Is virtual vinyasa a good idea?
In the Times, Lizette Alvarez suggests that more New Yorkers are doing yoga at home, thanks to sites like yogatoday.com, yogaglo.com, and vinyasa via youtube. The pros and cons she mentions are pretty obvious—convenience and free versus potential intrusions and the likelihood of not pushing through that 12th chaturanga.
Interestingly, the issue of injuries isn’t broached (expect in context of one’s own home furnishings), which is probably a fairly good reason yoga teachers might object to just anyone practicing virtual vinyasa. It’s not like making coffee at home instead of going out for Starbucks. Of course, yoga teachers can nurture a larger following with be-anywhere instruction, and, historically, video and DVD sales have significantly supplemented their do-gooder salaries. So I would have been interested to hear from some of them in the Times piece. Would any care to comment here?
PS: I’d kinda like if it my yoga teachers gave me specific virtual vinyasa videos as homework.
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While I live in the general vicinity of one-half dozen yoga studios within a 2 mile radius, most of them don’t really know how to teach. I am wary of availing myself of the $40 and $45 a month “new student unlimited specials” because, unlike going to a gym, where you might take advantage of a free or deeply-discounted month; yoga practice generates prana and leaves you in a suggestible state when you are done. You could make a bad decision, open up your poor person’s wallet, and get wrapped up with the wrong studio for you!
And the teachers don’t teach alignment, they could push too hard in adjustments in their ego or impatience; or, just as bad, ignore you and just concentrate on that advanced teacher trainee in the back [they wrote you off as a “resistant student” nearly beforehand and/or don’t want to waste their time on non-preternaturally-talented you …)
It’s all in the alignment – if not attention to you by the instructor; it’s modifications – and these should be suggested by the instructor (oftentimes they do not CARE); and I am not the only one who thinks so:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-piver/yoga-teachers-teach-a-ran_b_786564.html
As long as it is done mindfully, in light of the fact that yoga is not taught as it should be, could a virtual yoga session be so bad? [Except that it's competition to yoga studio owners and community centers ...]
Some people don’t live near any decent yoga studios. I live in New York City, but it is my BANK ACCOUNT that is in that yoga-sparse zone …