Monday, January 11, 2010

Time sure flies. Sweat does, too!

I do not have a thesis tonight... just a couple of tidbits from my life.  :-)

First of all, I keep on having a tiny heart attack every time I look at a calendar.  It was October when I decided that I was definitely going to go to the teacher training session in April.  At that time, training was SIX months away, which seemed like a nice, manageable chunk of time.  Now it is January, and training is THREE months away.  And the last three months went by really quickly, so I have every reason to believe that the next three months will do the same.  Holy crap!!  What's going on around here?!  I gotta organize my life!!!

I love getting all these comment from teachers about how to get ready from training.  Everyone tells me, "learn some of the dialogue before you go, if you can!"  You guys are sooooo sweet.  Also, you have never been stuck in a car with me.  When Mei and I went on our little trip last month, she had to listen to my dialogue up through triangle - which I got almost verbatim, except for that stupid balancing stick - before we stopped for gas and got distracted.  To be honest, that's about as far as I can get right now.  But I'm pretty solid that far, and I plan on knowing the whole thing in my sleep by the end of February.  This is pretty easy, because I come from awesome dialogue studios, and I also was born with a freakish memory.  I don't know why.  I've been accused of having a "photographic memory" many times in my life.  That's not precisely how it works for me.  It's more like a tape recorder.  But I digress.  If you want to help me study, which I absolutely love, start asking me tricky questions, like "how many times, and in which postures, does the dialogue tell you to look at the floor?"  (I got that one from a friend yesterday and thought it was a great question.  I got it right, too!!)  I haven't fully studied all of it yet, but the whole dialogue is fair game.  (One of my friends today just said, "Triangle... second side."  What a jerk.  I love her.  "Quick, right arm stretch up, you're going to touch the ceiling pretty soon!  .... that's all I got.")

Second of all, I did another back-to-back double tonight and enjoyed the heck out of it.  Our studio was humid today, enough that after the 4:30pm class, my studio owner asked me, "Will you really be hydrated enough to do another class?"  Happily, the answer was yes.  (I had some Zico and some little tangerines in between.)  The 6:30pm class was a trip, but I got it all done without missing any postures.  Though in the interest of full disclosure, some of my postures were kinda short.  Eighth set of standing bow for the evening, I did a nice 15 seconds or so and was like, "Ok thanks, I'm good."

I was just impressed, as ever, with the sheer quantity of sweat that my body can produce when I do more than one class!  Every time I do two in a row, I find that my body is just primed to sweat in that second class and skips the warm-up period altogther.  By the second or third breath of pranayama, I was literally watching the sweat drip down from my elbows onto the carpet during the inhales.  Good grief.  The whole class was like that.  I really don't know where all that water comes from!  But it felt good up until the very end, at which point I was telling myself, "Ok, two more postures... one and a half more postures... one more posture...." 

I kept getting sweat stuck in my ear, which made the teacher's voice sound strange.  Between the humidity, the sweat, and the impaired hearing, I felt like I was underwater for a while!  Back when I practiced in the humid Boston summer classes every day, I remember having the crazy feeling that if I kept this practice up, my lungs would be able to operate underwater pretty soon.  Tonight, my lungs were doing a pretty good job of that task.  They also felt... huge.  What a weird sensation, to feel that your lungs are bigger than they were three hours ago!  It felt like breathing was a lot of work, not because I was out of breath, but because I had so much space in my body that I needed to take in more and more air to fill it up.  After class, my teacher said that I'd had a really nice "yoga glow" going on the whole time.  Must've been all that oxygen.  And sweat.  And prana, I suppose!  I'm not an expert at the terminology, but I know a good yoga glow when I see one, and it's not just made of hydrogen and oxygen!

And that's all she wrote, folks!  Hope you all have been enjoying your classes as much as I have.  If not, cheer up!  Last week I wasn't enjoying my classes at all, and now I'm starting to feel great.  We just cycle around and around...

17 comments:

Johan said...

