Sage Rountree's Blog, page 30
April 20, 2020
I Miss Mondays the Most
Of all the routines that have shifted, my Mondays have changed the most during the shutdown. Used to be I’d meet my running friends for the same strides workout, spend time doing desk work, go to the studio, take Alexandra’s Pilates class, then teach Yoga for Athletic Balance. The best part was coming home after class to the same meal every week: a bread-cheese-and-salad spread that my family would eat in front of the TV while watching Sunday night’s HBO shows on the DVR.
I’ve been teaching that Monday night class for sixteen years, so with vacations and holidays factored in, I’ve done it almost 800 times. The student group includes some really long-term regulars who I know are missing their yoga-and-beer routine.
Hopefully within a few months we’ll be back together for the comfort of familiar habit. Meanwhile, for my regulars and everyone, some suggestions. You can save $50 on an annual membership to Yoga Vibes using code sagevibes.
If you’re missing the mellow part of class
Check out my yin and restorative classes on Yoga Vibes
If you’re missing the spicy part of class
Try Core Strength for Real PeopleWork through the Basics of Balance series and the entire Yoga for Athletes experience on Yoga Vibes
If you want to reenact “doing the double”
Start with Alexandra’s Pilates class—there are several on Yoga VibesThen try one of the formerly live-streamed full-length classes here
Bonus points if you can get your hands on a Weaver Street Market baguette and eat it with an arugula salad while watching Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.
We’ll meet again!
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April 17, 2020
For Yoga Teachers: A Self-Assessment Bonanza
Are you sick of yourself yet? Me, too. Not only am I getting a lot of enforced downtime to watch my brain and all its patterns, I’m using the shutdown to record fresh video lectures for my main online course, Teaching Yoga to Athletes.* This means I spend several hours a day literally watching myself.
On the positive side, this gives me incentive to wash my hair, put on lipstick, and use my brain a few days each week.
On the negative side, I spend most afternoons editing the video lectures, snipping out my flubs, inserting my slides, and generally watching myself and all my tics and habits. I’m trying to embrace this opportunity to observe my patterns and start to change the ones I’d like to.
If you teach yoga and have either made a recent pivot to video or have recorded content in the past, don’t just send it out to the world without a critical eye! Take the time to watch it yourself, and maybe even to follow along. This is easier than it was in pre–shutdown days, when getting a recording of yourself teaching seemed like a bigger hurdle.
Here are some steps that might help you refine your teaching and emerge more articulate, professional, and helpful to your students.
Watch some or all of it to get your gut reaction out of the way. You’ll never be any younger in the future than you are in the video—someday you’ll look back at this more kindly. Yes, you sound like that. Yes, that might be a lot like your mother or father. If you need to cringe, get it over with.Now rewind, and watch with a friendly eye. What is already going really well? If the teacher you see on video were your best friend, what would you say to her—and how—about ways she could do even better? Often, this means looking for what you could leave out: too many hand gestures, filler words, constant chatter.Try following along with some or all of the recording to get a student’s sense of timing. You might be surprised at how your pacing feels when you aren’t leading but instead taking the class. Use the video’s scrub function to get an objective sense of your timing for asymmetrical poses. The timer won’t lie about whether you’re holding the second side long enough.
Here’s one of the first videos I made. From watching it, I learned to frame my shot a little differently, to plant my hands on the table, and to talk a little more slowly. I hope you learn lots from watching yourself!
*
If you’ve been considering taking this course, please do! As of today, I am 3/5 done with the updates, so anyone who starts now will have several extra hours’ worth of new content to enjoy. And of course, any previous course participants can access it as well. It all lives at sageyogateachertraining.com, alongside several other courses designed to help yoga teachers help students better.
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March 30, 2020
The Last Yoga Class I Taught
Two weeks ago yesterday, I taught my last yoga class. My business partner and I had just resolved to suspend all studio operations at the end of the day. I was subbing yin yoga for a colleague who began social distancing before the rest of us caught on. I stood at the door to hold it open as the students trickled in. Among them were five members of the St. John’s University men’s basketball team, who were in the middle of a Big East tournament game when it was . They came home with a local teammate to settle in away from New York.
