This last Sunday I went to a 2.5 hour class at UpDog on the East Coast, taught by Instagram yoga celebrity and hand stand expert Dylan Werner. How did it go? Well, let me tell you.
I arrived early, with lots of extra time to get lost. I’ve only been to Updog once before, and I am prone to getting turned around in the wrong direction. Really, I’ve been in Singapore for 7 years, and can barely navigate anywhere. It’s practically a disorder.
You can imagine my shock, as I walked up the stairs to the studio, that the space was completely empty. They had, besides recently changing management, changed locations. I quickly phoned the studio, and the front desk was helpful enough to call me a taxi.
I made it to the new location just in time. My friend and co-YTT batch student Sam aka LadyGlam had choped me a mat, and thankfully it all worked out.
Dylan Werner likes to rock his music loud, and a lot of his instructions were very multi-staged, with fairly complex transitions. I ended up losing track of what I was doing half way through a lot of the movements. Honestly, the music was just killing me. I wear ear-phones and play white noise sleep, so ya, I’m easily distracted by any change in the ambient audio.
Overall, the seminar was fantastic though. Dylan is a very precise teacher, and does explain with a lot of detail. There was a good mix of freedom to explore options like handstands and other inversions, as well as more structured asana vinyasas. There were also some great drills and mini-vinyasas; ardva navasana to squat to bakasana, and a long flow involving pistol squats, variations on utthitta and pavritta hasta padangusthasana and virabhadrasana, for example, stand out in my mind, and generally a great mix of mobility and strength oriented practice.
I also really liked that he discussed strength and stability along with flexibility as a critical aspect of the physical practice. We fetishize “getting flexi” far too much in standard yoga classes, with little emphasis on developing the strength and stability needed to functionalize our mobility gains and more critically, to prevent injury long term.
To summarize, it was hot, loud, there were arm balances and inversions all over the freaking place, and today my glutes hurt. Also, I’ve never seen a yoga class where so many yoginis were wearing full make-up, false eyelashes, and had clearly just gotten their hair did…I'll leave it at that.
Oh, one more thing. I knew Dylan used to wrestle, so when I went up for the obligatory post-seminar photo-op, I took a collar tie and wrist control, meant only for a static shot. All of a sudden, he pummels in and we’re fighting for under-hooks. I think the other students must have been like, WTF is this crazy shit? He ended up throwing me with a very gently executed outside trip. He’s a couple weight categories above me, with a much better wrestling pedigree, so I’m glad he didn’t suplex me face first onto the hard-wood floor.
As soon as I get over this never ending sinus infection, I need to get back on the mat, yoga mat and wrestling mat.
I arrived early, with lots of extra time to get lost. I’ve only been to Updog once before, and I am prone to getting turned around in the wrong direction. Really, I’ve been in Singapore for 7 years, and can barely navigate anywhere. It’s practically a disorder.
You can imagine my shock, as I walked up the stairs to the studio, that the space was completely empty. They had, besides recently changing management, changed locations. I quickly phoned the studio, and the front desk was helpful enough to call me a taxi.
I made it to the new location just in time. My friend and co-YTT batch student Sam aka LadyGlam had choped me a mat, and thankfully it all worked out.
Dylan Werner likes to rock his music loud, and a lot of his instructions were very multi-staged, with fairly complex transitions. I ended up losing track of what I was doing half way through a lot of the movements. Honestly, the music was just killing me. I wear ear-phones and play white noise sleep, so ya, I’m easily distracted by any change in the ambient audio.
Overall, the seminar was fantastic though. Dylan is a very precise teacher, and does explain with a lot of detail. There was a good mix of freedom to explore options like handstands and other inversions, as well as more structured asana vinyasas. There were also some great drills and mini-vinyasas; ardva navasana to squat to bakasana, and a long flow involving pistol squats, variations on utthitta and pavritta hasta padangusthasana and virabhadrasana, for example, stand out in my mind, and generally a great mix of mobility and strength oriented practice.
I also really liked that he discussed strength and stability along with flexibility as a critical aspect of the physical practice. We fetishize “getting flexi” far too much in standard yoga classes, with little emphasis on developing the strength and stability needed to functionalize our mobility gains and more critically, to prevent injury long term.
To summarize, it was hot, loud, there were arm balances and inversions all over the freaking place, and today my glutes hurt. Also, I’ve never seen a yoga class where so many yoginis were wearing full make-up, false eyelashes, and had clearly just gotten their hair did…I'll leave it at that.
Oh, one more thing. I knew Dylan used to wrestle, so when I went up for the obligatory post-seminar photo-op, I took a collar tie and wrist control, meant only for a static shot. All of a sudden, he pummels in and we’re fighting for under-hooks. I think the other students must have been like, WTF is this crazy shit? He ended up throwing me with a very gently executed outside trip. He’s a couple weight categories above me, with a much better wrestling pedigree, so I’m glad he didn’t suplex me face first onto the hard-wood floor.
As soon as I get over this never ending sinus infection, I need to get back on the mat, yoga mat and wrestling mat.