Arm Balance Workshop: Yogaworks

I just completed my arm balance workshop at the local Yogaworks. Enh, 'completed' is maybe a bit much. I walked out early, which is gauche. Not too early, but still: before it was finished.

So: My first workshop. Goal was to learn some new arm balances. Stretch goal was to maybe meet some new people, since I go to yoga often but never meet anyone. Which is fine, but if there's an opportunity then maybe that would be nice. Or something.

Couple things going in that became relevant later on: I should have eaten more food before the class. It was at an odd time (1 PM), so usually my lunch. Also, I underestimated how long three hours actually is. To be clear: its a really fucking long time to do yoga even if you have a good instructor and the class is well paced. Our teacher was okay, but I didn't like the pace.

Since class was 2x as long as a usual class, I should have brought 2x as many towels. It makes sense in hindsight.

Teacher was very small, athletic type: maybe 5' 5" tall, 90 lbs, very skinny. Felt like she was kind of into herself. Which, I get it, I'm into me too, in a self-hating sort of way, so I make allowances. And yet...

She was also into how awesome her yoga practice is. And she does have a very strong practice. But if you're 5' 5" and weigh 90 lbs and are very flexible: no shit. She was probably skinny before she ever started doing yoga. She said that she had gained a lot of 'strength' from her practice. What she meant was her strength-to-weight ratio had improved, which is not the same thing, and it bugs me when people get that stuff confused. Because people are built differently, and what is possible for the teacher, or me, or you, might vary wildly, especially if you aren't shaped like a stick figure. Recognizing this variability, and teaching accordingly, is important.

Anyway, class starts and we do an intro. 1/3 of the people's goal for the class is to 'do a handstand away from the wall'. What the fuck people! If you want to do a handstand without the wall, the trick is to do a handstand... AWAY FROM THE WALL. Crazy, right? You don't need a workshop for that. You need to practice without the wall. How do you not know this? Not much to talk about - you can either do it or you can't. It's possible you suck at handstands or have never gotten good instruction. The wall is irrelevant. Learn how not to eat shit if you kick over too far. If that is beyond you, forget about doing a real unaided handstand. But I digress.

So we do the thing and it goes on and on. I sweat a lot. Like, more than you can imagine. Usually it's not so bad, but class goes and goes and I keep sweating, and after a while my towels are all completely soaked through, and the sweat is pooling adjacent to my mat. Everything I touch is soaked through, sweat is streaming off my shorts. I'm sweaty, is what I mean.

The arm balances were good, as far as it goes. The instructor's strategy was okay, but the class as a group can't do most of the stuff she demo'd. You'd think we would go over a lot of the biomechanics of how to get into a handstand away from the wall (see above), but instead we practiced how to pike into handstand, which exactly zero students could do. Useful? Not so much. It's not a matter of practice, it's a matter of looking at the students and realizing that it's not fucking happening, not today, and probably not ever, so maybe we should practice something else. Eventually we did.

We move on and spend a lot of time on core work, which is key for balancing. Then it's a mix of core and balances. It was okay, although the pace was inconsistent and not enough effort was made to help individual students. We also did some partner work, which I loathe. No one wants to get near me because I'm such a sweaty mess, and I don't blame them.

Another point: people that are very good at something often make poor teachers because it comes naturally to them. This teacher had a massive disconnect between telling us what to do (bring your hands down and pick your feet up) and how to do it. Doing a good demo is less important than describing how to align everything, especially in arm balances and inversions. Where are your hips? Your knees? What is your core doing? The teacher covered some of this but not nearly enough. I attribute this to her natural ability. She never had to think about it so simple explanations suffice. Or maybe that's her teaching style.

I wanted to finish the class but I became so frustrated with sitting in my sweat puddle that after 2.5 hours I packed up and walked out. Trying to do poses on a slippery mat/towel is difficult at best, dangerous at worst. The teacher thought I was tired. I'm not tired. My 20 minute crossfit workout yesterday was more challenging.* I created my own personal swamp and couldn't take it any more. Next time: more towels. Like, a lot more.

All workshops are different, and this was a good experience, even with all the stuff I mentioned above. If I had enough towels to clean up my space I could have gotten through it, so that's a lesson learned. As for the teacher, her style wasn't my favorite but it was still worthwhile.

Now, who wants to practice handstands?

*20:15 if you're keeping score. Only 155 lb deadlift though (back issues), and regular jump rope with 3x the reps.