Week 5

    This week I was able to practice twice in a row, experiencing different types of yoga practices. It was nice to have longer classes compared to my 10 minute class from last week. On Tuesday, I practiced Iyengar yoga with Amita Bhagat. On Thursday, I practiced Ashtanga yoga with Andrew Eppler. 

    At the beginning of the Iyengar yoga class, Amita explained a little bit about herself. After she explained a small part of her journey, she proceeded to begin the class. Since she was teaching us the beginner's class, she focused primarily on the form of the asanas rather than the pranayamas. The only time she really mentioned breath or focused on it was during savasana. For each asana, she spoke them in Sanskrit and then explained what it meant in English. She would perform the more difficult asanas for us before allowing us to try them and would adjust the camera so that we could see her better. She also explained that Iyengar yoga works to the cellular level and described how each pose helps our body. This was the first yoga practice where we had to use props for our asanas. We used blocks and the wall to help us get deeper into our stretch or to accommodate us in our limitations. I was grateful for the blocks because the asanas we were doing were really stretching me out. While Iyengar yoga is meant for one to be able to stay in the poses for longer to achieve a meditative state, since we were beginners she focused on teaching us to have a proper foundation in our asanas. Since many of the series built upon the foundation, she wanted us to be able to have a strong foundation. This may be the reason she did not focus primarily on the pranayama. 

    At the beginning of the Ashtanga yoga class, Andrew played a video about an interview with this man that Krishnamacharya had stood on during an asana.  He segued this video to the start of our class. He wore a mic and call out the asanas while his wife performed the asanas. Before practicing any asanas, he vocalized a chant. For each asana, he also explained the modifications if we could not do the asana. Each change in asana was based on our breath count. Ashtanga yoga focused more on have a balance between the asana and pranayama. We would move or change through our breath. Throughout the class, he also mentioned topics such as tapas and refinement. We had to have some tapas before we could move further to more difficult asanas. Between each asana, he would explain many parts of Ashtanga yoga to further our understanding. I found Ashtanga yoga very difficult. It moved the quickest out of all of the classes we have taken and the asanas were more difficult. Although we were only doing the primary series, I was really struggling to perform the asanas near the end. We ended the class with another chant. Andrew focused on teaching us to breathe through our asanas and to synchronize each movement with our breath. 

    I enjoyed both forms of yoga practice, but I think I preferred Ashtanga yoga. It was nice to push myself during each asana. I would like to continue to practice until I can get many of the asanas I could not do at the end.