Bad experience in a class, not sure if it's just me?

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

Hi,

First post and I have to ask, is this me having a meltdown, was the teacher not as good as she should be or is this just what Ashtanga is like?

I’ve done a reasonable amount of yoga over the past few years, by no means expert but I’ve done a lot of different classes with many varied teachers. Over the winter Ive found myself sticking to restorative and this spring I wanted to get moving again and build up some strength. So I signed up for a 6 week beginners Ashtanga course.

It sounded quite good as the studio has a good reputation and the first 75 minute class would be spent on Sun Salute A. This seemed an ideal chance to go through it in detail to really get to grips with it safely and comprehensively. I was surprised when I arrived at the studio to find it packed; the receptionist was quite cold and there was piles of stuff everywhere; mountains of shoes by the door, mountains of belongings in the tiny changing room and crowds of people milling about. The studio itself was far too small for the amount of people in the class (I’m used to classes of similar size in rooms 2-3 times the size) so mats were about 3 inches apart and there wasn’t really any space for the teacher at the front.

None of this would have actually bothered me much and even though it was surprising for somewhere held in such high regard, I might have found it quite charming. But then in the class, after a few words on the history of Ashtanga (interesting!) we went straight into it. Suddenly I was holding plank and then asked to do chaturunga into upwards dog with no explanation of how to do this safely (remember this is a beginners class!). I’ve injured my shoulder in the past trying to do full chaturunga without being ready so I put my knees down. The teacher told me not to so I tried to bring them back up, ended up collapsing into my shoulders. I explained that I’d done myself an injury before trying this so she said you just have to keep doing it until you’re strong enough but if you put your knees down you won’t build up the strength. I know this isn’t true as its how I’ve built up the strength for chaturunga before. Her advice to keep collapsing into until you’re strong enough seems really dangerous. I continued to put my knees down the rest of the class but the old injury seems to be back (possibly from the first confusing effort not put them down). I’ve never regretted a yoga class before this.

Anyway, I got really defensive and found myself on the verge of tears for the rest of the class. I was worried for my safety and I don’t want to back. I’m going to have to push for a refund for the next 5 weeks,but I have to ask if it sounds like she was out of order or is this class just not for me?

#2

Of course there are always two sides to a story and we are not privy to the other side in this case.

An introductory class, beginners class or prep class should have a curriculum suited to those levels of students. I cannot speak specifically to protocols in an Ashtanga practice but certainly a well trained teacher would show care and concern for ALL students and be more attentive to beginners, especially those with injuries.

Since we as teachers do not have the slightest idea what is going on with a new person (return students are know quantities) a “best practices” approach is to be curious and inquire rather than presume and command. When I discover a student has a pre-existing injury my management of the safety-effect continuum is adjusted accordingly - toward more safety.

Sadly, some teachers either lose sight of crucial concepts or were never taught them to begin with. One of them is that a Yoga teacher never does anything to make a student shrink, wilt, or feel small. Another is that new students need to have a “good” experience with the practice, lest they quit altogether. And finally that a new practitioner is just discovering their body and there should be no expectation of awareness, spatial or otherwise.

Chaturanga Dandasana is a difficult pose, places extreme demand on small muscles in the shoulder girdle, and tends to have alignment degradation with speed and repetition. Why this would be shoveled to a beginning student in a beginning class is a mystery to me.

#3

Thank you for your helpful response InnerAthlete!

#4

This class (teacher) is not suitable for you and also for no one else.
Teacher should evaluate student first and then give or choose postures for him/her irrespective of levels (beginners , intermediate etc.) of postures.
Theory of categorization of postures actually fail because I have seen students who are not even capable of doing few simple postures because of issues. In that case modification of posture to suit them is required, keeping their limitations in mind.

It is not the postures which should be the first point of consideration, rather physical and mental limitations of student that matters a lot. Postures are chosen based on that.

