When Did Yoga Teachers Become...

You wouldn't be able to tell from my last three ironman marathon splits (4:11, 3:58, 4:40) that I've actually run a 2:39 stand-alone marathon. Back then, I was doing a lot of yoga and core strengthening work; and as a result, I think my body was more functional as a runner. But I sucked on the bike and thus I focused on my riding. I've gotten stronger on the bike, but it seems that I have forsaken the run. Long story short, I'm trying to regain the runner's body. And this means doing yoga again, which leads to the title of the post.

When did yoga teachers become therapists, philosophers, singers, and musicians? I took a class recently and 15 minutes into the class, we had done lots of meditating, singing and chanting, clapping, but not a whole lot of yoga. Hmmm...I've been here before but it's never taken this long to get to the the actual yoga. I attempted my half-ass, non-committal singing and chanting, where you don't really make an audible sound but you just kind of mouth the words. Or in my case, what I thought the words were since they were all in sanskrit and it seemed like everybody else got the lyrics but me. At some point, we actually started to do yoga moves or asanas, everything is still a blur. All I remember is the incessant advice the instructor kept giving us on how we should live our lives to be more productive and well-intent human beings. At first, I tried to take the advice to heart but there was so much coming at me, that soon, I just deemed I was not going to live a productive life. After an hour plus of this, I began to fear what the end of class had in store. I feared laying in savasana (corpse pose) for days, and being a captive audience to more enlightened advice. When the instructor was demonstrating an asana, I quietly grabbed my mat and got the hell out of there. And boy, were there death stares directed at me. One of my goals for my sabbatical was to get my yoga teacher training certification so that I could offer a class called Yoga for Athletes (or Type A Individuals). We start on time. We end on time. No singing, chanting, or clapping. And I don't claim to know more than any other person on how to live a happy and productive life. There might be one collective om at the end of the practice. But, the yoga training didn't pan out so well. Until then, I guess I best start practicing my chanting, singing, and clapping.