Apple Yoga in London

@appleyoga (The Pimlico Academy)

7.15pm - Yoga with Katy Appleton

I finally met her! Katy Appleton is the yoga teacher from the Geri Yoga DVDs that I've been doing in my lounge room since around 2001. Crazy! Int his small, crazy world we like in, the yoga teacher I had in Dubbo, NSW, Australia, Kym, used to train with Katy in London many years ago. She suggested I email her to see if I can meet her or go to one of her classes. Katy responded to my email almost immediately and invited me to come along to one of her classes, even though it was a prepaid course, of which they were all teacher trainees. What a gem! Oh and what a class! There were only 3 other students and they were just lovely and so welcoming and genuinely interested in this little project of mine. So nice. Yay for yoga people!

Teacher:
Katy was one of those teachers who uses lovely adjectives like "meandering, floating and shimmering".  When we were in downward Corpse pose (Savasana), she even said "Make sure your toes are kissing each other".  It's so nice to hear someone give instructions in such an articulate and grammar-savvy way. I totally appreciated it. As we were breathing to start with, she said "Let's make friends with our breath". What a fabulous way to say it!  She was really friendly and welcoming and looked incredible seeing as she'd just given birth like 4 months ago. She was teeny tiny in person and clearly had that dancer turn out in the feet. Jealous. If only I'd stuck with it!

Sequence:
Beginning with Cat/Cow and a couple of other floor poses, we then went on to Sun Salutations and some a standing series. Oh, that's right, before Sun Salutes, we totally did Adho Mukha Svansana (Downward Dog) of which she used the Sanskrit name by the way, using a block between our thighs. She said that this was just warming us up and ensuring we had correct alignment, especially when going into Plankasana. Cute! She called it Plankasana. I've never heard that in my life! Love. Anyhoo, I am absolutely, hand on my heart, going to use a block when I start to teach. It was hands down one of the most effective uses of props I've experienced.  I am such a fan of props now!  It made all the difference in my own alignment and I can't wait to pass on this invaluable method. Yay!

In the standing series, she was really good at giving explanations and visualisations of what our bodies were doing. For example, when we exhaled, we had to imagine drawing our upper ribs downwards to meet the lower ones. Very useful.

Thank you nice man for letting me use your picture. 

Apparently I've been doing Triangle pose (Trikonasana) wrong, pretty much this whole time. The adjustment she gave me completely changed the feel of the pose for me and suddenly it just felt right! This entire trip could have just paid for itself with that one correction. Especially because my lower back had really been quite sore after doing so much yoga the past few months, in addition to lots of sitting on trains and planes. Anyway, she simply moved my top hip downwards a little, which in turn straightened my arm, engaged my outer abs and immediately took the strain off my sacrum. Incredible. I think over the years, I'd been aiming to really pull my top hip up and around in order to try and get that perfectly striaght "in between two panes of glass" effect that I thought was the aim of Triangle. Alas, I was wrong. In addition, my body had paid the price.


To finish with, we did a Forearm Stand (Pincha Mayurasana) against the wall using a block and a strap. I've only done these a few times over the years, mainly because I prefer Handstands (Adho Mukha Vrksasana)!  Anyway, I will actually just outline the instructions she gave because I think they were really clear and useful:

• Face towards the wall
• Squeeze the bock between the hands (short ends)
• Elbows should be pushing out towards the strap (which is looped on the upper arm)
• Walk feet towards head and push up lightly
• Legs bent and press the feet against the wall
• Tuck tailbone under
• Lift pelvic floor
• Elevate/lift out of the shoulders
• Flex toes to engage the legs

I was really bad at it to begin with. She even mentioned that I was hyperflexy, so needed to work on my core strength, which has always been an issue. Even when I was young and did gymnastics. My worst apparatus was Bar because I had zero core and upper body strength. That was like 20 years ago. Argh. I'm old. Anyway, even though we sort of inverted just a few times, which by the way, was exhausting, I learnt so much just out of that set of instructions! Brilliant.

Quote: "Let's make friends with our breath"

Also, OMG, we totally have the same mat. All that effort to get my new Acai Manduka Travel Mat in New York was worth it, just to know that I have the same mat as Katy Appleton. Yay!

Coffee: Caffe Nero (England's answer to Starbucks I think.) Mediocre coffee, amazing porridge!