Tue 7 Aug 2007
A woman in my neighbourhood has been coming to my Power Yoga classes. I was at her house recently for a, don’t laugh, Tupperware party and she introduced me to some others. She mentioned I taught yoga and said “sometimes it feels like we way too many Sun Salutations but I always feel great afterwards!”
And I was like, hmmm, do we *do* too many Sun Salutations? We probably max out at 5 and don’t always do that many. But this was just her subjective impression, and that’s cool, i’m happy for the feedback because it makes me think.
Some styles of yoga take Sun Salutations or leave them. My Kripalu teachers would have us do a couple after we were warmed up when they felt like it. But in Ashtanga the 5 Sun Salutation A’s are just the *beginning* of your warm-up. And it makes me think again about focus.
Often I find when I’m bored, I’m actually scattered so while I think I should fix it with more stimuli, it doesn’t help at all. I really need less. And that’s the cool thing about Ashtanga and Bikram - doing the same poses everytime. It forces you to bring your attention to the subtle stuff.
It forces you to look inward - because there’s nuttin’ interesting going on outside! Once you get tired of wondering how many Sun Salutations you’re going to have to do - you notice whether this forward bend feels different than the last, or whether your back feels any looser this time around in Updog or, god forbid, you notice your breath 
Now I don’t do alot of Sun Salutes in every class. Sometimes when my Power Yoga class sounds really scattered before we start I just crank the tunes and get everyone’s sweat on, mixing it up and wearing them out. It guarantees that everyone will get mellow and have a good relaxation at the end.
But I also think that forcing yourself to be ok with the repetition is good too. It’s just harder. Because we wish we were doing something different. And then we realize that the value is in just doing what we’re doing.
So, I’m sorry to say, my neighbour isn’t going to get out of Sun Salutations in my class. But I might make a point of explaining why they’re hard on our head and why that’s good a good thing.
August 8th, 2007 at 5:27 am
ohhh very interesting post! I teach hatha vinyasa and a class just wouldn’t even be possible for me without sun salutes - but I was really interested to do some classes at a different studio last year where they *gasp* didn’t do one!
and believe it or not, it was actually a fab class. It opened my eyes to how different a practice can be.
Lately I’ve been doing lots of Ashtanga classes, due to the studios proximity to my work, and find that there are A LOT (too many? hmm not sure, but definitely a lot) of sun salutes and i find myself getting tired and not doing them properly…
but Yes, repetition isn’t all bad at times. I think for me, a mixture of the two is key.
x
August 8th, 2007 at 5:49 am
One way that I like to put my students back into their own experience with sun salutations is to get them started with a couple of them with me calling the breath and postures, and then ask them to continue them without instruction and to the rhythm of their own breath for several more cycles. (Of course, I’ll occasionally get looks like “why are you making us do this?”)
August 9th, 2007 at 4:25 am
I have one teacher who always starts the class with lots and lots of sun salutations. She really encourages us to make it a moving meditation. At first, I felt like your neighbor….but now, I get so focused during it, it really does feel like meditation. I totally look forward to her class! I’d like to take that class shiny took, though, and see what it’s like on the other side of things, too!
August 9th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
Thanks for your comments. Shiny, you’re right, mixing it up rocks
And Greenfrog, I’ve noticed that too - when you let people do ‘free style’ salutes then they’re more able to own it, go inward and let their breath direct their movements. And Lisa, you’re dead-on, it is an experience thing, it’s like you’ve got to break thru the boredom and *get* why it’s important. I’m sure my neighbour will get there.
August 9th, 2007 at 6:39 pm
Enough about the sun salutations. I cannot believe that you went to a Tupperware party. You can take the girl out of Surrey but you cannot take the experience of Surrey out of the girl ; )
August 12th, 2007 at 6:44 am
Bikram is wonderful for me. But it seems lots of “yoga” people think of Bikram as the Scientology of Yoga. It is good to do the same poses over and over. Somehow it very settling.
August 28th, 2007 at 4:03 am
I agree the purpose of doing a set repeatedly is primarily to master it. In other words to develop the necessary awareness to see for yourself the benefits that set is bestowing at a subtle level. Otherwise the knowledge is still just second hand about what the postures and sets are doing for you. Certainly a very interesting topic…