Avi Rothman aka The Inappropriate Yoga Guy first came to my attention after I read about his You Tube sensation short on one of my favorite L.A. yoga blogs, The Accidental Yogist. In fact, Rothman’s comedic sketch about a lecherous yoga enthusiast who cruises classes for dates inspired an article in the New York Times about yoga pick-ups.
So I called Rothman and found out he is neither a lech, nor has he ever asked anyone out from yoga class. Instead, he has a Yoga Works annual pass and practices flow or ashtanga almost every day – a nice respite from the stresses of being an actor/writer who spends his working hours navigating traffic to auditions and meetings.
His inspiration for The Inappropriate Yoga Guy was an exaggerated composite of real-life characters he’s witnessed in his own yoga classes. “Yoga happens in hot rooms where people are wearing practically nothing. Whether you want to admit it or not, yoga is sensual so of course, you’ll be attracted to people there,” he says. And since he’s a comic, he found the funny in the situation. “I knew I might offend someone but I had to get over that. Besides, sometimes I feel like people are too scared to laugh at yoga, that they think you have to take it so seriously. I just wanted to bring to light the humor.”
When he’s not doing yoga, writing or acting, Rothman, who is 29 and single, can be found at the bulk food bin at the Santa Monica Coop stocking up on Goji berries and dreaming up Inappropriate Yoga Guy II. What can we expect from the sequel? “I’m not at liberty to say,” he teases. I guess we’ll have to stay tuned.
On August 6, something very unexpected happened. I received an email that told me that the teacher I was planning to do a 200-hour teacher training with this coming October—an American man living in Singapore named Scott Orton—suddenly died. He was young and healthy and there was no explanation for his death. Though I had felt a connection with him, I knew little about his life, except that he had studied yoga at the Sivananda Yoga Farm. This past weekend, I decided to head up there.
Founded by Swami Vishnu-devananda, a direct disciple of Sivananda himself, the Yoga Farm is on a wide, sprawling piece of land in Grass Valley. Ashram living—and visiting—is regimented, but not rigid. The daily schedule (6am-10pm), consists of two simple asana classes, two meditation/satsang sessions that incorporate devotional chanting, a daily lecture on a particular topic, and two amazing vegetarian meals.
Swami Sita, the senior teacher at the ashram, is a devout practitioner and a strong presence there. She gave a couple of dharma talks that were quite captivating about positive thinking, devotion, and karma; she also talked to me personally about Scott, which was a blessing as it helped me to move on from a place of grieving to a place of understanding.
The place is magical, and what makes it so is not only the land and the gracious staff, but the other visitors. Some were studying to be Sivananda yogis, but many were just there to practice ashram living and retreat for a while from their regular lives. With all of the programs offered there, the nearby Yoga Farm functions as a retreat, a school, and a journey (both physical and spiritual) all at once. Next time you have a free weekend, I would strongly recommend visiting. Just make sure you leave the city by 1pm on a Friday to beat the crazy I-80 traffic.
Labor day is almost here and that means it’s back to school. The arrival of fall is an ideal time to consider the myriad of top-tier teacher trainings. At Goldenbridge, Gurmukh will share the energy-shifting art of Kundalini yoga and Erich Schiffmann will teach how to move into stillness at Exhale in Venice. Of course, Yoga Works has a well-rounded hatha teacher training as well.
But for something a little more academic, outside the for-profit yoga studio world, Loyola Marymont University’s Yoga Studies program offers an intriguing line-up of courses exploring topics like the Bhagavad Gita, the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali, mindfulness meditation, pranayama, the principles of Buddhism and Sanskrit too. The yoga RX therapeutics program, a blend of yoga therapy and complementary medicine, is taught by experts like Larry Payne and Leslie Kaminoff and the Vinyasa certificate is led by Srivatsa Ramaswami, who learned his art and science directly from Krishnamacharya.