In yin yoga, we focus on letting go. We take a shape that we can hold for a long time, let go of tension and squirminess, and stay for a while. As the class held the shapes, I was mostly quiet but said something like, “Yin yoga teaches us to be with things as they are.” A student lifted her head and gave me the thumbs up.
Settle in to the shape. Soften. Breathe. When you grow restless, when you start to wonder when it will ever end, take another breath. And another. And another.
I have some follow-along videos if yin yoga appeals to you:
Yin for the Upper BodyYin for Happy Hips
There are dozens of other classes with me at Yoga Vibes, too. The code sagevibes will save you $50 on an annual subscription.
I also filmed this tip on yin yoga for you to do if you find yourself sleepless. I hope it helps.
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March 13, 2020
Online Classes and Courses Galore
I hope you’re staying centered and calm (enough) this week! Yoga can help a lot. For many years, I’ve been amassing an extensive library of online classes for students of any amount of experience and continuing education courses for yoga teachers, so if you find yourself in need of some at-home de-stressing or something to do while your kids take their own online courses, here are some suggestions—and a few special deals.
If you are tense and want something mellow to calm you down
Check out the yin and restorative yoga classes at Yoga Vibes. These are doable using props from around the house—take a few cushions off your sofa, pull out a chair from the dining room, roll a few beach towels together. You can even fashion your own sandbag out of a bag of rice!
If you are going stir crazy and want something to challenge you
Have fun with my Core Strength for Real People video series. You can snack on any one of these short sequences, or put a few together to burn off any anxious energy
If you are new to yoga and figure you might as well try it now
Check out the Building Blocks of Balance and Everyday Yoga series on Yoga Vibes. You might also order a copy of Everyday Yoga, available in a spiral-bound edition that will lie flat on your mat, as well as e-book format.
If you’re a yoga teacher wanting to capitalize on your time at home
Check out the courses at Sage Yoga Teacher Training. These range from short workbook courses to my full-featured Teaching Yoga to Athletes certification.
If you’re a yoga teacher looking to help your own students virtually
Take the Content Workshop, which will help you plan, produce, and promote online classes or other content of your own.
If you’d like a deal on any of the above
Use code sagevibes to save 50 percent on an annual subscription to Yoga VibesSign up for my newsletter to get a code for a free rental of a Core Strength for Real People video (check your inbox or look in your spam folder to confirm)Use the code ATHOME to save 10 percent on any online course at Sage Yoga Teacher Training through March 31, 2020
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March 2, 2020
Learn More about Upcoming Teacher Trainings at Carolina Yoga Co.
Once you’ve been practicing yoga for a while, you may feel the call to teach it or to learn more about the practice in the context of a teacher training. The first step is typically a 200-hour training. At Carolina Yoga, we’ve been offering these since 2011. In that time, we’ve had students from 15 to 70+ years old, whose day jobs included everything from ex–professional poker player to current professional salsa dancer to bestselling mystery novelist. In the next 12 months, we offer three different formats of our 200-hour yoga teacher training at Carolina Yoga Company’s Carrboro location:
Three-week summer intensive: July 18–August 9, 2020 (great for school teachers, college students, and out-of-towners)Eight-month weekend program: second weekend of each month, September 2020–April 2021 (great for nine-to-fivers and those who want to spread the training out over time)Nine-week weekday hybrid: Tuesdays–Thursdays, 9 a.m.–2 p.m., January 12–March 18, 2021 (great for retirees, work-from-home parents of schoolchildren, and service workers)
I’ve been setting up a home video studio in preparation of filming new content for my online courses, and I made these short videos about the trainings as test cases.
Learn about the three formats we offer:
Hear about the first steps toward applying:
Read more about the trainings and about our 300-hour (aka 500-hour) advanced studies training program: carolinayogacompany.com/ytt.
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February 28, 2020
Watch: Thirty-Minute Restoration at Yoga Vibes
My newest video available at Yoga Vibes is a short restorative practice well worth thirty minutes of your time. Gather your props, put on your favorite relaxing music, and settle in and down. Here, you can see the full practice sped up.
