Yoga Review of Flow class with Amy Robinson

Yoga Room Bellingham WA

I have not taken a class with my old teacher Amy in over a year. I was so looking forward to it, that my world became a tornado as I tore through paperwork at work, and then the streets, on my way to her class. I even got a “HEY NICE DRIVING!” yell. I showed up a few minutes late, but not too bad. Although it definately makes you question whether or not it is worth going to a yoga class, if you get so excited before it. I think the solution is to plan to arrive early, give yourself the extra value by planning to take it slow and to get there early.

Amy studied with Ana, but she also studied with someone special in India. Now after training with Ana I see what came from her, and what is just Amy. Amy has a great voice. It is very calming and introspective. She asks a lot of hypothetical questions. What I love, and know I see the influence of Ana, she asks you to feel in every pose. When we are doing balance poses, she asks you to feel that others around you and yourself are coming into balance and playing with that. She asks you to use the energy you created in your abs and reminds you to bring it down into your hips.

I missed the meditation, but after that we moved right into cobra. Cobra was an unhappy opening for me. My back is a little stiff to just jump in right away. From cobra, exhale childe’s pose, inhale back into cobra. This was to warmup the back. Then we moved into a forearm plank. I definately started feeling some heat at this point. It is an Ashtanga studio, and they keep it at 83 degrees, nice and warm. Amy also makes you hold the poses nice and long, but not so long you really suffer. Forearm plank up into dolphin, lifting legs up if you want. Then Inhale leg up, exhale, curl and bend leg, bringing into chest. This is a nice abdominal workout, and I have done this in Vini yoga classes. Last time, bring it through and come into a high lunge, with a side bend. This was a nice change; I never have done this pose. Back into down dog, then vinyasa if you please. She gives you the choice of going into vinyasa, down dog, or in child’s pose, if that’s what you need today. I like that, it is very inclusive and accepting. I could see that working really well in a mixed level class. We did a warrior sequence, warrior II, extrended warrior, to interlock if you wanted. After that we did some balance poses. The choice was either easy bird of paradise, bird of paradise, or just holding foot in front of you. After this, we did standing pigeon, in any version you wanted. We did horse, and moved into twisting horse. Then we did uddiyana, and then did a staddle. I felt really warmed up for this, more than usual. Then we did squat; and for me it was pure torture. This was the only pose that I felt we just held way too long, just kidding, but OUCH! After that we did straddle side chest opener, and then forward bend. We did pigeon and twisting from side to side. We held this for a long time. After this we did a tiny bit of abs, not much.. It didn’t feel like much to me. Then we did 3 backbends of choice. I did bridge, wheel, and bow. I didn’t feel warm enough for this. I felt really good, Amy’s classes are great. I had great focus, but I realize that realy healing happens to me when I get hot. I have to be hot to do backbends, otherwise they just hurt. I need that kind of lubrication. After that we did shoulderstand. Amy did an adjustment on me. I bent my knees and she pulled me up really high onto my shoulders. I have never been so high. It felt awesome. After that we did a hamstring strectch, then brought leg open to side, opening hip, and then across in twist. Then we went into sivasana. My sivasana was like torrid dreams, re-living all the anxious moments, and then pheeewwww blowing them all a way. I felt like I woke from a hot dream.

It was a really good class. I really needed it. It was only an hour and 15 minutes, and I definately felt that it seemed kind of short for me. Everything was shortened, shortened hot section, apex, etc. Overall it felt really good for my body.