The program is also a hub for the yoga theological community and attracts high-profile visitors like Thich Nhat Hanh, who will be on campus September 5th. For a taste without full enrollmnet, try the Thursday night, donation-only class led by Trudy Goodman that includes sitting, walking meditation, and a dharma talk.
It’s a Sunday in August, so there are only four of us at Levitate, a new-ish studio near Times Square for a two-hour workshop, “Yoga for Writers, Artists and All Creative Souls." “I discovered that yoga practice helped my writing practice, and my writing practice helped my yoga practice,” says instructor Barbara Benedict, a creativity coach and former TV commercial producer.
She gives each class a theme; today is “home.” We begin with a two-minute freewrite on “Home is…” We scribble away. Then tells us the one rule: After each person reads her/his writing aloud, we are to say only, “Way cool.” My words feel cramped, yearning; home is especially “up” for me these days. They "Way Cool" for me anyway.
Then we do cat/cows and other warm-ups. She reads a quote from Twyla Tharp: “Art is the only way to run away from home without leaving home.” We write on “What is home to you right now?” Two minutes fly. My words are still tight, pained.
We do standing poses-—Triangle, Tree, Warrior II. “In this pose,” she says of the latter, “your back foot is the past, your torso is the present, and your front hand is the future.” I laugh. My future is aimed at a sign across the street that says, “Latitude.” “Ah,” she says, “Guess you need a to give yourself a little more latitude.” It’s a testament to my stress levels that this interpretation hadn’t occurred to me.
We move into Kapalabhati and alternate-nostril breathing. Then a five-minute freewrite on “I can find home . . .” When we read this time, to my surprise, I cry. It’s as though the yoga and the writing are conspiring to open me. “You’re not the first,” Barbara says gently. She hands out little packets of custom-made M&Ms. “The antidote to your to-do lists,” she says. Each tiny candy is printed with “I GET to do it!”
More asana. And then, blissful Savasana. When we rise, we write again. This time the whine in my pen is gone. I feel clear, like still water. She reads O’Henry’s last words: "Turn up the lights. I don’t want to go home in the dark." It feels like someone's flipped my switch. Way cool, indeed.
Barbara teaches this class all over the NYC area. She also does creativity coaching on the phone in the Kaizen-Muse tradition. For more info: www.barbarabenedictnyc.com/.
It's easy to find yoga DVDs with names like "Yoga on the Go" or "Fifteen Minutes to Yoga Buns," complete with a picture of a hot, shirtless yogi on the front. (And I do appreciate the hot, shirtless yogi.) But who's documenting the real masters of our generation? An SF-based company called Pranamaya has taken on the task.
Pranamaya founders Mark Holmes and Ian Albert, who have been friends since the '80s when they met in high school, spent years working in the film industry while maintaining devoted yoga practices. Mark was a visual effects artist for Industrial Light & Sony Pictures, and Ian was a director and producer for a live public policy talk show that ran on PBS. A few years ago, they decided to pair their professional skills with their love of yoga and Pranamaya was born.
Since then, they have double-handedly produced 12 DVDs on some of the most exciting yogis of today. Their subjects—which include acclaimed yogis like Sarah Powers, Andrey Lappa, Edward Clark, Dharma Mittra, Paul Grilley and, most recently, Viniyoga founder Gary Kraftsow—are chosen, says Mark, for their "incredibly deep devotion to a true path of inquiry into yoga and how existence is informed and reflected by the practice."
The DVDs are simple, but polished, and packed with info you really can't get anywhere else. (Yes, the founders are my friends, but they truly do cool stuff.) Pranamaya is a real SF company, often using local yoga teachers—like Chandra Easton, Deb Burkman, and Chrisandra Fox—as students in their DVDs. The company, which operates out of Portrero Hill, has quickly made an international rep for itself, with thousands of DVDs sold and customers in such far-flung places as Saudi Arabia and South Africa.
