Galfromdownunder Yoga

UPDATE 5/5/13: check out my Park Bench Yoga for Cyclists post on the YoGanesh blog +++ Starting late June 2012 I'm going to be teaching a class and blogging for  YoGanesh.com - so in the interests of not duplicating material, I'll be blogging over there. Check it out!  http://yoganesh.com  and here's the blog:  http://yoganesh.net/news/

One of our more "obscure" muscles (in that, you're not really aware of it on a daily basis like your quads and hammies) is the piriformis . This muscle is located deep in your butt, running from the sacrum to the top of the thighbone.  It's one of the the many hip rotator muscles that collectively turn the hips and upper leg outward (called external rotation), and particularly for athletes, provides stability around the knee when twisting and changing direction. If you sit in a chair, place the right ankle (flex that foot!) just south of the left knee and tip your body forward, you'll feel the piriformis wake up in that very spot. I call this the Piriformis Desk Jockey stretch, because it's an ideal thing to do at your desk. Sitting cross-legged also activates this muscle.  Piriformis as viewed from behind. The piriformis skates somewhat close to the infamous sciatic nerve - the one that often gives grief by sending shooting pains down the...

John Churchill, founder and owner of Samadhi demonstrates Gomukasana (Cow Face pose) with a side bend. Why Cow Face? The stacked knees look like the lips of a cow, the feet like the ears.  Whenever I travel anywhere, I always try to seek out local yoga class. No only does it help me get unknotted from slouching about in bucket-seated motorized transport, I get to learn something new from a professional fellow teacher, in a fresh new place. (I also do this with haircuts - I got an excellent 'do for $2 in Tarma, Peru....). So while visiting Boston with my folding bike recently, I found a studio that was a perfectly civilized 3-mile bike ride from door to door - a lo-carbon emission way to arrive already warmed up to class! The studio:   Samadhi  in Newton, MA. The teacher: founder and master acupuncturist,  John Churchill . John's Open class contained quite a few interesting variations on basic poses that I hadn't come across before. I con...

Danger! Addictive substance! With Hurricane Irene threatening to take a bite out of the Big Apple this Sunday, everyone's battening down hatches, stocking up on water, candles, batteries and favorite addictions - in my case, Trader Joe's Potato Trio chips (no salt, tons of fat) and a case of Chocolate Fudge  Orgain  (guilt free chocolate shake). And we're locking our doors, putting cling wrap around the edges and not going OUT. Some are even starting as early as Saturday. So how do you get your yoga fix when the route to your favorite studio is knee deep in water? Get out your mat, push back the furniture and do a couple of  Storm Salutations for Hurricane Irene. They are basically Sun Salutations, but you stay super low so the eye of the storm somehow misses you. Storm Salutation A: A smooth tumble from Downdog to Plow. You roll out of storm's danger like a tumbleweed!  Start cross legged, hands on knees. Inhale - roll forward onto hands and knees...

Under the Crescent Moon: and the healthy, non-toxic clay walls of YoGanesh! To relieve pressure on sensitive knees:  1. Fold over the side of the mat 2. Activate all leg muscles, drawing energy up through your torso and out through the top of your head Yoganesh , the newish studio where I teach a Monday and Friday evening class, just celebrated it's first Anniversary. Here's my post about it on the YoGanesh Blog . And while you're at it, read about the new classes and workshops . See you in class! 

I'm now teaching the Friday 7.30pm Yoga for Runners+Cyclists class at Yoganesh . Both sports create similar problems due to the 1-dimensional plane they lock you in. Just like, ironically, sitting in a chair all day hunched over a computer! Hope to see you there - or at my ny nite owl class, 9pm Monday nights. Bend it and mend it! Check out my video interview of knee guru Andy Pruitt talking about Cyclists and Runner's knees:

I'm looking forward to sharing my AM/PM yoga practise with fellow New York Cycle Club members at West Point. It's taken me years of riding a bike for a living (albeit not like Lance) to note that a quick leg bend against a park bench - the amount of stretching most cyclists do - just doesn't cut it!  I asked one of my teachers Sarah Coleman, owner of delightful East Village studio Finding Sukha , to demonstrate a nice little routine for cyclists. See the video above for some quad and hamstring lengthening moves. Thanks so much Sarah. Bend it and mend it! The Charlie's Angel stretch is also a good one for cyclists - and swivel chair dwellers ....

