 Hello everybody. Happy Sunday and welcome back to Esoteric Atlanta. Today is Sunday, November 5th, 2023. That's important for me to mention because of what we're going to be talking about today. And this is an episode to let you guys know that there is a new opportunity to practice with me. We are offering a new class at Sacred Garden Yoga which is in Marietta. I'm going to pull the website up here. And this class is going to be starting this Wednesday, Wednesday, November 8th, 2023 at 6.30 am to 7.30 am. This is not going to be a traditional ashtanga class, a traditional yoga class, but instead I'm going to read you. This is a class description that we went with which is Fusion Yoga Sculpt. And let me just kind of read you guys the class just, she put here, no bar, bar, yoga fusion. Yes, because we don't actually have a ballet bar, but we will be using the wall instead. We're going to be, this class is like a fusion of all sorts of different modalities that we, that I have really grown from and really used that have helped strengthen not only my body and my immune system, but have also really helped integrate, have really helped me integrate more of an understanding, a deeper understanding into my ashtanga practice. So this is an early morning class. We'll start today up on the right foot, but it has been meticulously designed to complement your daily yoga practice by helping you integrate strength, mobility and a deep connection to the pelvic floor and core. This class is inspired by bar, dance and of course, yoga. It is guaranteed to get your heart pumping and blood flowing. We will be using both aerobic and anaerobic worth work with isometric holds to drop you deep into your muscles as your physical body gets stronger, so does your emotional body giving you clarity and confidence to go about your day. This class is good for all levels and with that you will be able to control the intensity of the burn. So yeah, this class is not actually a yoga class. It's going to be more of like a movement class and it is heavily inspired by the tradition of bar, B-A-R-R-E, which comes from ballet. When we watch ballerinas do their foundational work, they're often using a bar and we will be kind of doing that, but we will be using the wall instead and I actually prefer using the wall to an actual ballet bar because it's going to help you hold your own weight instead of squeezing the ballet bar too tight. So that I'm very, very excited about. So this is the schedule. We do have the Zoom option, so that's why I'm putting this up on the YouTube. So if you live, I know I have people join me on my Ashtanga classes on Sundays from other countries and other states, which is totally awesome and amazing. If you live in another country or another state and you would like to join us for this morning class or even if you live in Atlanta and you just can't leave your house at that time, you can sign up for the Zoom link and you can join us via Zoom. Now with that being said, if you see the top of the schedule here, it says you have to have one hour before class begins for the virtual. We are doing this a little bit different because it is so early in the morning. So if you are signing up for the virtual class, please make sure that you register Tuesday, so Tuesday the 7th and the afternoon or evening just to make sure we get you the Zoom link in time. So Cindy, who is the owner of the joint, she's the owner of the Shala, she's the one that sends out the Zoom links and chances are she will not be joining for this early morning class, she's got kids, all that kind of stuff, but she's the one that sends out the Zoom link, so she wants to definitely make sure that you guys sign up in time to receive your Zoom link. So if you sign up on Wednesday, let's say you're in Europe and you sign up on your Wednesday morning to take this class, you probably are not going to get the link for this Wednesday, we'd have to save it for the next Wednesday just because of the time. So once again, if you are going to be practicing, want to come to this class and do it with the Zoom link, please make sure to sign up on Tuesday, afternoon or evening and not Wednesday. Now, if you are actually coming to the class, to the location, you can sign up the night before, that's totally fine, or you can sign up with me when you get there in the morning. I can just put you in the system in the morning. Obviously, if you're in class, you don't need a Zoom link, so that's easy for me just to pop you in the class. Now, again, so now that I've got that out of the way, let's talk again about this class. So what is this class just so you know what you are coming to if you want to come? So again, it is heavily inspired by the practice of bar, B-A-R-R-E, which is a newer type of exercise class that takes from ballet, pilates and yoga. Now, if you are a traditional yoga student like myself, the yoga portion of this class as far as like the physical postures or asana that are done are very, very basic, you know, as an ashtanga practitioner, our asanas get a little crazy, but in this class, they're going to be very foundational, nothing to extreme. With that being said, a lot of the dance that we take, the ballet stuff we take from, that's also going to be very foundational as well. So skill-wise for this class, again, it's an all-levels class. Skill-wise, we're not looking at complicated movements, right? We're looking at very simplistic movements. The challenge is going to come in the intensity and the repetition of those movements. So as you guys saw from the class description, this class does start with some aerobic work and then goes into anaerobic. And there is a difference between the two. So aerobic, I think a lot of people think that aerobic is the way to lose weight. And to an extent, it does help you lose weight because it's a huge calorie burn. But it's not a, there's no stability in that. So there's a lot of people who will do things like long-distance running for a really long time to lose weight and their weight will just plateau. The reason for this