New Maendy Mat and Microban Yoga Mats - Reviewed by Me!

So the new Maendy Yoga Mat finally came in and I bought one yesterday. For those of you who aren't familiar with the "Maendy Mat" it is a 6ft x 6ft square yoga mat...and it's named after yours truly :) I brought it home and laid it down in the center of my designated dance room in my apartment. Let me tell you, the mat is HUGE! It's really not the type of mat you'd want to bring to class (unless you want your own personal bubble...I mean cube in class), but it is perfect for home if you've got your own personal Yoga space.

Because the mat is so big, it took up a good portion of my room. And you literally have to walk around it to get to my living room, or my kitchen on the other side now. But because the mat is inescapable, I couldn't help but to do a few yoga postures on the Maendy Mat each time I ventured through the room. One thing I really loved about the Maendy Mat is that I could do a number of different types of postures in sequence without worrying about falling off the mat. I felt like I had this HUGE space for asanas and totally used all of it. I even did 100 crunches, flipped over and cobra stretched it out and never fell off the mat once. My fiance even joined me on the mat for a few stretches.

The Maendy Mat is definitely a great investment if you've got the room for it at home. I'd also recommend the Maendy Mat for Partner Yoga classes. It's definitely large enough to keep two people on the mat at the same time! You can get your own Maendy Mat by clicking here.



Yesterday I also purchased one of our new Microban Yoga Mats. At YogaDirect.com, we are very excited about these new mats because they literally repel bacteria and fungus, making it the cleanest and freshest yoga mat on the market today. Microban uses Zinc Antimicrobial technology to prevent bacteria and germs from even attaching themselves to the yoga mat. It's all natural, and is not a chemical, so it is completely safe. Also, Microban is put into the yoga mat during its manufacturing, so it protects that mat for life. Because the mat repels bacteria and germs, it actually last longer than most mats that tend to deteriorate over time because of all the washings. Now I am not saying you'll never need to wash the Microban Yoga Mat, but I think it is a great mat to use in any class or studio that makes you sweat your butt off!

I brought the Microban Mat to Bikram Yoga last night and was pleasantly surprised. Though the rug in class smells of old sweat, my yoga mat didn't pick up the scent of it by the end of class, which is something I noticed that my other yoga mats did. The Microban Mat did, however get very slippery once I started sweating. But with a towel over the mat, it wasn't really a problem. After class, I rolled my mat back up tightly without letting it air dry, so today when I unravel it at class, I will see if it smells stinky or not. I will keep you posted!

In the meantime, you can get your own Microban Mat from YogaDirect.com by clicking here, or if you'd like to learn more about Microban, click here.

I Signed Up for a Year of Bikram Yoga!

After the Kripalu class I took on Monday, I really started thinking about Yoga and how good it feels. So last night I went to Bikram Yoga and signed up for a year! Sure, I signed up for the year before I took the class, and of course I regretted it just a bit after the second set of half moon pose. But by the end of the class, I felt like I had accomplished a lot, and was not as out of shape as I thought I was. Hopefully the year will be like a class - at first it will look like a long, hard time, but after it is over, you can't wait for the next one :)

One, funny thing about Bikram Yoga last night was that my friend Cate came along to take her first Hot Yoga class. Unfortunately, I suppose I wasn't as specific as I thought I was when I told her it was a "Hot" Yoga class. Later, I found out that she thought I meant "hot" like "sexy new and modern" yoga! What a mistake! Well, her first class was a bit harder than she had expected, and like all newbies to Bikram, she spent most of the class laying on her mat just trying to experience the room. But I am really proud of her for making it through :) She even said she'd be back to try class again!

I am leaving for Miami, Oklahoma on Saturday night with Soma Dance Company. We will be spending a week there at NEO Performing Arts School running dance workshops and teaching children Cunningham and Ailey Modern Dance. At the end of the week, the kids will be performing with us in 2 concerts. This is the second year we have been invited back, so we are all very excited!

Pranayama Breathing for Dancing?

Well, my ankle is feeling much better, and I have decided to take more care into warming it up before rehearsals and Yoga class so I don't injure it like that again.

Speaking of warming up, I have been thinking a lot about the Pranayama breathing that we do in Bikram Yoga class. The teacher always talks about how we use the breathing exercises at the beginning of the class to warm up the inside of our bodies, especially (and obviously) the lungs, and I wonder if I could hurt my lungs the way I hurt my ankle, because I don't warm up my lungs before dance rehearsal.

So I decided to read up a little more about Pranayama breathing and all the good things it can do for you. Other than relaxing your mind and keeping you focused during your practice, I learned that Pranayama breathing helps high blood pressure and relieves irritability. In Bikram class, the Pranayama breathing even quadruples lung capacity, helps control breathing problems like asthma, and even detoxifies the body. The elbow lifts done in Bikram during the first breathing exercise also help to lift and separate your rib cage, and dropping the head back to exhale opens the cervical vertebrae, relaxes the shoulders, stretches the nervous system, and even strengthens leg and abdominal muscles. That is doing a whole lot of good for your body - just by breathing in and out!

