Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Day 47: Bring it like Brandy

Ahhhh. Brandy. She was one of my favorite favorite teachers and left. I attended the last class she taught at my studio on Christmas Day. It was awesome. She cranked the heat and humidifiers up and proceeded to spank our butts, a proper goodbye. Good times.
She's back in Vegas until early October. She's going to compete and then leave for India right after competition (how cool is that??). I will be diligently stalking the online scheduler, trying to make it to as many classes as I can before she leaves.
Tonight she brought it, Brandy style. I wasn't quite as clumsy as the past two nights but I wasn't in rockstar shape either. These extra pounds do seem to affect my practice in a very negative way and must come off! Arrgh! Well, they are not going to come off overnight, so in the meantime, I just worked as hard as I could. Brandy started off the class by saying I don't know all your names, I've been gone awhile, but if I do know your name you know what that means and I'll learn the rest of yours as we go. We start the breathing and she's already tweaking me. Half moon, go deeper Michelle, yup that's three whole inches! Awkward....higher on your toes Michelle, you can go higher I know you can (I go a bit higher) now go even higher (at this point I'm already exhausted, my legs are shaking and I'm crapping my pants about now!). The rest of the class continued in that manner. My newbie Andy, she knew his name, heard me talking to him in the lobby. So he got some of it too. Ha ha! He came out of that class looking almost as bad as when he took Roberta's class. He said "that was the hardest class yet!!" I loved it. She kills us with kindness. I KNOW I don't push myself as hard as I should. When I take her class, I really go to that edge and beyond. I always think "I can't!!" and then I do it. She doesn't let us get complacent, especially if we've been coming awhile and she doesn't let us give up on ourselves. When we were on the floor series she said "you know you are working hard enough in the postures if you cannot move when you get in savasana". She's all about going balls to the wall, right from the get go. Right from first breathing. Balls to the wall every posture, every day....bring it like Brandy.

4 comments:

  1. It frightens me when they know my name... cause you know you're getting it at some point in the class. We're better for it though!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Just walked past a yoga place in Bangkok. here they wouldn't need to turn up the heat or the humidity, just leave the door open!

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's great to have those rock-star teachers who bring out your best and hardest work. Yes, in theory, we should bring that "best and hardest work" to every class. But, in the event we can't/don't, it's always good to have the reminder class, the one that lets you know what you're REALLY capable of.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Tarts and Tatts~ oh yeah, I knew I was in trouble! You're right, we are for sure better for it!
    Brian~ that's why I live in the desert. Wouldn't be able to stand the humidity on a daily basis in **real life** like that!
    Hannah~ Yes, we are capable of so much more than we give ourselves credit for, aren't we?

    ReplyDelete