I've had the ear problem quote often recently. With the added bonus of sometimes blocking the ear completely, makes you loose the balance. Sure makes the standing series extra interesting.

Allisson said...

I do get a weird ear thing sometimes, for me i know that it means i am dehyrdrated since it happens to me outside of yoga as well. almost always happens when i take morning classes and haven't really drank much water before.

aHappyYogi said...

I get ear problems as well, I don't know the English word but a "lit over the ear" and it releases when i equalize the ears. It sneaks up on me so I notice it afterwards and then I see way the teachers voice seems further away.

bikramyogachick said...

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who drips like a facuet during that second class on a back to back. My theory is that our pours are already so open so off we go with the sweat factory! It's crazy.
Dialog in the car is fun! Mei was teaching my half moon in the car on the way out to see you. I LOVED it! :)

Big G said...

I had the exact opposite happen in my second class yesterday - less sweat! Still plenty of it, but less than the first class. I do get water logged ears sometimes, especially on half-moon.

tracik said...

Ah yes...You have to love the "Yoga Glow"! Congrats on your perfect double!

thedancingj said...

Of course "sweat in the ear" is the topic that EVERYONE is the most interested in!! Haha. This was definitely not a case of dehydration, it was just the giant amount of sweat that was dripping down the top half of my head! (eeww.)

I've never sweat less in a second class, at least not back-to-back. When I "run out of sweat" it's usually near the end, and I figured I'm getting a tiny bit dehydrated. I've done triples a few times, and the third class is always the MOST I've sweat in my LIFE. :)

Johan said...

What J you mean you talked about something other than sweat?! I must have missed that. :-)

Duffy Pratt said...

I've never done a back to back because I don't think I hold enough water for it.

And your title reminds me of one of my favorite sillyisms:

Time flies like the wind
Fruit flies like a banana

thedancingj said...

DID I talk about something else? Oh, I talked about ME. SUPER boring!! ;)

Duffy, I love that joke.

thedancingj said...

Did you hear about the man who threw his pocket watch out the window because he wanted to see time fly? (ba dum bum bum)

Danielle said...

First of all, in that first paragraph... I thought I was reading MY blog a year ago!!

Second of all - SWEAT. I often think I might be the sweatiest girl that ever existed, but alas, you've made me feel better about that!! I am always impressed with people who can do 2 classes back to back. (bows with respect)

Elisa said...

Good for you and your tape recorder memory! I envy it. I'm one of those people who cannot do linear thinking--I remember impressions, snatches of dialogue, but nothing start to finish. Oh well. As a teacher, I need notes. Fortunately, I don't teach Bikram :-)

And isn't it funny how the littlest things can affect the practice? I wore my glasses today (contact problem + near blindness= 5.75 prescription glasses) and I felt like a different person. Very weird experience!

thedancingj said...

Danielle - "Alas"? Haha. And I'm glad you can relate to the bit about TT. Is it ALWAYS like this?! Probably...

Yolk - I know, I am soooo lucky. But that's one of the reasons why I know I am meant to teach Bikram! We all have our talents and our "callings," and they're all so different - thank goodness! On the subject of glasses/contacts - I have tons of respect for everyone who has to navigate that little complication in the hot room!!

~m said...

god, i love sweat! hee hee

i'm always surprised at how much i sweat during the 2nd of 2 in a row.

thedancingj said...

Yeah, I know you really "love sweat", M - thought of you when I wrote this one! ;)

Unknown said...

conGRAT - U - LATIONS on how well you are doing on your dialogue!

You're going to be fabulous at training. And by that I mean...

You're going to be well versed in your dialogue. That's first and foremost. Secondly, you're going to be well versed in just being in the room a ton with all the "fuck turtles" that goes with it.

They say - they have a lot more compassion for you inside the yoga room at TT than out.

Frankly my practice going in to training was good but not rockstar amazing, and my stamina was good but not great by any means... and I made it through. You will do really great - the passion is there. Also - sweat in the ear is one thing that totally skeeves me out on the mat... even after all this time :)