I also read about the different (wacky) types of Yogic breathing. Alternate Nostril Breathing is a special way of breathing in through one nostril, and breathing out through the other. It is supposed to be very calming, but requires you to alternately physically close off notrils with your finger. I tried this one, but didn't find it very soothing because I was congested in one nostril from allergies. Another way of breathing is a Cooling Breath, and involves breathing in through your nose, but then out of your mouth through a curled tongue. That's right, you curl your tongue and blow the air out that way. Since I am one of those people that can't curl her tongue, this breathing doesn't work for me either.

The Kapalbhati breathing that is done in Firm Pose at the end of Bikram class is a type of breathing that has always intrigued me. The fact that it is possible to only exhale, and allow the inhalations to occur unconsciously is a hard thing to comprehend. However, when it happens naturally, it is pretty amazing. I learned that Kapalbhati breathing not only helps strengthen your abdominal muscle wall, it also helps detoxify your body, normalises your bowels, and brings you mental clarity. I'll bet it helps with mental clarity because in order to do this breathing properly, you really have to not think about what you are doing at all, and just clear your mind. The second set, which is double the speed of the first set of breathing we do in class, is always the hardest for me because I think I go into panic mode too quickly from the short, quick spurts of breath.

In conclusion, after reading more about the different ways you can breathe, I suppose warming up my lungs before rehearsal would be a good idea, but probably isn't as necessary as warming up my ankles. However, I am going to try a few breathing exercises before I dive into my next few rehearsals and report back...just to see if I feel anything different.

I'll keep ya posted!

Half Tortoise Made Me Nauseous

After 3 nights of really strenuous rehearsals for Soma Dance Company (the modern dance company I perform with), I was really looking forward to stretching out my aching muscles at my regular Bikram Yoga class (I go to Bikram Yoga Farmington in Connecticut).

For the first half of class I found that I was just having one of those days that I couldn't balance at all! I tried relaxing myself & just breathing instead of thinking about how wobbly I was, but I pretty much fell out of every standing posture that required me to stand on one leg no matter what I tried. All except Balancing Stick pose, which is the one I usually fall out of. But I think the only reason I was able to "stick" that pose (pun intended) was because the teacher was standing right next to me at that point, saying "stretch equally in opposite directions - body down, leg up...BODY DOWN LEG UP!" So i did :) I heard from someone that if you have citrus fruits, it kind of throws of your balance, and I had been drinking a lot of orange juice. So maybe I can use that as an excuse for being wobbly.

During the 2 minute corpse pose I felt REALLY good, which is unusual. I usually lay uncomfortably in that posture because my mind tends to wander everywhere, but I think I was just so exhausted from rehearsals that I really allowed myself to just lay there and breathe. The next few back bending postures went really smoothly, although I started to feel a little nauseous. So I tried to breathe, but nothing was helping. Before Fixed Firm pose, I took a sip of water, which is something I normally do. During the first set of Tortoise Pose, I was feeling extra bendy, so I pushed myself a little farther than I usually do, and then I got a little nauseous again. So I continued breathing. I almost felt like I was going to throw up!

So today, looked up what others have had to say about feeling nauseous during class, but most people have said nausea may be a sign of heat exhaustion, or dehydration. However, I am not sure this is true in my case, as I am a regular in class, and I always drink plenty of water during the day. I looked to see what Half Tortoise Pose does to the body, hoping to find that it does something to your digestive system. I learned that Half Tortoise pose massages your heart, lungs, and coronary arteries, stretches your lower lungs, and cures indigestion, constipation, and flatulence. Bingo. I guess maybe that water I had sipped before Fixed Firm hadn't gone down to my belly all the way & Half Tortoise stirred it up a little bit. Ha! I don't know for sure, but I do know that it wasn't pleasant. I am definitely going to think twice before I take a sip of water during the second half of class again!

Warming up

Hi!
So I thought I'd start my first post by introducing myself. My name is Maendy and I work at YogaDirect.com, the best place to get really good Yoga props and equipment for very reasonable prices (and I'd say that even if I didn't work there! :)

I am also a Yoga FANATIC! I am an avid BikramYoga student, but I also love Vinyasa Yoga. I am dying to find a good local Ashtanga Yoga class that fits my schedule - anyone know of one? Finally, I am a modern dancer and Pilates student.

Let's see...what else can I tell ya....

My favorite style of Yoga (so far) is Bikram Yoga, because it is so challenging. I know that some people have dissed Bikram Yoga because of its static structure (the same postures are performed in the same order every class) and its teaching style (teachers recite a "script" and tell students to lock their knees and stretch beyond your flexibility throughout class), but I feel that because every class is the same, it allows me to learn something new about my body every time I am in class. The intense heat of the room is especially challenging. I feel a real sense of accomplishment after I have stretched my body in all sorts of ways in a hot as hell room full of sweaty, smelly people for 90 minutes. Makes me feel like I can do anything!

I am also such a big fan of Bikram because I have a lot of built up scar tissue in my left ankle from dancing on pointe shoes too early as a child. Because of this, my ankle was always very stiff and it has prevented me from doing a certain postures in Yoga classes. However, after attending Brikram Yoga class regularly, I have slowly worked through that scar tissue (it took a little over a year, but the heat really helped), and now I have greatly increased the range of motion in that ankle. Now, I am pretty much addicted to Bikram!

Well, that's all for now - Namaste!