. There is a still a Tuesday class I like that is Vinyasa style but slow and focused on proper alignment, so I'll take that one when I can. And on Saturday mornings there's a class that has a lot of core work, which helps my back. But mostly, I'll be doing Iyengar.
What works about it for me is that the slow pace holding poses for longer allows me to line up all the parts that tend to misalign, namely, my hips. The holding allows me to strengthen the muscles properly, rather than just get stronger in patterns that don't help.
The other thing about it is that at the end of an Iyengar class (which always way faster than I'd like it to), I am in a great mood and superenergized. Not always the case with faster, sweatier classes. At least, not yet.
It's not to say I won't return to Ashtanga or Vinyasa style yoga soon, or later on when I'm free and clear of all my injuries (mmh, if that's the standard, I might never return), but yoga is not about being cool it's about balance, peace and well-being.
No doubt a big fat I told you so from my mom.
