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| I take an Iyengar class every Monday night. I love my teacher, she is strict but amazing. In this class something new happens to me every week. I feel like she teaches me each pose in detail and goes over them until you know them in every way possilbe. Out of curiosity I have taken two classes from ashtanga teachers this week. It was soooo different. I am trying hard not to compare the two different styles but I am actually shocked at the difference. In my Iyengar clas I spend a lot of time making sure I am in each pose correctly. It seems of the utmost importance that every part of my body is thoughtfully placed, in the ashtanga class it almost seems as though the accuracey of the pose its self is the least important aspect of the practice. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed all of my classes but this experience is just so strange to me. In ashtanga more poses are given to me in each practice... some I had never tried before, in Iyengar we spend more time on fewer poses but we seem to go deeper into each pose. I also felt like my Iyengar teacher pays more attention to what each of us are doing.
I was also suprised because I was under the impression that Ashtanga classes would be far more challenging than Iyengar as I have been told you have to be quite athletic for the classes however over all, so far, I would say my Iyengar class is far more difficult in both instruction and practice.
I am enjoying this experimentation but what I find most interesting is that it seems as though by going to other classes I am actually only falling more in love with Iyengar. |
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| Phoenix: I gather that you are a very very intelligent person. All your comments are valid. And, this is the resolution: Ashtanga practice is ONLY for those for whom the poses come easily. That means you practice Iyengar class until the poses become NON challenging (NOT all poses, some will be always challenging! But, those which are needed for Ashtanga) and then perform Ashtanga exercise which is really a Flow of exercises. So, give up your Ashtanga class for now. |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
    
| Phoenix - being a dedicated Iyengi myself, I of course, agree with you  I am sure that, for my body at least, I would have injured myself due to poor body awareness and structural issues (knocked knees, for one) doing anything but Iyengar yoga. I certainly would not be here discussing yoga all the time, because I am also not an aerobic type and would have quit long ago because it would have seemed to be "too hard" for me as well. AS our old friend Christine would say, for those who want to know the "why" of asana, Iyengar is the way to go. |
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experimenting
