Day #1 of full Budokon Training was.... truly amazing... 22 of us gathered onto a dock of The Standard Hotel, for a meet and greet with the MMA Students of the Budokon Academy and the Budokon Yoga Academy. The morning was overcast and cool.. the water was calm, the people were welcoming and treated me like family. Weirdly enough I am the only one from New York! Kancho Cameron Shayne gave a speech that was absolutely amazing about being part of this Budokon Family, and how we were all hand picked.. for the qualities we posses and the qualities we didn't know we have yet. His philosophies on Yoga and Budokon are not the traditional thoughts.. and I really resonate with them.. I will discuss those later when my thoughts are fully formed.
After the pep talk the groups broke up into Yogi's and MMA trainers. We went through each step of the Yoga Kata.. for 6 hours! It was absolutely and utterly HARD!.. However, my spine feels open and mobile, my core was engaged and powerful, my breath was steady... and then my shoulders started to speak... more specifically my serratus and biceps tendon became VERY ANGRY..
Now.. I have always had issues with the right side of my body, due to the lovely scoliosis that I work with.. however, today, my left side was becoming annoyed. I made it all the way to the last hour of training, when I decided I was going to try the Flow just one more time. and RRIIPPPP.. my left shoulder pulled away from my the shoulder socket... I immediately took the weight off the shoulder and eased my shoulder back into the socket.... can we say OUCH?!?!?!..
What the heck just happened? Did I tear something? Did I dislocate my shoulder? Can i move my arm... can I EVEN BREATHE?? The only thought that ran through my head was "Holy Shit.. I don't have health insurance!"
After icing down my shoulder and upper back, getting feeling back into my left hand... and i finally exhaled.. i tested the rotation of my arm, and WHAALAA.. It works! Apparently I just seriously pulled the shoulder girdle. Yet another lesson learned about listening to my body...
The unfortunate part of all this was I missed the testing out portion of the day.. the FORTUNATE part is that Kancho saw my training all day and passed me through to phase II.
Tomorrow is all about rolling .. which I LOVE.. and has NOTHING to do with my arms or shoulder.. WHEW!
Stay tuned!
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Welcome Back..My Ego
Got on a plane this morning headed to Florida to start on my adventure of Budokon Teacher Training. Its been years since I was on a plane.. and anxiety set in 10 seconds after we took off.. all mind of matter, and i settled myself down. I forgot how much I love Jet Blue.. such a great airline.
Upon arriving in Florida, I hopped on a shuttle and headed to Miami Beach, to stay at the residence of Kancho Cameron Shayne. The creator of Budokon Yoga. There are about 5 of us staying at his home.. and everyone is great. Its nice to be in the presence of like minded people.. these people are real... and all come from different backgrounds.. some are martial arts teachers, some are yoga people.. and its great conversation.
At 6pm, Kancho informed us that our first assignment was to take a class at 7:30..wow.. already? I was STARVING.. luckily we are down the road from the Lincoln Street Mall.. and i got some very yummy pizza...
Then I head to class..
Its WARM in the studio... alright.. it was HOT in the studio.. and I hate hot... here we go! After 15 minutes of insanely intense Budokon moves.. my ego starts to rear its ugly head... "Why can't my back act like everyone elses back".."why are my arms so damn long making some movements impossibly complicated".. "why won't my breathing settle down.. oh yea.. I have asthma"..
All these thoughts running through my mind as everyone else seemed to move seamlessly through this Budokon flow... as my arms and legs started shaking from the second I stepped into my first Downward Dog..
The 90 minute class was grueling for my body, my back, my ankle and my breathing.. and as I left to take a shower, I felt defeated. Like I am over my head here... and yet.. I wont back down.
I got back to Kancho's residence before everyone else and he asked how class was.. and I told him.. my Ego got in the way.. luckily he talked me out of my mood and said he would keep an eye on me tomorrow to help with some modifications that will suit my body better.. which gives me hope.
The Sensei who taught the class kept repeating a mantra through out class that has opened my eyes a bit.. he said "The way you do Anything, is the way you do Everything.."
Wow.. I have a lot of work to do.
Upon arriving in Florida, I hopped on a shuttle and headed to Miami Beach, to stay at the residence of Kancho Cameron Shayne. The creator of Budokon Yoga. There are about 5 of us staying at his home.. and everyone is great. Its nice to be in the presence of like minded people.. these people are real... and all come from different backgrounds.. some are martial arts teachers, some are yoga people.. and its great conversation.