But no matter what success the future may hold in store for Pranamaya, you won't be seeing them go mainstream anytime soon. Mark and Ian are more concerned with recording the esoteric practices of these yogis for posterity, so they can be passed down to the next generation—and shared with the current one, as well.
As my friend Loren was stretching on the grass at Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens recently, she peered through her Down-Dog legs and saw a field of people behind her doing the same. So of course I had to go the next week for some scenic, organized yoga.
The funky, hand-hewn park—celebrating its 20th birthday this year—rests on a green lot next to the East River (the picture at right was taken earlier this summer). Saturday morning was windy, cool-ish, with a Simpsons-blue sky. Dogs frolicked, sculptural metal windchimes rang, and the river looked rough, steel-gray, open. What was most wonderful, though, was the yoga.
There were about 40 of us—a much more diverse crowd than I usually see in classes. As the teacher—young, cool, in white sunglasses—guided us through deceptively simple poses like triangle, half-moon, and Warrior 1, her tiny adjustments were specific and helpful. She had us pull us from our crowns, raise our hearts, align our hips, and be gentle with injuries. By the time she got to my all-time favorite pose, Garudasana, or Eagle, I was like, aha! She’s Kripalu-trained. (It's where I started my yoga practice 15 years ago; they have a unique way of adjusting and moving through poses.) She told us to imagine we were eagles perched high, swaying in the wind.
And for a refreshing New York change, it was not a Vinyasa class! The poses flowed into each other, but without feeling elaborate, strained, or over-conducted.
She let us have the full sivasana too, laying on our mats in the bumpy grass. By the final om and namastes, we all seemed light enough to bob on the river surface. My boyfriend, still a yoga virgin, was watching nearby. “If I had known it would be that easy to follow,” he said. “I would have joined in.”
And I felt ready to follow the teacher, Monique Schubert, anywhere. Socrates will host two more classes this summer in what remains of August—Saturday the 24 and the 31st at 11 am (Monique plans to teach the latter). Directions are here. And Monique, it turns out, is indeed Kripalu-trained (she handed out catalogs after), and teaches at a small studio near my house in Brooklyn.
Been to any great outdoor yoga classes the summer? Share below.
(An unrelated P.S.: The NYT just did a story about how Union Square is so full of yogic and healthy options these days—Whole Foods, the Green Market, Jivamukti, Om, etc.—it’s now being called the “Wheatpacking District.” Ah, and I remember the pre-smoothie days when it was known as Needle Park, for all its resident junkies.)
I like a massage as much as the next girl. And while fancy spas with scented candles and cucumber-infused water are certainly a worthwhile treat, in Los Angeles, there’s no reason not to take advantage of authentic, reasonably priced, no-frills Thai massage.
This therapeutic technique, believed to have been invented by the Buddha's personal physician, compliments any yoga practice and is a great opportunity to just be. And since the therapist moves you into a series of yoga-like stretches and incorporates acupressure massage, all you’re required to do is focus on your breath, on the present moment, and receive this great, relaxing offering.
If you’ve been practicing yoga for a few years—or even a few months—you may have thought about becoming a teacher. Good news: You don’t have to spend a month in India (or even at Kripalu) to get your certification. This fall, there are three fabulous 200-hour Yoga Alliance-registered training programs right here in San Francisco. Here's the deal.
