Sometimes we enter a yoga class carrying things we don’t want to be holding on to that cannot be shaken off with static poses, deep stretching and breath work alone. Sometimes we physically need to shake something off. My new class draws together all of the most powerful movement practices I’ve learnt and sequences them into one neat little hour (just!) so that you can get a full mind, body, spirit workout and a proper relaxation.
I have been practicing yoga for over fifteen years now and have found it to be one of the most healing love affairs of my life. However, I started to notice that it wasn’t quite getting me where I wanted to be in terms of cardiovascular fitness, and I needed more fire to be able to shift a feeling of something I can only describe as ‘stuck energy’. I tried combining my yoga practice with different high intensity modalities such as HIIT - which was great - but there was never enough focus on adequate warm-ups, cool downs, and certainly not enough awareness in terms of what was happening to the energies of the body and how to balance them.
Inspired by new moves I’d learnt, I started to experiment with weaving in plyometrics (jump training, after a fashion) into my yoga practice and things started to shift in a pretty exciting way. Plyometrics engage our type II muscle fibres, which are the largest, strongest, and most powerful in our bodies. Jumping is great for improving bone health and density, and improving agility. It helps burn calories and improves heart health immensely. Best of all, it’s so fun! Jumping and hopping are such joyful movements and shouldn’t be reserved for trampolines alone! When we jump, we feel every cell in our bodies spring to life in response. It shakes and wakes up our entire being. Like meditation, we can tap into this seemingly limitless energy and harness it for positive change.
Yoga Pulse is yoga with short bursts of high intensity movement. It is meant for busy people who want to work hard and take good care of their bodies but also get a full mindful practice in. This is just as much about stress release and proper relaxation as any other traditional yoga class. In fact, many find it all the more effective because of the cathartic nature of the moves. Eckart Tolle, in his observation of ducks noticed that, after a fight, ducks will float off in opposite directions. Then each duck will flap its wings vigorously a few times, thus releasing the surplus energy that built up during the fight. After they flap their wings, they float on peacefully, as if nothing happened.
How much old, stuck energy are we holding on to? Are we willing to properly let it go? If you are interested in both a therapeutic and challenging workout (and have an open mind), give Yoga Pulse a try. I teach at LA Studios which has sprung floors, meaning we can bounce around to our heart's desire and our joints are cushioned, safe and strengthened. Alternatively, do some freestyle cathartic release work at home: put some music on, move and dance and shake about until you feel a flow pulsing through your body, heart and mind, purifying every inch of you. When you’re done, meditate for at least five minutes.
Let me know how it goes.
Love Romy x