is because that's too much cardio. Your body is in fight-or-flight, it thinks you're in war. All right. So there's a certain stress that the body goes through when it's put under that much cardio or aerobic work. So what we're going to be doing in this class is actually following the pattern of Ashtanga or traditional yoga in the sense that we are going to start the class off getting your heart rate up. So that's the aerobic, getting the blood pumping. That is the positive side of aerobic work, is getting your heart to actually speed up a little bit so we can pump the blood better through your system. OK, this also helps flush the organs, all that kind of stuff. However, we're only going to stay in that aerobic work for about five to seven minutes. And then we're going to move specifically into anaerobic. Now, with anaerobic, you are still going to maintain some sort of an elevated heart rate. But the body is going to be in more stability. OK, and we do see a lot of anaerobic work in the yoga practice, too. So this means slower movement, more controlled movement. For example, a lot of there are a lot of lunges and bar, a lot of really getting those big muscles to start to really hold. And in that anaerobic work, what's happening is because you're slowing the body down, you're upping the intensity of the resistance that the body is is is doing in its shape, the shape you put it in, but you're also lowering the aerobic. So the heart rate is still pumping that blood as we stimulated it through the aerobic, but you're able to drop deeper into your muscles in order to really go deep in the body. OK, it's a slower movement, for example. And some of these more anaerobic movements, you're going to be on the balls of your feet with a block in between your legs, using the wall for support, going up and down really slowly. OK, that's not aerobic. That's anaerobic. Now, an isometric hold is where we really start to sculpt muscles. OK, so an isometric hold would be holding a lunch. Holding the intensity. And this is what really feeds the muscles, especially your big muscles, like your quadriceps, right? So when we're in that anaerobic work, moving into isometric hold, you are literally nourishing the strength of your muscles. This is also where we boost metabolism. So for those of you who maybe do struggle with your weight or are getting older and you want to figure out how to keep your metabolism up, a lot of people are going to naturally think, oh, I got to go run seven miles a day. No, no, no. That's actually going to put your body into a stress when moving into anaerobic work with an isometric hold is what is going to boost your metabolism. It's going to lift your metabolism for the rest of the day. OK, so that's why we see like dancers as they get older or yoga students as they get older, they continue to have a long lean body. It's because they're they're using things like the isometric hold, all that kind of stuff. Now, I have said this. I said this this morning at the class and I'll say it again. Your first class, you might not want to worry about any extra resistance. So what do I mean by this? So I'm going to have a place in the class where I'm going to let you if you want, if you want to bring two to three pound dumbbells weights, you can bring those in if you feel like you need a little bit more resistance. We do have some things at the Shala that our friend Steve another teacher has created with like Gatorade bottles. People can use to you can bring in soup cans if you want to. I do suggest and I probably will not let anybody use the weights if they're over five pounds. The reason being is because when we're dealing with weight lifting, weights that are over five pounds for this kind of work will injure you. All right, you're going to be doing a lot of repetition, a lot of quick movement with your arms. And so we need a weight that's going to be more stable for you to use simply to again create a resistance for your arms, for your back muscles, all that kind of stuff. This will only be like a five minute portion of the class just to stabilize the arms in the back. This will be this will come before we move to the wall so that we can get those back muscles awake so that you can stand up straight and pull your core in when we're using the wall for the lower body. You don't have to use weights at all, though. Us yoga students, dancers don't use weights. And yoga students and dancers have long lead muscles because they're using their own body weight, basically. I do work with two pound weights myself when I do this because I do feel like it helps me get better engaged with my arms and with the protraction of my shoulders for my Ashtanga practice with my back muscles, all that kind of stuff. But that is why I use the two pound weights. So but again, you don't have to. So if it is your first class, I might actually if your first class, I might insist that you not use the weights just so your body can get acclimated to what we're asking it to do before we start to add more resistance to that that that work, right? The block. Now, a lot of times in bar classes, people will use a ball. I use a ball at home, a bar ball. It's like a recess ball. It goes in between your legs, not where your knees are, but up in between the knee, like in between the knee and the hip, right in the middle of femur bone, and that will also create a resistance. So even when you're squeezing the ball, you're holding the ball in between your legs and going up and down. You created a resistance for the inner thigh and a lot of times this is really important because the quadriceps do tend to want to take over. It's the bigger muscle group and you do have muscles in your inner thigh that sometimes don't get to activate as much because the quadriceps are so big. And so by holding the block or the ball in between your legs, you're giving those muscles in your inner thigh a chance to participate. Now, again, though, if it's your first class, the yoga block or the ball in between your legs might be too much for your first class and that's