BURGER SCOOT

About a month ago, I signed up as a member of Yoga Six. As the company’s name implies Yoga Six offers 6 different types of yoga classes, but it comes out to about eight (if you include the least scheduled Y6 TRX (yoga with the popular suspension weight training) and Y6 Mix (a 45 minute demo class of the core six classes). The problem I had with Yoga6 even before and neighborhood studio opened was that it looked like four of the core classes were beyond my physical abilities. So, the studio was more like “Yoga Two” to me.  

I had learned the basic Restorative Yoga postures from a physical therapist who also was a member of the Sacramento gym Capital Athletic Club (CAC). It was at that club that I learned the basics of yoga. I had practiced yoga and improved my flexibility, posture and mental well being. Alas, COVID-19 and the following shelter-in-place mandate closed the club and I had lost what I had gained by attending yoga classes there three to four times a week. (Note to reader: Why didn’t I practice yoga at home? I had tried for many years, but just like weight training, jogging, and TRX, I needed to show up somewhere and–with yoga–have someone lead me through the practice. Watching a video or listening to a podcast never motivated me enough.) 

When CAC opened up again the group fitness director had changed, there were less yoga teachers on staff and, most importantly to me, my guru, of sorts, did not return. It was at this point my love affair with yoga began to wane. I continued practicing yoga, but started to look at other things. First I started Pilates (see my “Observations from the Reformer” post). When that didn’t work out I tried using a rowing machine. Later, I got my favorite trainer to teach me how the TRX suspension training system worked. All of those training disciplines were good, but nothing stuck. When CAC started a new slow flow class on Wednesday nights I finally returned to the mat, but it wasn’t the same. So much of my gains thanks to practicing yoga three to four times a week three years ago had been lost. The first night I took Liz’s class it was like I never practiced yoga before, even though I knew the postures. It was like the first time I walked into my Physical Therapist’s studio–everything hurt. When I first laid down on my back it hurt to place my head on my mat.

So, I started going to this studio that is only a half a mile away from my house—an easy bike ride or walk. I signed up for a four classes a month contract. I know, that’s not a lot of yoga, but I wanted to dip my toes in it for now. If I liked the two types of classes I thought I could attend without being hauled out on an EMT’s gurney or in a medical examiner’s body bag.

My first class was something that Yoga Six calls Y6 Restore with a teacher named Blake. After the hour-long class I would defiantly say that the name of this class was false advertising; it was not Restorative Yoga. The next day, while on an afternoon walk, I stopped by the studio and gently complained to Kia, the attractive young woman who signed me up as a member of Yoga Six and setup my first two classes. She was very professional and apologetic. While it is true that the description of Y6 Restore on the website or the brochure does not use the term “restorative” or “restorative yoga” in that class’ description, it really shouldn’t have that root word as the name of what was a Vinyasa (or flow) class.  

I appreciated her sympathy as well as her concern that Vinyasa was in a class that is supposed to be mainly floor postures. I also felt a little better about my membership and that maybe it was the teacher not the class. It would suck if my “Yoga2” studio was now a “Yoga One.” Still, it bugged me about the class’s name. I would later email the main office about renaming Y6 Restore to something other than the root word for a popular style of yoga practice, because the misnomer just messes with my Chi. 

The next class was something called Y6 101, which is basically a yoga class geared more for beginners. This sounded like my style, unfortunately I screwed up and missed the date. I decided to try something different when I saw online that the studio had a special workshop called Sound Bath + Breath work + Yoga. I signed up since I had experience in all of the elements in the workshop’s title. 

The first hour was exactly what I expected out of a Restorative Yoga class. During an extended Savasana—also known as Corpse Pose since the practitioner lies still on their back for anywhere from three to five minutes—I fell asleep and snored. The teacher woke me with a discreet shaking of one of my feet. After a short break, the sound bath began. I had a yoga teacher give a short demonstration of how a sound bath sounds. It was very interesting and soothing. (Click here for an example of one of hundreds of types of sound baths.) Sound baths are something I would like to look into someday, however, I am not at the point where I would attend the sound bath class on a regular basis. Anyway, this workshop was a one-off at this studio so I am not sure when it will be available again. 

It was a nice experience, but as I was readying to leave the studio, I was listening to two young women chat about the class. One said, “I really like the restorative yoga, but I got really pissed off when somebody snored.” The story of my life: I leave an event feeling good about myself then the other shoe drops–the shoe with dogshit on it. It ended up putting me in a funk, but I think I for the most part got over it by the time I rode my way back home. 

