Yoga Festivals in NYC and Providence

There are two neat-looking yoga events coming up this summer and fall: Solstice in Times Square, a day of free yoga classes to celebrate the solstice on June 21, and Shining Light on New England, a weekend of Iyengar yoga in Providence.

I won't be in NYC for the Solstice, but I will be at the Iyengar conference. It's not cheap ($375 for nine sessions -- that's $42 per class) and I'll have to figure out lodging (hello, Couchsurfing!) but I think it's worth the splurge for the quality of instructors and in-depth seminars on topics you wouldn't learn about directly at the local studio. I'm looking forward to learning the theory behind sequencing and improving my ability to recognize poor alignment in myself and others. Conferences like these are a nice way to improve a home practice, too.

Anyone going to either of these? In the spirit of open source yoga, I'll share my new knowledge on the blog.

Downward Facing Dow: Yoga and the Economy

I began working at a Cambridge yoga studio right after the NBER and Labor Department and everyone but Jim Cramer officially declared that the economy had blown up. I worried that attendance would decline as people lost their jobs and had less money, or were in fear of losing their jobs and hoarding money. The opposite happened: more people came to morning and afternoon classes.

Once I quit my day job, I was one of them. Yoga classes provided the structure and interaction I got from going to a job. The daytime classes brought out a more diverse mix of students than you get in the evening: students and retirees, the laid off and the deliberately underemployed, yoga hipsters and hardcore corporate types who populate the later classes squeezing in a session between very important business that is very important to deal with as soon as class is over.

But what really perked me up was seeing all these people discover that they could supplement $15 a pop classes with a DIY home practice. I don't think I've ever anyone ask their teacher for home practice advice before the economic apocalypse set in.

It's also refreshing to see studios respond to the downturn by lowering the cost of yoga. SoniYoga, a studio in Cambridge, MA, has gone donation-only for some of its classes and is hosting swap meets. Yoga to the People in Berkeley and NYC has always been donation-based with the belief that "We want to make it possible for everyone to do yoga regardless of economic limitations. Yoga is meant to help strengthen and stretch your arms and legs, not cost you one!"

Agreed. Let this time of forced frugality change the way you relate to yoga.

Kids and Yoga

Why haven't I updated in three months? No legitimate excuse other than the generic "I've been busy with other projects" -- except one of them relates to yoga, and now I can share it.

I'm a contributor to Cleverhive.com, which is a hybrid online magazine social networking site for tween girls (ages 9-12 ish). In case you never were a tween girl, take my word that the media out there for them doesn't exactly respect girls for their creativity and intelligence. It's refreshing to see Cleverhive try to change that norm by valuing girls for more than their ability to attract boys.

Here's a feature I did on yoga for tweens. Share it with the tweens you know, and if you live in Boston, go to one of Tara's classes -- she's a great teacher.

Baron Baptiste Journeys Into Power, Shorts Out

Oh, kittens.

I'm so overdue for a post. The first four paragraphs of this one were written on Oct. 6 2008. Since I borrowed the book from the library, I've had to renew it four times.

But now! Finally, you get to find out what I think of a yoga book. It's worth the wait, right?

Being a software developer in real life primes me to form naming conventions for everything from labeling leftovers [main ingredient.secondary ingredient.date] to titling these posts. Naturally, my first book review should set the precedent for the book review title convention.

Except that the full title of this book is Journey Into Power How to Sculpt Your Ideal Body, Free Your True Self, and Transform Your Life with Yoga by Baron Baptiste, Founder of the Baptiste Power Yoga Institute.

Hence the conundrum. It's also a warning about the value of the words between the covers.

The first ten pages are acknowledgments, where Baptiste names his "wordsmith" and makes it quite clear that this book was cobbled together by others. Not to say that's bad; he should give them credit for writing a vivid and accessible book, albeit one that uses exclamation points as its default punctuation.