I'm now teaching a late nite Monday class at Yoganesh ,  232 7th Ave, NYC  (btw. 23rd and 24th),   9pm-10pm. So it's not that late, but should be easier for workaholics (voluntary or otherwise), nite owls and other after-dark downdoggers to make the class without too much huffing an puffing. And what better way to counter a week of swivel chair sedentariness in advance? Which reminds me - take the stairs when you can. Up, but not down. Descending stairs isn't that good for anyone's knees.Going up - take it two and a time, steadily, using your quads, inhale on the first two, exhale the next. It's a similar thing you do when climbing a steep hill on the bike - your breath will carry you to the top - and in the case of stairs - swinging your arms. Great for the heart, back, leg muscles. Just don't stop breathing! Check out my YouTube interview of knee-guru Andy Pruitt talking about knees! Do pass this on to your yoga-interested pals - it is still a fairly ...

Well, not that late . Hence, the not quite "after dark" shot of the Ganesh mascot (pictured). As of Memorial Monday, I'm teaching a 9pm-10-pm class at Yoganesh , for night owls, workaholics any anyone else who can't seem to make it to the "crowded hours" right after work. Now and then I'll teach other classes there. I've put my 6.30pm Chelsea Recreation Center free class on hiatus, It's just too hard to beat it down 5th, 7th, 9th or the Westside Bike Path (I've tried all four) to make it to the center on time. I'm thrilled that Phil Lynch, a yoga teacher from California, is also teaching at Yoganesh. He's a no-fluff down to earth kinda guy, who, during my training, famously showed us from downdog, how to float your legs forward to meet your hands - with superhuman strength in the elbows and wrists.  I want to learn that! Come on down dawg!

One thing I love about going to different yoga classes around town (and especially when I travel), is that I always pick up at least one new and interesting tip to pass onto my students. No matter where I go, the teacher  invariably does or says something that makes me think, hey ... that's a great idea. It's not just experienced teachers that furnish these aha! moments either - newer teachers, being fresh from the textbooks and training, often remind earlier graduates about the correct way to do things.  So I must thank a teacher at the  Ypsi Studio in Ypsilante, Michigan, a small town near Ann Arbor. I was there for Christmas and persuaded my hosts to drive me through the thick of the snow to a class at this little fitness studio in Michigan Ave. My hosts had expressed enthusiastic interest in doing the class, but as the day wore on, bailed, one by one. There were only four of us in the class, taught by Ed Jackson, originally from LA. Ed showed us a brillia...

NOTE: This post, and future posts relating to the Yoga/Pilates for Cyclists project in collaboration with Karin Fantus will now be continued on this blog: http://yogapilatesnyc.blogspot.com Following our sold-out  Yoga/Pilates for Cyclists Sampler  class in Jan 2011, Karin and I have found a cozy space to continue the series. Judging by the feedback  the New York Cycle Clubbers found our class very interesting and beneficial. (OK, we did hand out 85% dark chocolate with the anonymous feedback sheets). Here's a movie tour of the space: Tour around the space above - and apologies - I couldn't help but tickle the ivories a little, despite a traumatic childhood involving piano lessons and a book of mindless  Czerny Etudes  that resulted in teethmarks on the piano ... A musical space indeed: a 72nd St location - with cushy new carpet - for around 8-10 participants (when we stack the chairs) "What a tangled web we weave ... " It's called the Otello ro...

SIGN UP for this workshop here or if you can't abide Facebook, here . Caught mid Warrior II on Arizona Desert Camp 2010, where I taught a daily Yoga for Cyclists class.   See a shot clip . By cyclists, for cyclists ... I'm going to be doing a workshop in January in collaboration with Pilates teacher and cyclist Karin Fantus. For the yogaphobic and pilates-curious, it's a little back-to-back intro for newbies that demonstrates flexibility techniques (yoga), resistence techniques (pilates) and core strength (both). Karin Fantus with a client in her pilates studio Details below. It's sponsored by the New York Cycle Club, which is always coming up with fun and interesting ideas for its members - the last one was a group visit to the Bespoke Handmade Bicycles Show at MAD. You can sign up on my Facebook Event page , which will simply help organize responses and let you post questions and comments ... or, if you can't access that for some reason, there...

