Lawrence08648

Yoga is two fold with a detour, stretching and strength training and the detour is physical relaxation with mental relaxation.

If you want the stretching part of it, I find being taught stretching exercises by a high school/college wrestler is better. They do better and more dynamic stretches than yoga does. Yoga helps develop smoothness and balance moving to different poses and strength from holding the poses. The relaxation of the mind comes from the relaxation of the body and allowing yourself to mentally relax by accepting the body's relaxation. I've taken many a yoga class where after the "stretching" part, you lie on your back without moving for as much as 2 1/2 hours relaxing. This is the mental relaxation.

Road Fan

I just take it as it comes, at this point. My instructor does have us relax afterwards, but nowhere near two hours - more like 10 minutes.

ayceejay

If you want to know the ins and outs of how the body works in yoga check out Ray Long at https://www.dailybandha.com/

cyclezen

nice! thx!

Road Fan

Update 13+ weeks later:

5 weeks into the yoga class, other things in life got really busy and I had to cut back training to like 2 hours a week, so there went regular yoga. When the musical concert season entered full-speed, I had to cut that out, too, with 3 hour rehearsals and performances 11 nights out of 14.

I'm re-taking the class starting in a few weeks, and it seems to be designed for this. To try to keep up a little, I bought some books. It's amazing how different Iyengar is from some other styles. My teacher is a stickler for form and for staying in an asana long enough to feel how to relax when in it. One of the books I bought (by Cynthia Worby) seems to follow this and models the form I was taught. Some of the instructions for achieving an asana are the same as in my class. Another book by Zack Kurland focuses on morning workouts (vinyasas?), and seems to move you from asana to asana at a rather quick pace - 15 asanas in a 20 minute sun salutation warmup or beginner vinyasa. So far I think I'll stay with Iyengar and Ms. Worby when I'm not working under my class.


Like that bandha site!

Road Fan

Ok, perhaps I've not been hearing what he really means. He also gets his lefts and rights mixed up. You have to watch him and reverse sides to follow accurately.

Road Fan

From my limited point of view, how is P90X connected with Yoga? Look at their site, I don't see a connection, other than the human body itself.

BarracksSi

They've got a routine that's about 90 minutes long, starting with 40-45 minutes of vinyasas and movement, then a bunch of balance poses, and finishing with some stretching, a brief minute-long corpse pose, and even some "om"-ing. My sister says it moves really quickly compared to the classes she's taken, though. I did the session with her during a visit over Thanksgiving, which was after my posts in this thread.

They put in a shorter one in the new P90X2, too, but I haven't gotten it.

Road Fan

I'm a rank beginner, but what I do is very slow. I've gained significant strength from it and even breathed hard, but I'm not in it for aerobics; I got bikes for that.

Compared to what I'm doing, it seems to use some of the elements of yoga, but it's real different.