Yoga Tree Dates: 9/14/07-2/17/08 Basic schedule: Every weekend Styles taught: Hatha and Vinyasa Price: $2950 How long they’ve been doing it: 7 years How many students per training: appx. 40 Teachers involved: Darren Main, Stephanie Snyder, Jamie Lindsay, Elise Lorimer, Janet Stone, Darshana Weil, Chris Tompkins, Michael Watson The deal: If you’ve taken yoga classes in San Francisco, you’ve probably gone to a Yoga Tree studio. With locations in Hayes Valley, the Mission, the Castro, and the Haight, the Yoga Tree community is large, wide, and well reputed. YT representative Jeremy Simon says that the main focus of the TTC is to expose students to a large diversity of styles and teachers so that they can find their own voice as a teacher. The program also includes a lecture series with renown visiting guests and unlimited free and discount yoga classes, the guidance of a mentor, and lifelong relationship with the Yoga Tree family. Find out more: www.yogatreesf.com
Yoga Loft Dates: 9/15/07-2/23/08 Basic schedule: most Saturdays, 7 Sundays Style: no one particular style, though several of the teachers are Iyengar trained Price: $3400 How long they’ve been doing it: 5 years How many students per training: appx. 15-20 Teachers involved: Tony Briggs, Jason Crandell, Sabine Kuehner, Geoffrey Roniger, Anne Saliou, Patricia Sullivan The deal: This is the smallest program of the three, and focuses on individual attention for students. In addition to the regular curriculum, each student chooses a mentor to study with and assist in classes. A cool aspect of this training is that the Loft stays connected with students well after graduation and offers them subbing opportunities and jobs teaching community classes in the afternoon. Studio co-owner Meg Whitbread says that the program is a reflection of what the Loft, itself, aims to do: "To keep this practice as real as possible, so people can really see themselves, see their true nature." Find out more:www.theloftsf.com
Yoga Works Dates: 9/7/07-3/2/08 Basic Schedule: one three-day weekend every three weeks Style: Krishnamacharya lineage (Desikachar, Iyengar, and Astanga) with an emphasis on detailed alignment within a flow practice Price: $3200 How long they’ve been doing it: 17 years How many students per training: appx. 20 Teachers involved: Annie Carpenter & Julie Kleinman The deal: Yoga Works is known as one of the premier yoga schools in the country. Though they don't have a studio here, they have partnered with Sports Club LA to bring their training to the Bay Area. The director, Julie Kleinman, was a student of Eric Schiffman and Rod Stryker and says that the Yoga Works TTC can be set apart by its two decades of experience in training teachers, its particular method of intelligent and thoughtful sequencing, and its emphasis on the skillful instruction of asanai. Find out more:www.yogaworks.com
You may also want to check out an upcoming Anusara training at Yoga Tree, the Sivananda one-month training at the Grass Valley Yoga Farm, or the three-month immersion (not Yoga Alliance certified) at The Yoga Studio in Larkspur, all starting also in the fall. Of course, the best way to choose where you will study is to talk to the teachers who run the training and see if it is a good fit.
Sometimes in the canyons of blogland, it can get lonely. Especially when a blog is in its infancy and the most you can hope for is a couple of comments per post unless you're expressing some extreme opinion about, say, Lindsay Lohan.
So I'd thought I'd feel around for fellow New York City bloggers. Others who navigate this cement jungle, which is often a little rough on the yogi who's been rendered tender by a particularly soul-sweeping round of sun salutes. When I was in the midst of fighting cancer a couple of years ago (I won), the amazing Elena Brower, who runs the Virayoga studio, said to me, "If you get through this illness, in this city, you will be a warrior." Indeed. Spoken like a battle-tested urban yogini herself.
Another teacher suggested, in a sweaty, August class, that the true test of a supple, healthy heart chakra is that it's able to open and close like a pair of breathing lungs. If we walk around totally open anywhere, but especially in this city, we'll get creamed. But if our hearts can be like Levelor blinds (I'll take credit for that metaphor), we'll have the freedom to be open when we want and tough when we need.
Here's a collection of some NYC-based yogis—asana-ing and living to write the tale.
Souljerky
Blogger Spiros Antonopoulos tracks yoga and culture. A recent post: South Park Zen.
Bread, Coffee, Chocolate Yoga
A personal blog by "Felkins" about yoga, carbs, and life in Brooklyn. Lately she's been focused on her iPhone.
The Yogascope Kaleidoscope
Manhattan yoga teacher Carl Horowitz has a blog that details breathwork in various postures.
Susan Nichols has turned her practice into a profession.
