Yoga in Tbilisi

There is a yoga class at the Vake Park gym. I was curious what their idea of "Fitness Yoga" is as for me it involves hard-core sun salutations and what would probably be the Georgian idea of exercise suicide here. Then again, Americans are a bit more loco with exercise than most, n'est-ce pas?

Coming into the class I hear Chinese music. The type you may hear on a Wai Lana soundtrack. I used to see some of her yoga videos on public TV in the US. I remember tropical flowers and the beach. I believe she did yoga with a crown of flowers on her head which could make it more challenging to do headstand I suppose. Anyway I will diverge later into the politics of cultural adaptation and fusion of traditions, e.g. Hawaiian yoga, Brazilian belly dancing, etc. So the Chinese music which was slow with flutes and meditative did not really invoke the idea of fitness to me. Then again, what really is fitness? Fitness to one person could be again, locura tremenda, or huge craziness to another. The idea of a room full of Georgians working up a storm, sweating and doing boot-camp Vinyasa sequences would be enough to get a crew of TV reporters on the fitness revolution taking place in Tbilisi, e.g. not happening any time soon. So flute music, no verbal instruction, no mats, at least she got the concept of not wearing shoes but they had their socks on which is somewhat understandable as it was cold. As expected there was no meditation, shivasana (final relaxation pose). The teacher did have us to shoulder stand but once again, no mention of not moving the neck around to prevent injuries which would be crucial for Georgia as it is safe to say most people do not know yoga here.

It was a curious sequence with most of the resting postures between more strenuous postures being the quadriceps stretch, and stretching the arms across the chest in a self-hug. We did that quite a bit. I suppose the yoga in this class was not judging the class and being open to the new ideas for which I was open. However, calling the class "Fitness Yoga" at a serious gym seems like a bit of a misnomer. The mats which we were to use for the second half of the class weren't yoga mats but rather athletic cushing which I have been using in the exercise area for yoga sometimes but difficult as downward facing dog pulls the mat quite a bit

After class I asked the teacher about Fitness yoga. She said it was a style from Moscow that is not Hatha, Ashtanga, etc. but rather using yoga elements and is a stretching class. I suppose then for the Russians, stretching=fitness. She I believe has learned from videotapes. I am teaching the teacher on Thursday to show her some yoga as she is interested in Ashtanga.