Reminisces before a week @ Fresh Yoga with Ana Forrest
So, I couldn’t get to the site yesterday but that’s ok cuz it was a pretty quiet day on the yoga front. Did a tiny practice & focused on getting rested and in place for a week of what I hope will be some real yoga excitement!
I’m in New Haven, CT psyched up to spend a week taking morning intensives with Ana Forrest & the latest crop of teacher trainees at Fresh Yoga. Will get to stroll in at 6 am for meditation, then practice for 2 hrs, then go on my merry way to bathe, eat, nap & loaf while the little darlins have to return to work their tushies off all day. I so envied those breezy folks when I was a teacher trainee & am looking forward enormously to being one of them!!
Following my own teacher training, my most recent experience with Ana was at a workshop in DC in March back when I was taking alot of classes at a Baptiste studio. Loooooved the Baptiste heat & friendly people, but was teaching Forrest all along… Ended up no longer doing Baptiste in favor of more Forrest because it’s a broader practice experience & works better for my body. Anyway, below is the mass email I wrote after those sessions… looking forward to keeping a more detailed day-to-day blog this time!!
“For beloved yoga adventure followers, I have new stories… spent the last week prepping for and participating in the DC leg of Ana Forrest’s Northeast tour of the year (www.forrestyoga.com). She was hosted by the studio I practice at normally, Down Dog Yoga.
It was entertaining watching the Baptiste folks I usually practice with learn how Forrest rolls… and I love Baptiste, but Forrest is about 1000% longer, slower, deeper, more intense, more sophisticated. Plus, she is 50+, gorgeous, can kick EVERYONE’s ass, and is very direct with a really dirty sense of humor. One of my all time favorite Forrest quotes: Evolve or Die. : )
See, Forrest can have you in a simple pose, getting really into it, growing into it without fighting, sweating your tail off, then move into insane arm balances the next moment. She holds standing poses until everyone in the room is quivering, not some arbitrary five breaths.
And their reaction to “everyone get over your issues, lift your shirt, do at least Uddiyana and now play with Nauli” (Uddiyana is a big lift of the stomach up into the ribs and Nauli is a crazy, washing machine action of the abdominal wall) was funny — first night, lots of looks and discomfort, but by Sunday everyone was stripping down and gettin’ it on. : )
The classes ran Friday night, all day Saturday and Sunday. The schedule was pretty easy — after a month with her of 6 am to 7 pm, a couple of 3 hr classes a day is pretty manageable. It was a crowded, humid, rainforest, dripping bliss, lemme tell you. She took us apart and put us back together again.
Lots of backbends — most exciting of these was Viparita Dandasana, which is basically full wheel/backbend done on the head and forearms. Lots of arm balances, including Asatavakara, Twisting Scissors, some flying crows, and of course handstand into lotus and forearm balance splits.
…All in all, it was one of those experiences of a lifetime. I swear there was one point when I looked down and the giant sweat pool in front of me was making a smiley face. Seriously. Totally yoga stoned. Can’t wait for the next hit… : )
Catch ya after class!!