It started innocently enough in New York. Once an avid Ashtanga practitioner, who relished the discipline of her daily 4 a.m. yoga practice, Nichols was frustrated when sweating turned her yoga mat into a hazard rather than a grounding tool. And when she tried using a Mysore yoga rug eventually, she said, "It smelled like a wet dog." Not pretty.
So when she moved to Los Angeles, she used her skills as a former art director at a toy company to invent a "yoga towel" that would absorb perspiration and stay put. Enter the "skidless"—a micro-fiber mat with silicone nubs that launched Nichols company Yogitoes.
Today Nichols walks to her Santa Monica office with her super cute pup Goa and creates accessories that combine the best of form and function. Her minimalist aesthetic is calming and her color palette inspires—orange is a big favorite.
She’s also joined forces with some her favorite teachers (Lisa Walford, Annie Carpenter and Chuck Miller) to create user guides for innovative props like the eco-dot, a round block made from recycled foam, a sleek meditation cushion called the M-seat, and the POE mat, named after it's main ingredient polyolefin elastomer, which is latex, adhesive and PVC free.
This week, she launched her first line of yoga clothing. My favorite: the “skirt-cho” made mostly of recycled cotton—it's a poncho, a skirt and a great accessory for any wardrobe proving that inspiration is the mother of invention.
I am not a person who likes to pretend I am a monkey. Or a reptile. Not even on Halloween. But Cameron Shayne got me crawling around on all fours for three full hours this past Sunday—and loving it.
L.A.-based teacher Shayne is the founder of Budokon, a practice that melds together hatha yoga and martial arts with the theory that they are a more complete art form when blended together than when practiced separately.
The Castro's Yoga Flow hosted two workshops with Shayne this past weekend. The Art of Floating lent insight into the physical and philosophical tenants of the practice, which are core and upper body strength, controlled and precise movement, and personal empowerment. In Animal Awakening, we moved our way through human evolution, embodying single-celled organisms, lizards, four-legged mammals, and finally primates. Shayne's own physical imitation of these creatures is uncanny, and when you walk on four feet yourself, you begin to understand what your arms are really capable of.
The practice is lighthearted and fun, but also offers incredible strength training. It was a great introduction to martial arts and did wonders to inform my yoga practice. What I appreciated most is the way Shayne slows everything down. He says that speed covers up weakness, and he teaches you to move from one pose to the next with perfect deliberation, pointing out that asanas were not designed to be unconsciously bled together.
Shayne's both a yogi and a martial arts master. He's encouraging and kind—but not afraid to engage in conflict. "You don’t really know someone," he says, "until you have a fight with them."
There was some talk after class about the possibility of a local teacher training, but nothing yet planned. In the meantime, if you want to learn how to gracefully connect your backbends with some forceful kicks, take one of his donation-based classes next time you are down south. It'll be worth it.
I've always been a fan of East West books near 14th street, even when it was a scrudgy little place that felt like it needed a bath. Since it opened in 1977 it's been crammed with books on yoga, mysticism, veganism, tantra, alternative heath, and the like. For me it was a great (and rare) place to pick up incense in a pinch; I never made it to the yoga studio I knew was inside. One multi-million dollar renovation later, and it's now a chic, glittering palace of spiritual books and stuff—complete with vegetarian café with wifi and a large yoga section with mats and raw silk zafus.
The new space feels like Whole Foods' younger, literary, more Zen cousin. And in October, they'll add finishing touches to the outside and the little snack café will expand to an actual restaurant.
I stopped by the other day for a look-see (sometimes I slip in when I need to calm down and get a hit of spiritual materialism—the antidote to material materialism), and after handling a chunk amethyst and sniffing jasmine oil, I went out the door, into the one next door and up to their equally reno'd yoga studio. I could have licked it for its loveliness. Pale bamboo floors, Hagrid-high ceilings, and two surprisingly roomy studios, one facing a quiet back courtyardy thing.