#5

Although I have only had good experiences with Ashtanga teachers, I must say that your story does not surprise me, yoyomago. In parts of the Ashtanga yoga community there is a tendency to teach in a sort of “boot camp” style. This is not to say that the teacher woud not care for students with injury, or not give personalized advise. The whole point with the Mysore style class, that is a class where you go through the series at your own pace and only get instruction when the teacher thinks that you need it, is to personalize your yoga practice and advance safely according to your abilities. When you do Ashtanga Mysore style the teacher has more time to give advise and discuss work-arounds. (This is, by the way, the reason there is no need for the teacher to have any space at the front of the room since he or she is going to be moving around among students.)
The hard-core teaching style is meant to push students out of their comfort zone, and a good Ashtanga yoga teacher is still able to differentiate between a student being a bit stubborn and when she/he is really in pain or injured. Now, I have to say that I am not in favor of this style of teaching, but it has become sort of a thing with Ashtanga yoga and some people think it needs to be like this because of tradition. But there are plenty of really good Ashtanga teachers who do not adhere to this style at all. They may not have fancy or famous studios or show off in glossy magazine pictures, really, fame is no quality guarantee.
I guess you will have to try out some teachers before you find one who resonates with you. All good teachers are capable of giving advise for how to deal with injury, and if you would take a Mysore style class you would have more opportunity to discuss any difficulties. If you don’t know where to go, I would suggest that you look for a studio that mainly offers Mysore style classes and few led classes or no led classes at all. That means that the teacher is serious about personal instruction.

As a sort of answer to InnerAthlete: Traditional Ashtanga yoga teaching according to K. Pattabhi Jois always starts with Sun salutations, and those always include Chaturanga dandasana. Again, I’m not saying it’s good, just that this is the way everyone is teaching it who have studied with Pattabhi Jois.

#6

Although I agree that this was an unpleasant (and quite traumatic) first experience into yoga, I can’t say I’m 100% surprised. Having done different types of yoga for many years before trying my first beginner Ashtanga class, I was expecting my first class to be welcoming, approachable, and informative.

Instead, my introduction to Ashtanga was quite similar to yours, and I too left there in tears. Years later, while doing my Ashtanga teacher training in India at a school whose teaching methods were based on traditional Indian methods, I was again in for quite a shock at how we were being treated. It was very militant, unapproachable, very regimented, cold, and almost punitive. Most of my teacher trainees felt the same way, and we couldn’t help but take it personally. It was only at the end of the course that I realized the benefits of having learned such rigid discipline. There are huge differences between the approaches of teaching yoga between East and West. That being said, however, a beginner Ashtanga yoga class taught in the West should not be making their first-time students cry. You should talk to the teacher or the studio owner to find out more about their teaching policies.

#7

Thank you for your responses everyone, all really helpful and informative!

Would it be unusual in Ashtanga to offer modifications for chaturunga to students who just can’t do it?

#8

In my experience it’s not unusual at all. Usually the suggested alternative is to do the jump-back (or step-back if you can’t jump) and then simply bend the knees to set them down on the floor, and then do a push-up like thing from there. This is easier for people with lower strength in general, but I don’t know if it’s advisable for you since you’re injured.

#9

Sounds like production-line-Astanga to me with not enough time to give people individual consideration. Try a smaller class where you feel more cared for.

But that’s Astanga in a way, it’s a rigid system that you bend to, it doesn’t change to accommodate you. It’s yoga as a reliable, repeatable, deliverable commodity.
Seems to me Astanga is so popular these days because people want a workout when they are doing yoga, but wouldn’t condescend to do something as coarse as aerobics, you could say astanga yoga, as practiced in the west, is “aerobics for the middle classes” - and they want to know exactly what they are going to get. Also, it encourages a certain level of disengagement and perhaps even mechanical delivery from teachers because they only have to follow a set routine, sometimes teachers seem to think that their only duty is to exhaust the students so that they feel they have really been pushed and so they don’t complain, but it can be too brutal.

My advice, seriously, is to do hatha yoga and get your cardiovascular exercise at the swimming pool!