Certified! in Everyday Ramblings

This was my home away from home for four days this last weekend. This pavilion is actually quite beautiful inside, full of gorgeous wood and light, when there was light.

I am now certified to teach yoga to older bodies though I feel like we just touched the tip of the iceberg in terms of changes in gait and constriction of connective tissue. I still need to do CPR training just to have that but this certificate is based on a program out of Duke University and has quite a bit of cachet in the community as it is all predicated on evidence based studies… you know… science.

So it will help me get classes that actually pay money to their teachers.

Did you know that one out of three women that are in Europe or North America is at risk for fractures due to low bone mass once they hit 65? And that 80% of folks who break a hip after 70 don’t make it a year? So of course a great deal of the program was geared around preventing falls both in class and out and avoiding loaded forward flexion of the spine.

So what the heck is that? You know how when you brush your teeth you hunch over the sink, or to tie your shoes? That is loaded forward flexion of the spine. One needs to hinge forward from the hips and not hunch. For tying your shoe, you can elevate your foot a bit and then hinge forward from the hip.

My head is now stuffed with things like that, how to work specific joints and when to elevate one’s feet and when not to. I can teach a whole class with the student in the chair. I could do that before but now I am more mindful of certain factors.

The tradition I teach in believes in using the body as a whole through each movement and this new technique is more about doing isolated movements one at a time, or one large body part at a time so integrating the two is going to be an interesting process.

The 22 women in the class were wonderful and interesting and came in a remarkable array of ages, shapes and sizes for yoga teachers. A large lesbian with multiple tattoos and a unique haircut took the role of troublesome student. At one point she made the teacher cry and after a couple of days she did not come back.

She had some remarkably valid points about prejudice and the difficulty in living in a larger body but was so angry and unhappy and unskillful in her delivery that it was distracting and disturbing for us all. On top of that it was like having the language police in the room.

She had a problem with medical terminology. She also had a problem with the term “love handles”, which the teacher used the second day. So I didn’t have to say a word…

There was this department store, a Portland institution, called Meir and Frank started in 1857 that was bought out by Macy’s not that long ago. One of the founders, M Lloyd Frank had this perfectly sited 63 acre estate with a 35 room manor house built in 1925. In 1942 they sold the estate for basically nothing to Albany College and it became Lewis & Clark. It is listed as one on the top ten most beautiful campuses in the U.S. and it is. The view from the huge flagstone patio behind the manor is a straight shot down and across the river to Mt. Hood.

I will have to go back with my camera. There are lots and lots of decorations in rod iron and stone and plaster of birds. The manor is very close to the pavilion and we did a walking meditation on impermanence around the grounds. It is the admissions and President’s office now. Sweet place to work.

I am exhausted going right back to work but very glad I took the training.

Off to teach some of what I learned although my young caregivers won’t have a clue.

Last updated October 21, 2014