I go way back with yoga. When I was in high school, I could get out of PE by signing up for a yoga or dance class in the town where I lived. Since these classes were off-campus, all you had to do was turn in an easily forged little form documenting your attendance. At first, it was all just a scam to play hooky, and it worked. But I found I liked the darn classes, and started going regularly.
It was a win-win for me. I could use up the PE class slot, which was first thing in the morning, and go to school a full hour later than everyone else. I could also avoid all the yelling and throwing things at each other (on allergy-inducing lawns) that regular PE entailed. I took some teasing, but it was worth it.
Later in college, yoga became a source of great comfort, and I made sure there was a class on my schedule every semester. This was back before there were so many fads and fashions in yoga. Then, if someone had asked, “What kind of yoga do you practice,” I’d have answered, “Uh, the one in the Athletics Department, not the one over in Dance.”
Hatha was about as exotic as it got, at least in my neck of the woods. Now, of course, there’s vinyasa, ashtanga, ananda, anusara, kundalini, “hot” yoga, yoga for “warriors,” lasore, and any number of other styles—either long-venerated or new and idiosyncratic, under countless teaching systems. Over the years, I’ve sampled many styles in many settings. But for me, yoga is yoga: breath, awareness, posture, and movement just about sum it up. If the class avoids competitive overtones, gives me a good stretch, and goes easy on badly-recited Sanskrit, I can make my way. Mats that aren’t stinky help, too.
But now I’m busy, chronically employed, sometimes financially challenged, and on a really weird travel schedule. I live in New York City, where there are so many very good yoga teachers and studios that even casual exploration seemed daunting when I recently dove back in after a couple of years off.
What was a tired old yoga pony to do? In my case, the Yoga PassBook was, literally, the ticket. For a single fee, I got a little booklet with coupons for taking one or two free introductory classes at any of dozens of New York metropolitan-area locations. (There were a fair number of offerings in that same booklet for Pilates and dance classes, too.) The Yoga PassBook allowed me to explore (even with my irregular schedule), and I discovered some truly wonderful New York City studios. There is a similar PassBook for the Chicago and Los Angeles areas, and there’s a completely different booklet of coupons for sampling health clubs. The whole deal is described on the Web site. The practical chances of using each and every coupon is remote, but those I used from the book paid back my investment many times over. I gave away the ballroom dance class coupons to a lovely old couple I saw chatting in a diner on the Upper West Side. From their reaction, you’d have thought I’d arranged a personal concert by the ghost of Benny Goodman!
However, I still faced the challenge of what to do when traveling, or when I can only wedge in a little practice during off-hours. Yogatoday.com solved that. At midnight in a hotel room, when I have to choose between taking a class or getting laundry done … this site fills in my schedule.
It seems like a very generous offer to me—free, pre-recorded, live-stream yoga classes, a new one every day. That’s it. Spend a few moments on their home page to check out the overview video, then go directly to the downloads link at the top of the page. They usually list a couple of courses, sometimes focusing on different things—like flow, core, sports stretching, or hip openers. From what I’ve seen so far, the quality of streaming video and sound are consistently great. More important, the teachers are right on. They have a positive vibe, careful sensibility, and usually have some students on hand, so I can hear the common corrections they offer throughout the practice. I was never one for hauling a recorded class around with me, but if you are, you can download a class for later playback.
Overall, I have settled back into a modest yoga practice, without being anchored to one studio, schedule, or teacher. The benefits of having a single place and community within which to practice, and a personal relationship with trusted teachers, can’t be underestimated; but in a pinch, resources like Yoga PassBook and Yogatoday.com sure come in handy.