One thing hits you in every paragraph: Baptiste is trying to turn common sense health tips into a special Journey Into Power! program, broken up into steps and illustrated by anecdotes. The first real chapter, 'Rewiring Your Mind', quotes a billionaire student of Baptiste's saying that success is 80% worldview. I'd like to pit this billionaire against Thomas '90% perspiration' Edison. The whole point of the anecdote seems to be to establish Baptiste's credibility because he hobnobs with billionaires. It's a bit pitiful.

The rest of the chapter covers the 'Eight Universal Principles for Stepping Up to the Edge', which can all be condensed to: Maintain mental presence. I'm saving you so much time and money already. There are some good perspectives on maintaining that presence, like realizing that there is space between stimulus and response and it can be consciously controlled.

Baptiste's strength lies in his step-by-step descriptions of poses. The sequences in this book are pretty bland -- sun salutations and then common poses to increase balance, back bending power, etc. He tells you how to enter an exit every pose and makes the alignment instructions clear and non-technical. Finally, he points out risks, modifications, and a spiritual focus for every pose.

These alone could have made up for the rest of the book had they been insightful, but instead we get advice like this for warrior II: "Rise above the battlefield of your mind. Be a warrior, not a worrier!"

It's cribbed straight from Joel Osteen, "Be a victor! Not a victim!".

Just like Joel, Baptiste has spiritually-infused diet advice. Part 3 of the book starts off by saying that there is no one-size-fits all diet. It then gives you a detailed menu for a seven-day diet jump start. There is some good information in there about eating slowly and mindfully, but feels very tacked on, as if it wouldn't be a real contender on the 'health' bookshelves without a diet chapter.

I'm so disappointed with this book because I really do think highly of Baptiste's style and have enjoyed classes I've taken at his Cambridge studio. I wish he had followed his own advice and written a thoughtful book that delves deeply into a handful of topics, rather than trying to compete with every diet and exercise book out there.

Bottom line: Skim it at the library to freshen your perspective on a few things and move on to the gold standard, Light on Yoga.

Make your own yoga props and clothes

My post on DIY yoga props garnered a link to Gailee's blog with patterns for sewing your own clothes and props. If I knew how to use a sewing machine, I would be all over the glitter leotard.

However! You can easily make eye pillows/heating pads without a sewing machine, and my domestically incompetent hands have brought them forth with ease.

Ingredients:

• Cotton fabric pieces cut into the shape of your choice. Make an eye mask, belly/back pad, or a long snake-like tube for draping around tense shoulders. Don't use any synthetic fibers if you want to heat it in the microwave because they might melt.
• Cheap rice
• Dried good-smelling herbs: lavender, mint, rosemary, etc.

Instructions:

Place the pieces of fabric on top of each other with the nice sides together. Sew 3 of the edges with a stitch shorter than a grain of rice, and then turn it inside out. In a bowl, mix the rice and herbs so that you can smell the herbs easily. Gently pour the grains into the sack until 3/4 full and finish sewing the remaining edge. Overfilling could cause it to break open, especially if you make one for your neck.

Use:

Throw it in the microwave for 30-60 seconds until warm. Place on achy or tight muscles for instant gratification.

Bottom line:

Old shirt material $0 + needle and thread $1 + rice $1 + herbs $2= $4 versus $20 for an electric heating pad and $50 for a half-hour massage. At least $16 saved!

Important Mat(ters): The Cheap Yoga Mat Buying Guide

My post on props gave suggestions for homespun alternatives to having a yoga mat, but in the long run you're better off spending on the real thing. A dedicated yoga mat helps stabilize your poses by giving something for your hands and feet to grip onto. Also, buying a yoga mat is less messy than covering a towel in rubber cement to get the same effect.

Speaking of rubber, yoga mat marketing has exploded into a war over green cred. Most mats used to be (as in, last year) made of PVC, which is awesomely sticky and durable and might give you cancer. My mat is PVC and I've overcome my urge to gnaw it in child's pose. That said, if I were to buy a new mat (which I'm not, because I'm cheap, duh) it wouldn't be PVC because of what it does to the people producing it. From the CDC:

Acute high-level exposure to vinyl
chloride can produce headache, dizziness,
drowsiness, and loss of consciousness.
Extremely high-levels can be lethal.

