The Practice: A Deeper Dive
What is The Practice?
The Practice is a 75-minute functional, modern power practice that is taught (not just led) by a teacher with over 3,000 hours of live, in-studio teaching experience. It is a biomechanically thoughtful reinterpretation of classical vinyasa yoga, a remix of strength and flexibility, core and flow, traditional asana and modern mobility.
What do you mean by "modern" and "functional"?
The postural practice of yoga (yoga asana) that migrated to the West in the early-20th Century was developed in India, by in large, by men for men's bodies. While I owe those men (T. Krishnamacharya, B.K.S. Iyengar and Pattabhi Jois) a deep spiritual debt, they lived very different lives than the typical 21st Century American yoga practitioner who is overwhelmingly female and spends large parts of her day sitting hunched over a computer screen or an iPhone. In The Practice, I try to blend the wisdom and sacred beauty of traditional yoga asana with modern alignment and muscular engagement cues that address the ramifications of how we live in our bodies today (such as "tech neck" and the dreaded "old lady hump" that come from looking down at screens all day (a "yoga" pose I jokingly call "iphone-asana") and the sore/tight hips that come from too much sitting). I hope this fusion is both respectful of the past and true to the moment in which we actually live.
How do I "do" The Practice?
The Practice has four elements: (1) breath, (2) gaze, (3) postures and (4) transitions. The breath and the gaze calm the mind while the postures stretch, strengthen and challenge the body. Complex transitions are used to tease the brain and increase resilience. With each posture, I teach my students (a) to align the bones;(b)to engage the muscles to support the joints, and (c) how and when to increase or decrease load depending on fitness level and experience. While I am neither a physical therapist nor a neuroscientist, the asana I teach is influenced by my teacher Lara Heimman, a physical therapist who created LYT Yoga Method, and the gaze practice I teach is influenced by the work of the neuroscientist Andrew Huberman, PhD.
Is The Practice a hard/good workout?
Yoga asana is not a warm cookie and a hug, and The Practice is physically rigorous. You will be physically challenged. You will stretch. You will strengthen. You will sweat. (We keep the temp at 80 degrees with the windows open for fresh air.) That being said, sweating, stretching and strengthening are benefits of yoga. They are not the purpose of yoga. According to The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali(our book of scripture)yoga asana is one of eight yogic practices whose purpose is to teach us how to quiet our minds. ("Yogaś-citta-vrtti-nirodhaḥ." Translation: "Yoga is the stilling of the changing states of the mind." Sutra 1.2.) When we are able to still our minds, the sages tell us that we will experience our souls. ("Tadā draṣṭuḥ svarūpe ‘vasthānam." Translation: "When that is accomplished, the seer abides in its own true nature." Sutra 1.3.) So try not to hyper-focus on the "workout" too much and always keep in mind that the physical practice is merely a tool we are using to achieve yoga's true purpose, mental stillness and what (or Who) we might find within it.
What if I hate yoga?
I hated yoga the first time I tried it and only went back a handful of times because I'm stubborn. Twenty years later, when I was on my knees on a dirty bath mat in a discount rehab and I didn't know how to pray or why God would listen to me if I did, I gave up trying to talk to God and just lay in a heap breathing. One deep breath followed another and then another until my heap on the floor turned into child's pose and my breathing became a lullaby that southed me until I felt strong enough to get myself up off the floor, and when I was and when I did, I lifted myself into downward facing dog. I have been sober since. I practice yoga because yoga saved my life. I teach yoga because one day yoga might help save yours.
Gratefully,
Erin Gray
Founder Grayce Yoga & The Practice