Bethesda Rookie

TGIF - Restorative

Even when you work part time, and from home, it's nice to put a little distance between the week and the weekend. One way to do that is with a slightly dirty Grey Goose martini. Another, arguably "better," way to do that is with a yoga class. Not the sit bones kicking, spine wringing, thigh burning kind, but a gentle restorative class that reminds your body (and you) how much you respect it, temporary home though it may be.

Restorative classes are a surprisingly effective way relax and rejuvinate the body. The idea is to nurture the cells and organs and muscles in supported poses while the muscles and nervous system are in an extremely relaxed stated. With the body and mind entirely passive, you might open more deeply to the benefits of the poses. You might also learn to bring this receptive state to your more active classes.

A good restorative class can send you off feeling rested, invigorated and open, both physically and emotionally. Of course this is great thing to do for yourself any day of the week, but I'm particularly fond of Fridays and Sundays—to clean my palate, shift gears, and shore up mindfulness and grace for whatever lies ahead.

Tranquil Space Bethesda (on Wisconsin at East-West Hwy) has a restorative class on Friday, 4:30-5:45. (At least they used to. It's on their printer-friendly schedule, but not their live schedule.) Siobhan Troy leads the class with a gentle but muscle-warming asana practice before settling you into the sustained supported poses. $17 for one class.

Thrive Yoga (on Rockville Pike) has Candlelight Restorative on Friday, 6:30-8:00. They alternate teachers, so you won't know who you get until you're there (we're not supposed to care, that's raga), but you can always count on candles, music, props and a warm, dark room-womb. Oh, and parking too. $17 for a single class.

Willow Street Yoga (in Takoma Park) has Gentle Yoga on Friday, 5:30-7:00. This is a nice way to take a less vigorous class class without enduring Yoga I explanations of how to do the poses. Willow wants you to sign up for their 13-week sessions ($195-$208), and penalizes you for not doing so with a $20 drop-in fee, if there's room.

Spiral Flight (on Wisconsin in/near Georgetown) offers Gentle Yoga on Friday, 12:15-1:15, in case you can start your weekend a little early, or need a quick fix before your Friday afternoon.

Of course you can always hit up Georgetown Yoga or Downdog Yoga if you prefer to sweat it out.

Yoga Journal on restorative yoga; Yoga Barn on restorative yoga; Yoga for Living on restorative yoga

Spiral Flight

Spiral Flight touts itself as Georgetown's first yoga and healing arts center; "yoga from within." It's hard to believe that it took Georgetown until 1997 to get a yoga center, but they're lucky to have one that, albeit young, seems to be imbued with a passion for the centuries old tradition of yoga. Their schedule of 5 to 7 classes a day, with prenatal and children's classes, and their extensive online descriptions of the various styles of yoga and their benefits, are clues that this studio has more than exercise in mind.

Their offerings include four styles of yoga, Feldenkrais, Pilates, meditation, massage, accupuncture, Reiki, Trager, hotstone therapy, and workshops in the healing arts. There are six 'therapists' listed on Spiral Flight's website, and twenty-nine(!) teachers, all "hand-picked, spiritual, open-minded and intelligent people." And I don't doubt. I've been to two classes so far and both were taught by incredibly knowledgable and dedicated teachers. In a field where you often run into people who fall in love with yoga and decide to get certified and teach over a span of 1 or 2 years, it's heartening to encounter people who have been practicing and teaching for decades, and who understand how powerful and transformative the practice can be.

Jane Fryer taught a class the day after thanksgiving, and it was packed. It was her Friday "Anusara for Women" class. John Friend is there in her teaching, but her knowledge preceeds him and comes from an old-school tradition, where yoga can liberate and empower and ground the spirit, and the practice is not merely physical and energetic, with spirals and grace and energy, but also has a deep psychic openness to it that should be recognized and honored. "We are half heaven and half earth; cosmic centaurs" is a far cry from John's "Take it to the mat!"

The class had little vinyasa to it, but we covered a lot of ground. Our focus was gratitude, and we twisted to cleanse and we opened our shoulders and hearts to receive. Most importantly, we concentrated for 90 minutes on being in the present and how powerful that can be. Jane sent us off feeling inspired and open, and that is the best thing that can come a class.

Jane told us that Penelope Taylor would sub for her the following Friday, and while her yoga was less intense, she was not. Jane practices "Energy medicine" and her knowledge of the body was obvious. She used lavender to increase flexibility and pressure points to open our bodies. She demonstrated the life force of a pure lavender oil versus a commercial one. She stretched and reached us to a state of mindful relaxation.

It will take a while to get around to all of the teachers at Spiral Flight, but something tells me it's worth it.

