Things I Google: What is Vinyasa Yoga

During our time on hurrication, my husband and I did our best to continue going to the gym. I did a lot of youtube stress relief yoga (Thanks Yoga With Adriene!), while he did a lot of hotel gym workouts. 

When we arrived at my parent’s house, we gained access to our local fitness center and its array of classes. The first day we went, he lifted and I did a yoga video since my body felt dead from all the traveling. After our workouts, my husband was interested in doing a yoga class with me, so we looked at the schedule and saw “Vinyasa Yoga 9:30 am”.

He asked me what vinyasa meant and I said who knows, but it’ll be fine. I mostly said that to convince myself, but I did a quick google search to learn the definition. I saw the word “flow” and equated it to easy and moved on with my day.

The next morning we woke up for the class, walked in, and were welcomed by the instructor. She asked if we had done yoga before and both of our responses were, ‘yes’… but ohhhhhh  man were we wrong.

Ya see, we had both done basic yoga, i.e. youtube yoga or basic beginner yoga classes. We had not done vinyasa yoga before. As the class began, we all stood up and the instructor greeted us with a “Good morning and welcome to power yoga”. PAUSE. Hold on. Rewind. Did she just say power yoga? Vinyaso-no… 

*insert panic butt sweat*

My husband and I looked at each other and nervously laughed as we reached to the sky. We are both the type of people who are like, “well shit I’m already in here, and don’t want to be rude, so I guess I’ll suffer thru this and play it cool like I belong even though I don’t”. While we were going through basic yoga warm up stretches, I couldn’t help but laugh at myself and this minor mistake. Also, watching my husband attempt to contort himself was quite entertaining. 

So how did we end up in power yoga? I winged my google search duh. I did the standard “What is Vinyasa Yoga?”, then read the first line and was told him, “yea we will be fine.” And we were because we’re average fit people, but it was so challenging, as a workout should be! 

Off topic, but aren’t these leggings cute! Check out Calia the workout gear by Carrie Underwood. Not sponsored, I just appreciate a good, sturdy legging.

This is what I read when I first googled.

” In vinyasa yoga classes, students coordinate movement with breath to flow from one pose to the next.” – YogaJournal.com

Sounded easy to me, but man was I wrong. I’m not a good breather, and I know that sounds stupid to say since it’s something we do without thinking, but I’m truly bad at it. If I think about breathing, I either hyperventilate or hypoventilate, both resulting in me slightly panicking and getting lightheaded. Body betrayal as I call it. 

I also didn’t read the next line.

“Ashtanga, Baptiste Yoga, Jivamukti, Power Yoga, and Prana Flow could all be considered vinyasa yoga.” -Yoga Journal

Aka out of all the words in that sentence the ones I should’ve understood are “power yoga”.

Vinyasa Yoga = Power Yoga = not ‘easy’ yoga

Eh, ok let me back up and stop sounding like I’m hating on Vinyasa, because I’m not. I’m more laughing at myself and this mistake because if I had actually read and not gotten A.D.D. I would’ve known it was a more challenging class. So if you’re new to yoga, and you want to try it go for it! Just know it’s challenging and not as easy as I told myself, but you want to find exercises that challenge you!

I love/hated Vinyasa because as I said I have a very hard time coordinating my breathing and my movements properly. The “flow” part of vinyasa is that you are breathing in/out with each transition to a position, so it flows pretty quickly. There’s more movement and sweating and less shavasana.

“Shavasana, Savasana (/ʃəˈvæsənə/shə-VAH-sə-nə;^[1]Sanskrit: शवासन; IAST: śavāsana), or corpse pose^[2] is an asana usually done at the end of a yoga practice in which practitioners lie flat on their backs with the heels spread as wide as the yoga mat and the arms a few inches away from the body, palms facing upwards.” – Wikipedia – yes I know you shouldn’t cite Wiki, but this is like basic info. It’s fine people.

Shavasana = nap time

So if you’re like me and you like to try new workouts or exercise classes, try Vinyasa. In all honesty, I throughly enjoyed it because I really had to focus on coordinating the movements with each breath and according to my many google searches that is the hardest part of vinyasa. The movements are all parts of basic yoga, and as your yoga instructor will tell you, don’t push your body into positions that hurt. Yoga should be enjoyable and not an hour long fight with your body. No one likes being in pain, so don’t force what isn’t natural. Breathe, focus, and enjoy!

And if you’re like me and show up in a class you didn’t mean to be in, try your hardest to learn, and just wing it!

-D

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