totally fine. And this is going to be up to you. So if you're on the wall and you've got a block and you just feel like it is too much, you will be allowed to take the block out or the ball out if you want to. No big deal, right? You are in control. You know, if you are new and you don't want to drop as deep into the work, you don't have to. If you've been doing this for a while, you challenge yourself to drop a little bit deeper and that is you controlling the intensity of what you are doing. In this class, I am literally the map of where you're going. You get to decide how much gas you put on the accelerator to get there. It is totally up to you. And even after you've been doing this for a while, some days you're going to feel like going balls to the wall and some days you're not and that's OK. You have to gauge that for yourself. I will link a video down below where I go more into how I discovered this work. This work has absolutely changed my life. It has changed my body. It has strengthened at 40. Usually by your 40s, when you're in Astanga, that's when you start to notice things, especially for women, things are changing and you have to kind of start giving some postures back. But since I've been doing this work, my practice is stronger than it's ever been. It's stronger than it was at 30. And it all has to do with the fact that I do this work multiple times a week on top of my practice to really help me feel into my body and develop that strength. And that is the most important thing. I think a lot of times when people think about yoga, they think about the flexibility, but yoga is really not even about flexibility. What it really is dealing with is mobility, which is the combination of strength and flexibility. But the most important thing about that is the strength. You know, I tell my students a lot of the teacher like tells you to get more flexible. Don't go back to that teacher. Flexibility is fleeting. Strength, though, your physical strength is what's important. And that muscle tone and strength is what helps you live a long healthy life. And so this work is really going to trigger that. It's going to be heavy core work, heavy pelvic floor work, which in yoga, we call that bundas, mulla bunda, Udyana bunda. If you come to my classes, you know, I talk a lot about pressing the big toe in the mat because that connects to the root of mulla bunda, which is in the perineum in this class as well. It's going to be using the legs as the root of the of the of the bunda of the action that's happening in the core to help trigger that. And it'll also give you nice tongue legs, too. So there, of course, is a vanity to it as well. But which is OK, which is totally fine. It's no there's no harm. There's no shame in being being vain about yourself and taking pride in your overall health. So again, this isn't 6 30 in the morning. I get this question a lot. And I will also put in a video I did with Catherine Edwards about the Kellogg conspiracy. I, you know, in Oshun yoga, we traditionally practice around four o'clock in the morning. And so I have dealt with this a lot with students who are not used to working this early in the morning. So I get a lot of questions about breakfast. Now, of course, this is totally up to you and you're going to have to figure out what works for you. But my advice, and I think if you watch the Kellogg conspiracy video, you might understand it more. My advice is to not eat before you come to this class. A lot of what we're going to be doing in these movements, especially with the tuck, the pelvic tucks is going to also not only be strengthening your core, but is going to trigger a vital organ massage, which also happens in yoga, too. Now, with your vital organs, when you're colon, when you are digesting food, the blood is going to run to your colon to assist your colon in the process of digesting the food. Now, if your colon is busy digesting food and you start to work out or to exercise, all of a sudden the blood is being moved into the muscles because it's got to be there to support your blood is your life force. It's got to be there to support the work. And so that's when you get things like stomach cramps. The body just gets really confused because you're asking it to do two separate things. Also, the benefit of exercising in the morning on an empty stomach, once again, is the healing of the colon. So you've break your colon all night from sleep. You've allowed the colon to rest. And now when we come into the morning practice or workout, you are able to allow the blood, yes, to move into the muscles and to work through the fascia, but you're also giving the colon and the other vital organs a chance to detox as well. So when the colon is empty and you're twisting, let's say, we always twist right first and then left because they ascending colon without any food in the colon and the colon is going to be able to move deeper into a twist and therefore will be able to ring out better and detox better. I hope that makes sense. So I would highly suggest not eating before you come. You can drink a cup of coffee if you want. But, you know, just be very aware of supporting your body in the best way so that your body can detox. Now, people have asked me, but aren't you hungry? Aren't you hungry? No, your liver is when you wake up in the morning, your liver will trans will release. I don't know the scientific word to use here, but it will release a hormone. The first couple of hours that you're awake, that gives you a simulation of energy. It's a sugar release. And so in a lot of ways, regardless of whether you're working out or not, you don't want to eat right away because you want to let the liver do what the liver's got to do. But that release is going to give you the energy that you need to do the class after class will be over at seven thirty. You can there's a coffee shop literally right next door. If you want to then go get your breakfast, you can eat as much as you want. I have had people suggest, though, and I do think there's some truth to this that perhaps maybe wait