I talked to Grace at the front desk, who couldn't have been nicer. Turns out the place was sold in 2005 from the Himalayan Institute to a company owned by one of Swami Rama's students. And their events are now getting bigger—apparently last month Tibetan monks did a sand mandala on the floor of the café. Plus, of course, they've got a slew of yoga classes, from Kundalini to Vinyasa to plain old Hatha. I haven't had a chance to take a class there yet. Check out their schedule here. Later this month they're hosting a "bio-energetic" conference with the U.N.'s recreation council—with speakers on healing, astrology, feng shui, and more. Who knew?
Have you taken yoga at East West? Are you a fan? Grossed out or inspired by the spiritual materialism thing? You can comment below (and please do!).
For nearly 24 years the non-profit Iyengar Yoga Institute on Third Street in Los Angeles has been the mothership for passing on the art and science of BKS Iyengar in Southern California. Unfortunately, the building that houses the studio has been sold which means that by the end of the year, the Institute needs to find a new home.
To that end, the yoga community is joining together to raise the funds to sustain the move. The goal: $250,000. The fundraising kick-off started last month with an old-fashioned bake sale and in one weekend, $1,700 was raised. During August, September and October, all the proceeds from a series of workshops in Los Angeles and Orange County will go to the moving fund and Yoga Works has agreed to offer a 10 percent match on every dollar raised.
I encourage anyone in the area to sign-up. Husband and wife Paul Cabanis and Marla Apt are teaching this weekend which will surely be an entertaining afternoon. Chris Stein’s precision and skill shouldn’t be missed on September 29th, and in October, Lisa Walford will lead a workshop. While I’ve never taken a class with Lisa, I’ve always been curious about her commitment to a calorie restriction diet (but that’s another post).
Check the institute website for other fundraising events (I’m told there will be a dinner in December and a Yoga-thon too), or even make a donation. We all know how important the Iyengar school is to our yoga kula so let’s join together to keep it strong.
I have practiced yoga in a lot of places, but never in a retail store—until last Saturday. Lululemon, the city's famous one-stop shop for yoga clothing, cleared the floor of their Marina store to make space for a charitable yoga class that was part of their new Practice for a Cause program. This class was being held to raise money for the Healing & Yoga Foundation of San Francisco.
One one level, it seems a little weird to be doing yoga while surrounded by a seemingly endless array of hot yoga shorts, low-waisted reversible pants, and brightly colored tank tops that cross in the front, cross in the back, and have new removable boob pads. On another level, practicing together is about community and meditation, not incense-burning or Shiva statues. The class energy was great, the students were excited about the cause, and if you're going to practice at a clothing store, it may as well be Lululemon.
Community outreach is a big part of Lululemon's operation. Lululemon community leader Elizabeth Brotz's entire job is to bring the yoga community together through recruiting store ambassadors (local teachers who represent the company like ambassador Deborah Burkman who taught this class), as well as product testers and fitness experts who provide feedback on new clothing designs. Lululemon gives Elizabeth $150 a month to donate to a charity; she developed these monthly charitable yoga classes to raise more. On Saturday, students donated $225 which, coupled with the monthly $150 from the store, resulted in a $375 donation to the Healing & Yoga Foundation.
Combining yoga with giving is a brilliant idea—in some ways, it's really the whole point. I took a class once with yoga teacher Patricia Walden in which she said that there were five words you need to know to lead a happy life: "Be good. Be of service." Mission accomplished.
And yeah . . . I did some shopping, too.
_______________________________________________
Upcoming dates for more charitable yoga classes at Lululemon: August 25 (with Pete Chandonnet), September 22 (teacher TBA), and October 27 (with Les Leventhal). All classes are at the Union Square store at 8:30 AM.
Prizes include a spa vacation in Vermont,
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It’s a Sunday in August, so there are only four of us at 
As my friend Loren was stretching on the grass at 
I am not a person who likes to pretend I am a monkey. Or a reptile. Not even on Halloween. But Cameron Shayne got me crawling around on all fours for three full hours this past Sunday—and loving it.