It is quite possible the Y6 Restore class I attended the week before (referred to in the fifth paragraph) with Blake was an anomalous to the studio’s ideal of Y6 Restore because this second Y6 Retore class taught by someone named Shirley was very similar to what the description of the class is online and not too far from what I thought Restorative Yoga is. After some standing postures we all sat on our mats and did deep opening postures often using a bolster–the key toy in a Restorative Yoga session. Shirley was what I consider an ideal yoga teacher: she was soft spoken, accessible, graceful, humble, nonjudgmental, and she illustrated postures very well. She also remembers students names. She remembered my name at least. Granted, this was my first class with her, so some of these positive attributes were on a first hunch.

I believe I have found the next best yoga teacher to Heather: the yoga teacher at CAC I referred to, only half-jokingly, above as my guru. The problem is the only classes Shirley teaches is either Y6 Retore–which I hope to take less and less of and an advanced class that I may never work up to.

My fourth and final class for the first month (not including the sound bath workshop) was the Y6 101, which I had missed two week previous. The teacher was a Panamanian-American named Ariel I had trouble understanding a few things he said, but otherwise he and the class he lead with golden–it was exactly what I wanted out of a yoga class. Well, not really: the class was a slow Vinyasa class–a style of yoga I used to love until I realized I wasn’t practicing it at the pace most Vinyasa classes are tough. Plus, Y6 101’s class description does not mention anything about flow or Vinyasa, but as I said to Ariel when we were talking after class, “Flow is the most popular style of yoga in America.” Ariel smiled (I believe in agreement). Even the Wikipedia authors of Yoga in the United States refer to it in this country as a “craze.”

I am well aware what dozens (in my practice and readings), but quite possibly thousands of yoga teachers say that a sound practitioner should be able to walk into just about any yoga class and use modifications if needed (i.e. I should be able to practice in a Power Yoga or advanced Vinyasa class and just go at my own speed and to my abilities, but the few times I have done that I have got too discouraged. Then yoga does really nothing for me.

So now that I have two classes and two teachers I think I can stop dipping my toes in my local Yoga Six and upgrade my membership to add more classes a month. Who knows, maybe I’ll try Y6 Slow Flow. With Vinyasa becoming synonymous with Yoga it would be funny if Slow Flow was a class where the practitioners held postures for three minutes or so before moving to the next pose, but I doubt that would happen. If I finally break down and embrace Vinyasa or Flow like everyone else maybe I can then call my local yoga studio Yoga Three!

A Vinyasa Epilogue

Before posting this, I attended another special class at Yoga Six: Intro
to Chakras. A two-hour workshop taught by a young woman named Ginny. Ginny certainly knew enough to lead a class into the esoteric world of Chakras, and though I know a little bit about Chakras, I learned a few new things. Much like how Yoga Six teachers don’t throw around Sanskrit words during yoga classes, Ginny left out the actual Chakra names and stuck with the English terms of each Chakra: Root Throat, Crown, etc., and I think that was wise.

Where I got lost was the yoga practice in the middle of the workshop. Yep,
it was Vinyasa again! I wonder if there is a Sanskrit-U.S. English translator
that when you say in Sanskrit, “Would you like to practice yoga?” the U.S. English translation would come out, “Would you like to practice Vinyasa?” Okay, I’m done with the smartass comments.

Since I started yoga in 2014, I have only practiced under three yoga teachers who avoided Vinyasas completely: one taught Yin, another taught Restorative, and the third taught Ananda—possibly the first form of yoga to become popular in America thanks to Paramahansa Yogananda and the American Unitarian Association. Brenda, my Ananda Yoga teacher, was the only yoga teacher I knew who was vocal about the wrong direction in which American yoga has been going with the ancient art. She was not a fan of Vinyasa and often criticized the popularity of the form. I didn’t listen to her at the time–I was taking a very easy flow class that even I could keep up with. Since it was my first Vinyasa class, I thought all flow classes were this easy. I’d like to practice under Brenda now, but her studio is way across town.

So here I am, a fat old man thinking I took this class on Chakras to get a connection between my Root Chakra and a particular posture, but I’m too busy trying to keep up with the teacher’s flow to concentrate on what she is saying about how the Sacral Chakra is affected by Downward-Facing Dog, blah blah blah. Man, my mat is drenched. What did she just say? Fuck it, I’ll just try to keep up and wait for her to talk about Chakras during savasana.