DESCRIPTION
We get it—setting aside time for rest can be challenging. As the title of this class indicates, Sage has put together three restorative yoga poses that can be practiced in thirty minutes (although you’re welcome to take longer of course). Gather all your props together and settle in for the coziest half hour of your day! You’ll need three to four blankets, a bolster or cushion, sandbag (or rice bag), and an eye pillow or mask if you have one.
PROPS
3 to 4 blankets, bolster (or large pillow/cushion), sandbag (or rice bag), eye pillow
If you’d like a discount on a year’s subscription to Yoga Vibes, which also comes with a really nice Jade yoga mat, use the code sagevibes and you’ll save $50!
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February 26, 2020
Newly Certified: Tyra Clemmenson
Meet Tyra Clemmenson, the most recently certified teacher to graduate from my Teaching Yoga to Athletes course!
[image error]Tyra Clemmenson (12) of the Wake Forest Demon Deacons brings the ball up the field during second half action against the Davidson Wildcats at Belk Turf Field on September 7, 2014, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The Demon Deacons defeated the Wildcats 3-0. (Brian Westerholt/Sports On Film)
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I had to start with this glorious photo because Tyra played field hockey at my alma mater, Wake Forest University! In her senior year, the team won the ACC championship. She is an all-around athlete, spending time running, cycling, and dancing, as well as generally being outside.
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While she took some classes while in college, after her collegiate sports career, Tyra discovered yoga made a great complement to her athletic pursuits. She now owns a yoga studio—Sky’s the Limit Aerial Fitness and Yoga—in Farmington, Connecticut, where she teaches aerial yoga classes in addition to mat classes.
While Tyra enjoys flowing styles of yoga, she spends plenty of time taking and teaching slow flow, gentle, and restorative yoga. These mellow approaches are wonderfully appropriate for athletes and anyone. Tyra is pursuing master’s level study in yoga therapy to deepen her skill in helping students with yoga.
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If you’d like to join Tyra as an expert in teaching yoga to athletes, start your work on the course at Sage Yoga Teacher Training. I’ll also offer the five-day training in person at least twice in 2021: at Kripalu, likely in January, and in Carrboro, North Carolina over the summer. Stay tuned for those dates. Meanwhile, if you are near Farmington, Connecticut, visit Tyra for a class. And go, Deacs!
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February 19, 2020
Listen: Discussion of Carrboro Yoga with Ron Stutts
This morning, I had the fun pleasure of visiting WCHL, our local station, to talk about Carrboro Yoga with legendary broadcaster Ron Stutts. (Ron looks just like he sounds, I think!) You can listen here to hear about Carrboro Yoga’s offerings and what we hope each student feels when they leave. Our discussion starts at the one-minute mark.
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January 30, 2020
Wednesdays in February: Savasana Deluxe
Each Wednesday in February, from 6 to 7 p.m., I’m leading Yoga Nidra, a form of guided relaxation, at Carrboro Yoga. If you like savasana, the relaxation period at the end of yoga class, you’ll love this practice! All you need to do is show up and lie down.
This is a chance for you to explore the other edge—the edge of consciousness. Type As, athletes, and go-getters are all familiar with the edge of control, where you are working to your upper limit and barely hanging on. Yoga nidra gives you a chance to be at the other end of your range. Spending time there will help you feel rested, recharged, and ready for whatever you like to spend your effort on.
You can do all four Wednesdays for only $40, or come to any single session for $15. Read more and register here.
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January 28, 2020
Now Available: Audiobook of Teaching Yoga Beyond the Poses
The audiobook version of Teaching Yoga Beyond the Poses is now available! You’ll hear me reading this book Alexandra DeSiato and I cowrote. It’s available today in both Audible and CD format.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Sage Rountree (@sagerountree) on Jan 21, 2020 at 6:18am PST
Reading the book was a fun experience for me—I had several years of public radio experience and spent several years as a reader to a friend with visual impairment, and this took me right back!
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Sage Rountree (@sagerountree) on Nov 6, 2019 at 3:18pm PST
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