Exposure of workers to high levels of
vinyl chloride has resulted in altered
blood flow in the hands...

Long-term exposure of workers has
resulted in alterations in the liver
ranging from hypertrophy and
hyperplasia to hepatocellular
degeneration.

Studies of workers who breathed vinyl
chloride over many years have shown
an increased incidence of liver cancer,
but other cancers have also been
associated with occupational exposure
to vinyl chloride.

With PVC out of the running, the other options for sticky mat material are natural rubber and thermoplastic elastomer (TPE). You can get non-sticky yoga mats made of cotton or hemp or jute but don't expect great performance in balancing poses. That sort of mat is best left for restorative practice and meditation.

The different surface textures produced by mat materials can be helpful or a hindrance. A frequent complaint about natural rubber mats is that they are very slippery for the first few uses, which can be avoided by washing it really upon buying. However, natural rubber is non-toxic (if you're not allergic to latex) and fully biodegradable in a landfill. TPE mats have a soft, downy texture which stays relatively dry when sweat on, a boon for hot yoga classes. Their makers claim that they're biodegradable, but I have some doubts. Here's the background on the chemical composition of TPE which says that some forms can be recycled like any other plastic. Great, but that's not the same as biodegradability. I asked my personal polymer expert about TPE and he said that some forms are digestible by microbes but there's no guarantee that the mat you buy will be that kind or that your local landfill will have the right components to gobble it up. So if biodegradability is a guiding factor in your purchasing decisions, I'd say to hold off on the TPE mats for now.

A thicker mat (over 5mm) cushions the joints more and is good for people with chronic pain -- especially bad knees. Thick mats are heavy and could be annoying to carry around, so bear that in mind if you plan on bringing your own mat to the studio or on trips. If you like the feel of a thick mat but your studio only offers thin ones, take three and layer them on top of each other.

Thin mats (under 5mm) are everywhere because they're cheap and light. Because they don't give extra cushion to joints, users should have a blanket ready to provide padding under painful bones. I like a thin mat in standing balancing poses like Warrior III because there's less to wobble between the floor and my foot.

Look carefully at a mat's dimensions and figure out if you could lie flat on it without your feet extending past the end. Studio mats are often one-size-fits-all, but manufacturers have wised to the fact that tall people and broad people do yoga too. I guarantee that you will not practice if your mat is too small for you.

A fair price for a mat in the US is about $30-$60. You can easily spend close to $100.

Some options I have tried and liked are:

Jade makes natural rubber mats entirely in the US. They have the best combination of thicknesses, widths, and lengths that I've seen and are cheaper than rubber mats from Prana.

Lotuspad is based in Cambridge, MA and makes TPE mats for adults and kids. They're medium-thick at 5mm and only come in one adult size for now but the mats are wonderfully soft and the company's owner emailed me personally about the product, so three cheers for service.

Some options I haven't tried but think are interesting alternatives:

Yogapaws are mittens and socks made of yoga mat material and meant for travelling.

Here's a non-PVC mat with an antimicrobial silver coating. Presumably this keeps the mat from smelling funky or harboring germs, a big problem in hot yoga. Gaiam sells it for cheaper.

Gaiam manufactures a cotton mat that stays in place with rubber backing. This could also be good to put over a traditional sticky mat for more support.

Lululemon makes a circular mat that looks like a ton of fun, but you know is going to cost you heartily.

Bottom line: Be willing to spend wisely on a good-quality mat that suits your needs and that will last a long time.

Whole Paycheck -5

Here's a printable coupon for $5 off a purchase of $25 or more at Whole Foods, part of their strategy to say "We're affordable! We really, really are!". Whatevs. http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/products/wholedeal/index.php

My post on cheap yoga in Boston mentioned Bo Forbes' free classes, which are starting up again on Nov. 2 at the Arlington Center from 2:30-4. GET THERE EARLY BECAUSE IT WILL BE FULL.