At 6pm, Kancho informed us that our first assignment was to take a class at 7:30..wow.. already? I was STARVING.. luckily we are down the road from the Lincoln Street Mall.. and i got some very yummy pizza...
Then I head to class..
Its WARM in the studio... alright.. it was HOT in the studio.. and I hate hot... here we go! After 15 minutes of insanely intense Budokon moves.. my ego starts to rear its ugly head... "Why can't my back act like everyone elses back".."why are my arms so damn long making some movements impossibly complicated".. "why won't my breathing settle down.. oh yea.. I have asthma"..
All these thoughts running through my mind as everyone else seemed to move seamlessly through this Budokon flow... as my arms and legs started shaking from the second I stepped into my first Downward Dog..
The 90 minute class was grueling for my body, my back, my ankle and my breathing.. and as I left to take a shower, I felt defeated. Like I am over my head here... and yet.. I wont back down.
I got back to Kancho's residence before everyone else and he asked how class was.. and I told him.. my Ego got in the way.. luckily he talked me out of my mood and said he would keep an eye on me tomorrow to help with some modifications that will suit my body better.. which gives me hope.
The Sensei who taught the class kept repeating a mantra through out class that has opened my eyes a bit.. he said "The way you do Anything, is the way you do Everything.."
Wow.. I have a lot of work to do.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Back to Basics
The body works in weird and mysterious ways. My last blog mentioned how I so gracefully fell off of a treadmill, by just stepping down. I didn't do anything crazy or radical... just trying to step off of it. I have spent the last 3 days favoring my right ankle, getting it massaged, iced, elevated and wrapped. It finally started to feel better last night. This morning, I wake up, to my left knee not cooperating. What the heck is this? It wont even bend properly! I don't recall doing anything to it.. I definitely didn't bang it, twist it and I even stopped working out until my ankle was healed.
So all day long I am hobbling around, limping on the OTHER side now. Did my left knee feel bad for my right ankle? Or is my body just trying to mess with me less than a week before a MAJOR certification program... Needless to say.. this needs to cease.. and immediately!
Monday, January 3, 2011
Staying Present
I always look forward to Mondays, because I get to teach my teacher training program. I love sharing knowledge with the students who want to become teachers, and it challenges me the most as well. Tonights lecture consisted of anatomy, kinetic movement of the body and general statistics of the fitness industry. One of the key points that I was focusing on this evening was staying present in your body.
Sun Salutation is the most basic warm -up that yoga has to offer.. most of us "yogi's" can do it with our eyes closed. So thats what I had my trainers to this evening, as an exercise to stay present and to feel the body instead of constantly need to see the body. It was an eye opening experience for some! Soon after that we went onto discovering Tree Pose, looking at hip alignment and Eagle Pose, also with hip alignment.
Anatomy and movement are passions of mine. I love looking at how each student moves, and what their natural patterns are, and how we can create new ones.
So after all this talk of staying present, creating new patterns and learning to recognize them in our students, I bid my students good night and head back into the fitness center to say good night and head home. As I am chatting with my beloved, I take step off the treadmill, and plummet right onto my backside!
My ankle caved under me and I could do nothing else but fall.. right in the middle of the gym. Luckily it was not busy in there.. however, my ankle is letting me know it is twisted. How Ironic that I am telling my own students to be present when I am not! Seems like I have a lot of work to do!
Sun Salutation is the most basic warm -up that yoga has to offer.. most of us "yogi's" can do it with our eyes closed. So thats what I had my trainers to this evening, as an exercise to stay present and to feel the body instead of constantly need to see the body. It was an eye opening experience for some! Soon after that we went onto discovering Tree Pose, looking at hip alignment and Eagle Pose, also with hip alignment.
Anatomy and movement are passions of mine. I love looking at how each student moves, and what their natural patterns are, and how we can create new ones.
So after all this talk of staying present, creating new patterns and learning to recognize them in our students, I bid my students good night and head back into the fitness center to say good night and head home. As I am chatting with my beloved, I take step off the treadmill, and plummet right onto my backside!
My ankle caved under me and I could do nothing else but fall.. right in the middle of the gym. Luckily it was not busy in there.. however, my ankle is letting me know it is twisted. How Ironic that I am telling my own students to be present when I am not! Seems like I have a lot of work to do!