thirty minutes after you're done working out to then eat because it gives your blood a chance to really work through the body and get back into the bite of organs. One thing I also wanted to cover this came up in class this morning. And so I kind of wanted to go ahead and while we're talking about food and organs and all that kind of stuff and pumping blood. When you partake in any form of exercise, when you partake in any form of exercise, you are coming into like a wellness or a healing place. Now, the healing of your body doesn't start until after the exercise or the practice is done. So when you're in the heat of the moment, when you're in the workout, when you're in the practice, when you're stretching or burning or whatever is happening, heart rates lifted, that's when the actual work is being done. And it's once you're done with that, once it releases. So, you know, like when you're in a deep stretch and you feel that sizzling sensation and then you release and all of a sudden it feels really good. It's because you broaden fresh blood. So once you're done with that, that's when the healing starts. So again, that might be another reason why you might want to wait 30 minutes before you eat just to give your body just a chance to really move into that that place of repair, which is the healing process. When the when you that's why you're sore, right? When you're it's because you've broken down your muscles and they're rebuilding stronger. That's the soreness I've been sore for 17 years. It's fine. So just to understand that, now, again, this class will be pretty you what you're guaranteed to sweat in this class, we will start the class with about five to seven minutes of aerobic work, and then we'll move into the anaerobic work into the isometric holds. We will end the class on the floor doing like really, really targeted core work. I myself am not a fan of crunches, so we won't be doing like sit ups. We'll be doing other things that target the core, but take weight off of the neck. And we will be doing glute work to end. And then after that, we will do a lot of deep stretching just to release the body and you will have a moment just like you do in your yoga class. Take a resting posture for about five minutes after the practice is done to allow the body to return back to its state of being post workouts. So if you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comment section. If you are planning on joining us for zoom, all you really need is your body and a wall, but if you want to have the weights and a recess ball or a yoga block, feel free to grab them. Just make sure that you are ready and prepared to go with your actual body, though, if you don't have the props, no big deal. We will be working barefoot without shoes. Even though there's going to be slight aerobics in the beginning, we still will not need the shoes. We want to allow just kind of like in yoga or other forms of healing. We want to allow the foot to actually be free and to connect with the earth and to strengthen the foot. We're going to be doing a lot of foot exercises as well to strengthen the ankle and the foot as we move through the practice. So again, any questions that you have, please leave them in the comment section below and I'll be happy to answer them. Cindy and I spoke about perhaps doing a workshop here in Atlanta in the next couple of months, like a two hour Saturday workshop to really dive into more specific details around around this practice, this beautiful, beautiful practice. This is guaranteed to help strengthen your yoga practice. If you are a long distance runner, this is going to help strengthen your running. This really supports all the other mobility practices you do or exercises you do during your week. This is really going to strengthen that for you. But with that being said in itself, it can be its own practice. So I hope that makes sense, guys. Once again, I'm going to end this video with some clips of me doing it so you can kind of see what it is that I'm talking about. And hopefully that will inspire you to start this journey of wellness and taking care of yourself. I say this to my students all the time. You are far stronger than you think you are. You're also more flexible than you think you are. You are smarter than you think you are. And sometimes you have to bring yourself to that place of great friction and great discomfort to understand where it is you are capable of going. All right, you guys. And as I said this in my class the other day, and I couldn't remember who said it. And I finally figured out who said it was Muhammad Ali that said the training really begins once I want to quit. So I hope that motivates you to start taking care of yourself and understand that every single person in that room with you who is doing this with you are in a place of their own hell, their own discomfort, but through that fire, through that ring of fire is when you learn the most about yourself. And when the training begins is when you really it only begins when you want to quit. We say that about yoga, right? The real practice begins when the honeymoon is over. Yeah, it's that discipline of just being present, observing the thoughts, really releasing and deep into the body. And so I'm so excited to be starting this journey at Sacred Garden Yoga with you guys. A few of you have done this with me before. I got lots of comments that you were sore the next day, which is fabulous. Being sore means you're alive, right? If you're not growing, if you're not evolving, if you're just plateauing, then you're heading towards depth. So I'm that makes me so happy when I hear that you're you're still alive. You know, your body's still responding. And so I hope that you guys will join us on Wednesday morning. It will be a pleasure and an honor to start the day with you. And yeah, as we head out, I will be closing this off with me doing it. So that you have an idea of what it is I am talking about. And if you have any questions, leave them in the comment section below. All right, you guys, I'll talk to you soon.