I am not sure what I was thinking, as the holidays are fast approaching and Christmas is consuming quite a bit of time plus the children will be home for a few weeks and its getting too cold to kick them outside anymore (for lengths of time anyways) but I did a thing. Another thing, I should say, as I am (as usual) consumed with too many crafts, learning to knit, drying oranges for homemade garlands, and building my running mileage again from an ankle injury. Balancing the daily decluttering of my home is a struggle, and keeping dishes in the constant cycle of sink > dishwasher > shelf > sink > dishwasher > shelf etc is a pandemic phenomenon. Despite all of this, I decided to sign up for a yoga teacher training.

I have done yoga since 2004 on and off but consistently since 2016 when I realized that if I kept running without stretching or cross training, I might break.

The source of this consistency was Life Time Fitness. In 2016 I had a 4 month old baby, my third, and I wanted to get in shape! SO – I joined this club where I knew someone who taught yoga there with their classes including fresh music and energizing instructors which was perfect for me at the time. From there I shifted from faster, hot vinyasa flow to more recently, slower and more mindful yin (their SURRENDER) and traditional ashtanga type practices of their SOL and ROOT formats. I know many names of asanas (some by sanskrit!) and have a general understanding of most of these yoga class structures. I have never been a group fit person, coordination and dancing aren’t my strong suit ( think Elaine from Seinfeld ) so I stuck mostly to the variety of different yoga options vs kick boxing and weight classes.

During my LTF tenure, I also discovered spin class and once trying it, quickly became that vocal person in front participating as if the class was taught TO me. As an active swimmer and participant in many classes, I was approached to teach AQUA aerobics and while this wasn’t necessarily my jam (enter in lack of coordination and also the (lack of) ability to count by 32s – hah!), I settled into the possibility of teaching cycle classes and began the months of training. I went to fitness expos and discovered my love of the connection of energy of music and the energy of cardio was something that I could draw from to teach. Learned how to make music playlists and format specifics of the class I was to teach, then how to speak clearly in front of people and how not to go to hard on the bike yourself or you could puke before you cued the next drill. I also realized that my bad jokes have a place outside of talking with my eye rolling husband ( a captive audience on bikes ha!) and I could be myself and provide a little levity to what should be an enjoyable experience. Working hard can hurt and also be fun!

COVID hasn’t taken away my love for teaching spin, but it has limited my ability to do it. I was unable to teach from mid March through June a class I held consistently for over 2 solid years. COVID has also limited my ability to go TO class this year so I have continued to participate in ONdemand classes including cycle + yoga + sculpting, ROOT, and SOL. I was able to return to class and did attend live sessions (while still continuing to do ONdemand yoga at home as well) until right before Thanksgiving when all in person group fitness classes were cancelled indefinitely in IL due an uptick in COVID cases. As few people have bikes in their homes, let alone spin bikes, ( I myself have a tri bike on a trainer that allows me to ride in general but not in a manner specific to our spin formats ) cycle is not something I will be able to support for a while.

Enter VEDA: My friend who has taught Yoga for a years and has been to India for a few hundred hours of additional training called me and told me she found a YTT (yoga teacher training) that was inexpensive, virtual, AND did I want to JOIN her in doing the training? The program itself is run by a gent out of CO – called @YogawithCarsonAcademy – and he wants to make yoga training more affordable AND accessible to people while respecting the culture and the history of yoga’s origins and really cutting no corners of the bulk of the 200hr learning, but maybe peeling back some of the frills. For the same cost of joining this training program I could pay for 2 months of a online yoga class membership (only with that option I wouldn’t come out after 60 days with a 200HR YTT training certificate.)

Needless to say, I was in, and I had no idea what for.

I am required to journal, meditate, and do breath work every day. It is interesting to me to do these things in addition to 1 (or 2) live or recorded classes a day as well as 1 live or recorded lecture. I also have reading and homework assignments as well as 2 times a day doing 5 Sun Salutation A and Sun Salutation B (which includes counting my breath/movements so I do them in exactly a certain amount of time). I also need to incorporate strength training which I have to film in order to submit for form checks – its all quite daunting but I am going to take it day by day!

I signed up to understand more the history of yoga, how it supports being comfortable with extended discomfort – while we are grounded from restaurants and live – in person – classes, I couldn’t think of a better way to feel connected and be a part of something that will influence the way I teach cycle, raise my kids, and live my daily life!

Wish me luck!