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Undoing the Holidays
This morning I was woken up by the phone ringing,( never a good sign), telling me that the facility I was to be teaching at in 2 hours was lacking power, and there was a possibility for class cancellation. My immediate reaction was a loud *YAWN*, and to get up and make some coffee. As I walked out of my bedroom, all of the holiday decorations were screaming LOUDLY to me to be taken down and put away. NO MORE CLUTTER! I guess this is what happens when you start paying more attention to your immediate surroundings and staying present (day 2 of my new years resolution! so far off to a good start!).
As the was coffee brewing, the cats meowing for food and the phone ringing again stating power was back on.. and therefore so was class.. I raced around the house to get ready. I made my way over to the fitness center.. to be greeted by 37 smiling faces wishing me a Happy New Year. They were so happy to be taking their first yoga class of 2011 with me.
Immediately, I was brought back to the reason I embarked on this yoga journey 16 years ago. I taught, what I thought was a fairly mild class (although i was assured it was a HARD class by many students), and when we got to the best part.. Savasana (meditation), I asked the students to ask them selves this one question: "Why are you here?" What brought you to yoga in the first place.. surely there HAD to be something else better these 37 people can be doing on a dreary Sunday morning, aside from grunting their way through one of my classes. After class I asked them to share with me what their answer was, if they wanted to. less than half came up to me to share, but all had the same answer.. to better themselves, to connect to their bodies and find a sense of peace.
My job as a yoga educator is to assist students in doing just that.. connection to self, breathe and soul. And with each person I come into contact with, just reconfirms why I chose this path in the first place..
So if you haven't tried yoga, or haven't really give it a fair shake, come back.. try one more time.. you have nothing to lose and SOO much to gain1
Saturday, January 1, 2011
A New Year, A New You...Really?
I figured that New Year's day would be the most appropriate day to start blogging..even though I have tried to do this at least 100 times before.
I got up early this morning to teach my Saturday Morning class at one of the larger local gyms in the county, expecting just a few die hard yogi's to show up. I was pleasantly surprised when there were at least 7..7 people looking for a yoga class to start their new year off right.. talk about PRESSURE! And just like last new years day, I was tired and non-motivated to do anything other than sleep. At this gym facility, they had posters and pictures about new years resolutions, creating a new your for the new year, personal traning for your resolutions..and it made me think.. does this marketing tactic really work?
Most people I know went out last night to celebrate new years with a few (or maybe a lot more than a few) alcoholic beverages... most people were still sleeping as I was teaching my class.. MOST people are still eating left overs from Christmas... are people really that focused on the person featured in these postures with the 6 pack abs and chiseled arms? I am certainly not.. my goal is to help individuals create more realistic goals and to become comfortable in their own skin. I think that is a hard enough task!
But I digress..
My focus was on actually sitting down and creating this blog.. you see, I am a yoga instructor. But I dont consider my self ordinary in any way. I have visions of grandeur.. that I intend to make reality.. only I lack the ability to actually do that.. This is my New Years Resolution.. to start actually DOING the things to make my visions and ideas come to life. So, this blog is only phase 1 of this long long road of Stephanie Anne Sirico.. but one thing is for sure..
Always engage your core..
I got up early this morning to teach my Saturday Morning class at one of the larger local gyms in the county, expecting just a few die hard yogi's to show up. I was pleasantly surprised when there were at least 7..7 people looking for a yoga class to start their new year off right.. talk about PRESSURE! And just like last new years day, I was tired and non-motivated to do anything other than sleep. At this gym facility, they had posters and pictures about new years resolutions, creating a new your for the new year, personal traning for your resolutions..and it made me think.. does this marketing tactic really work?
Most people I know went out last night to celebrate new years with a few (or maybe a lot more than a few) alcoholic beverages... most people were still sleeping as I was teaching my class.. MOST people are still eating left overs from Christmas... are people really that focused on the person featured in these postures with the 6 pack abs and chiseled arms? I am certainly not.. my goal is to help individuals create more realistic goals and to become comfortable in their own skin. I think that is a hard enough task!
But I digress..
My focus was on actually sitting down and creating this blog.. you see, I am a yoga instructor. But I dont consider my self ordinary in any way. I have visions of grandeur.. that I intend to make reality.. only I lack the ability to actually do that.. This is my New Years Resolution.. to start actually DOING the things to make my visions and ideas come to life. So, this blog is only phase 1 of this long long road of Stephanie Anne Sirico.. but one thing is for sure..
Always engage your core..
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