For those who've never experienced a Kirtan (call and response) chant beyond encountering a bunch of Hari Krishnas in the street, here's a little sampler.  I recorded this during one of the Sivananda Vedanta NYC's 8pm Wednesday Satsangs, comprising half hour meditation, half hour chanting, half hour lecture. Yes, you will indeed hear Hare Krishna sung, but you are far from being "converted" against your will. Rather, the chanting is infectious, and wonderful way to free that inner singing voice that unites us all. Have a listen, rock yourself along to one of the Satsangs, and see you at my Tuesday yoga class, where we do just a little of this to get things going! I wrote about some of my chanting and meditation excursions a while ago, including Sivananda.

Is my face red ... SPINNING instructor Anthony Musemici says you don't need a long and winding road to get a pretty decent hill, interval, sprint, and endurance training  on a bike. ... now add a bit of yoga to the mix and what do you get? SpinYoga! A perfectly Peaceful Warrior pose at the free  Chelsea Piers "Yoga On the Pier" classes, Aug 2010. I just completed a 9 hour Spinning Instructor Orientation at New York Sports Clubs. Now, what is a seasoned cyclist like the Galfromdownunder doing riding a bike that doesn't go anywhere? As one participant confessed in the pre-course stairwell speeches ('cos you get fitter riding the stairs than the elevator): "I was a bit cynical about it all until I tried it." Ah yes, one winter in NYC where biking through a bunch of snow isn't appealing, and I discovered, thanks to a two-month intro membership at the Equinox gym down the road and some guest passes from the stunning Chelsea Piers across the r...

Photos by the Galfromdownunder - mid downdog!  Is yoga better outdoors or indoors? Beach or park? Ashram or gym? I've generally preferred indoors, finding the outdoors a bit of a distraction.  But think of the advantages: better dissipation of neighboring sweat, no one bumping into you, and the chance to gaze up at the sky and watch clouds in that boundless blue sky slide by - something we rarely do when we become "grownups" grafted to swivel chairs and tempurpedic mattresses. Last Thursday, lying flat on my back on Pier 64 with a piece of foam between me and the concrete, I felt strangely exhilarated. The occasion? The free every-other-Thursday yoga class offered by Chelsea Piers Fitness Center, the massive complex just over yonder. And yes, it really is on Pier 64. Hint: to locate the cross street, subtract 40 from the Pier number and you get 24th Street. The instructor, Paolo, was possessed of a delightful South African/British/Spanish something else accen...

At the risk of being pacifistically (is that a word?) incorrect, I discovered a really good stretch I hadn't come across in my training or any classes to date, which I've called the "Charlie's Angel Stretch". The term "Charlie's Angels Hands" refers to the hands clasped with forefingers pointed like a ... gun. I got that  nugget from my teacher trainer and anatomy nurse,  Joschi Schwarz . It's a tremendous stretch involving several muscle groups. But which? Over to Joschi ... Congrats! I hope you're having a lot of fun teaching! Answer to your question is: obliques quadratus lumborum (smaller muscle in the lower back),  latissimus dorsi (because arms are over your head) rhomboid (shoulderblades are pulled away from each other), and pretty good for the  erector spinae infraspinatus teres major and minor.  Gluteus medius I guess plays more of an activator here. Great pose to create space for the hips (lumbosacral fasci...

My Booma! Yoga is now being re-monikered to Easy Yoga. Yep, rather than "say it straight, then say it great" I'm going for "say it straight, then say it straighter." I discovered last night that newbies and seniors are pretty close in their requirements ... Apparently Doris, the Chelsea Parks and Rec mover and shaker, had spent the week strong-arming everyone able to bend at the waist to come to my class. Bless her. I arrived to find the room already full, including the four kidz who stumbled in last week. Most had never done yoga;  a handful had done "this much" - picture a raised thumb and forefinger pressed together. Ages ranged from around 20, to an 83 year young gal who was game to try everything. After teaching them a short dog and a simplified Vinyasa involving a short dog and a rock back to child's pose, the room was visibly sweating - who needs hot yoga? "Never thought yoga was so hard!" cried a really athletic look...

My mother loves to send along intriguing things ... in this case, a clipping from the newspaper of yogis in India: Last time she greeted me at the airport with an for poledancing . While you can practice and practice and get more flexible, the kind of hyperflexibility in this photo is largely genetic. I've never been able to easily do back bends - Joschi told me that small people with small bones can experience a lack of room between vertebrae to enable the spine to bend - it's all a bit tight. But keeping these images in mind does give you something to aim for and who knows? See you Tuesday 6-7pm 5th Floor at the Chelsea Rec Center!