Spiral Flight, 1826 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Georgetown, 202.965.1645, www.spiralflightyoga.com

Yoga Plus

Yoga Plus seems to be a vehicle for Maggie Wong to teach people to move, listen to their bodies, reflect on how they feel, and stay healthy. She doesn't offer much in the way of rigor; no Power Yoga classes or Vinyasa Flow. She just wants to make sure that your body moves the way it's supposed to. From what I can tell, her practice is geared toward an older set. She teaches Introductory Yoga, Experienced Beginner Yoga, Gentle Yoga and Vini Yoga.

I went to her Gentle Yoga class, held at the Carderock Springs Swimming and Tennis Club. There were 5 of us there, one gentleman who looked to be in his early sixties, and three Japanese women ranging from 45 to 55. Maggie explained that she advertises at the Tokyo Women's Club so she has a lot of Japanese students. I can't remember exactly how she put it, but she also explained that the class was not a very vigorous class. But I knew that from the name. And after that Tuesday's run, still taking stairs at an embarrassing pace, I was looking for some gentle.

But it was seriously gentle. And I would write it off as positively geriatric if it weren't for the "body massage ball" she used in the class. It was pretty damn cool. It's a 5-6 inch ball you use to massage your own muscles. We spent twenty-five minutes going up each side of our bodies, starting with the sit bones, hamstring, calf, and moving up again to the buttocks, back, shoulder, armpit, chest and neck. It's not the most graceful endeavor, but you really can get into your muscles with that ball, and I left there feeling an awful lot like I'd just gotten a massage.

The rest of the class was too light for me, but that's not so much a reflection on Maggie as her students. If I were in my 50's, I have to say, I'd be damn grateful to find a yoga class that didn't include a bunch of surya namaskara and arm balances. She moves her students the way she knows they aren't moving themselves. And she tells them why. And she doesn't try to get them to do the things that won't necessarily injure them, but just might. I'm not a believer that you should be able to do in your 50's--or even 40's--what you do in you 20's. Hell, I'm slowing down in my 30's. 

Thrive Yoga

[Unfortunately Kim Groark has moved on from Thrive, but that hasn't changed the quality of their classes. They continue to maintain a rich schedule and terrific workshop offerings... and day care.]

I took my first Bethesda yoga class yesterday at Thrive Yoga. I found them through YogaFinder, a useful if not comprehensive listing of yoga centers by city.

I chose Thrive because Kim Groark has a great pedigree (and they had a Sunday morning class). Kim has studied with, among others, Shiva Rea, Sharon Gannon and John Friend, and you can find each of them in her teaching. She combines Vinyasa flow, Anusara alignment and inspiration, and Kundalini energy in a challenging and rewarding 90-minute (actually 100-minute) Level 2/3 class. I was charged afterward.

The studio is located, sadly, in a strip mall (easy parking!), and as hard as they try, it's impossible to forget that. Both practice rooms have windows that scream, and reveal, strip mall, and the commercial, developed energy of the building is a formidable match for the spiritual energy of the studio. The space itself is cool, almost too cool. There's stone everywhere -- the floors, the bathrooms, the changing rooms -- and even the practice rooms are appointed with some high-tech slightly cushioned floor instead of the usual warm yoga-studio wood. Also in the practice room roars the heater, with all its ducts exposed and painted black. Cool, cool, cool.

The heat comes from the class, and from Kim. She's warm and energetic, and came up to my mat before class to introduce herself and welcome me and ask after any injuries I might have. Then she bounced back up to the front of the room, took her seat and asked us to follow suit.

She started us off with three rounds of kapalabhati (cleansing breath) with a kundalini hands-out seat during two rounds. That alone got the blood pumping, and Kim talks throughout, about energy and effort and stamina, and that encouragement increases the charge as well. The class was rigorous and inspired. There was music on the whole time, the usual world stuff (no rock, no jazz) and that warmed up the room even more. There's an element of flow, but never rushing through a pose. In fact, she holds many postures for a good four or five breaths, long enough to feel the burn, but never long enough to seem sadistic. She makes very few adjustments, physical or verbal, but of course that may be different with her lower level classes.

Overall it was a delightful experience, and I can't wait to get back. Kim is knowledgeable and enthusiastic, and seems to have a warm heart. She is a new mother and bopped out of class as soon as it was over to go see her daughter at the front desk. And Thrive set up day care at the space a few days a week ($5 for the first child, $2 thereafter), and seems to be building not just a studio, but a community.

Thrive Yoga, 1321 Rockville Pike, Rockville, 301.294.9642

B.Rookie Yoga

Spiral Flight, Georgetown

Thrive Yoga, Rockville

Yoga Plus, Potomac