Doing it in a city, Moksha on the Danforth

So last night I got to do another class at the Moksha on the Danforth. This is a city studio to say the least.  If you are familiar with Toronto at all the Danforth is the continuation of Bloor to the east end of down town.  It is highly populated and a very trendy area with lots of shops and restaurants. It used to be the Italian and Greek area when I was young but has certainly moved upscale since then.  

I went to this studio as my sister decided to join me and she lives close by.   My sister is in incredible shape being a P90X lady.  She is an actor and needs to stay in shape for filming and stage.  If you want to check out her work her web page is dianeflacks.com.  We had talked about practicing together and luckily all the planets were aligned and we could get one in.  She had tried hot yoga many years ago but had not done in since then.

So we went to this studio. It was upstairs above some stores with the studio being on the third level.  The class had the same ceiling radiant heaters and had cork flooring.  The cork flooring was very soft and lovely but also held the heat like the bamboo does.  The people were really kind, with lovely insight into the class.  Michelle was the instructor and she really knew her stuff. Her roots were in Bikram but she felt her practice required more flexibility in positions and script, so she found a home in Moksha.

The class was only an hour but it worked me really hard.  I was actually wondering when it would end.  Not sure if it was hotter then I am used to, the city humidity, or the fact that it was 8:15 at night when it started, but I really felt it.  I usually practice in the morning so doing a night class was a shock to my system.   The class was different than any other Moksha class I had taken, with many of the same postures but also some new ones tossed in there.  It might have been part of it being a shorter class, as she combined some poses and did others that were more effective in less time.

The thing that for me was so unique about this class is it was a city class.   You could hear the city sounds outside the studio; a cop car speeding by sirens on,  a motor cycle driving by, general city people and traffic sounds.  Where I practice in Columbia, Missouri you hear nothing with the only incursion from the real world being the very rare smell of buffalo wings from the restaurant next door.   The references for poses also had the flavor of the city ingrained into them.  'Turn towards the Danforth' or 'turn towards the subway line', were instructions used to say which side we were facing.   I loved this as Toronto is my city of birth and will always hold a place in my heart.

I wanted to also say how great this was for my sister.  As she is my older sister she has guided me in many things in my life. She protected me from bullies as a kid and introduced me to sushi.  This was my chance to introduce her to something I love.  She did really well in the class.  Being a natural athlete, she rocked the class out of course.  However, after the class she was amazed by how it energized her, instead of wiping her out, like a usual work out.

She also was glad to have a live person to help make corrections to poses that she had been doing off DVD's for some time, such as her P90X work out that has a yoga portion that embraces the sun salutation sequence.   An example of this is that my sister had really tender knees that are prone to over extension.  In the first downward dog, the instructor Michele, was on it helping my sister to make sure she did not overextend by keeping a little bend in the knees.  She also had a few other adjustment as thing went on and all were with the immediate understanding my sisters body limitations.

After the class we got a great fruit smoothie at a local place and then walked through the city streets to my car.  It was almost surreal when we reached my Missouri plated car and I had to return to the reality of not being a big city person anymore.  The great thing is that no matter where I find myself, on this trip, big city, smaller town, I have found hot yoga to balance me and help my body heal.  Thank you Moksha Danforth. http://danforth.mokshayoga.ca/