Tag Archives: Skype

3 good reasons to skip today’s workout

Posted on June 10, 2012 | Leave a comment

1. I’m sick with a fever.

2. I’ve been kidnapped and am bound with rope in the trunk of a car (and I don’t think it’s headed for a yoga studio).

3. I’ve suffered muscle exhaustion from yesterday’s workout and literally can’t move (this happened once, but only once).

Seriously, there are hundreds of reasons to skip today’s workout, and tomorrow’s, and pretty soon it’s the end of the week and I feel like a doughy blob.

Yet funny how I didn’t skip meals, or showers, or feeding the cats twice a day, or doing the dishes, or picking up the mail, or answering email.

I thought about this today when I attended a yoga class via Skype at 8 in the morning, and we ran into all sort of technical difficulties with the call, and the cats were yowling to get out, and because I was using the hallway instead of my usual yoga area I ended up with cat hair and little bits of grit and cat food all over my feet…and the mat.

It was a great workout anyway.

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Just pay attention

Posted on October 20, 2011 | Leave a comment

Today is the NOW Foundation’s 14th Annual “Love Your Body Day,” and a lot of bloggers are disputing whether the point is to love your body, or to respect your body, or simply to integrate your feelings about your physical self with the feelings about yourself as a whole.

For me, the point is to pay attention to your body — something it doesn’t seem as though a lot of people do. (Paying attention to it by trying to camouflage it to look like something it’s not is more like ignoring it than paying attention to it, if you think about it.)

I celebrated by doing yoga with Susan’s Taos class via Skype. I think that qualifies as tough love.

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Working out with Susan Powter via Skype

Posted on August 7, 2011 | 2 comments

Every time Susan Powter leaves Seattle I go through a new search for a challenging yoga-based workout that I can attend three times a week. I’ve tried several local yoga classes and, for various reasons, they didn’t work out for me. Some studios were too far away to make the commute practical; some were too slow (great for flexibility and strength, no help for fat burning); some were too sanctimonious (no, I don’t suffer from fear, anxiety, insecurity and spiritual emptiness the way one 20-something instructor seemed to think everyone in the room did); and hot yoga made it possible for me to do things that were probably not wise for someone my age.

I ended up taking a fabulous Techno ElectroBelly dance class (“shimmying, isolating, undulating, and generally gettin’ sweaty to electronic, dub, techno, industrial, and rock music”) from Laura Rose at VDP Studio in Fremont, but unfortunately she teaches it only once a week.

Then I found out that Susan is teaching classes via Skype! She provides them for small groups. You gather three or four women and work out a schedule with Susan. At the appointed time, you all show up at the studio of your choice (someone’s livingroom or deck), roll out your mats, open your laptop, and place the video call to Susan at her Taos studio.

It’s just like working out with Susan in a class, except that with small classes she’s able to give a lot more individual attention.

Last week Carrie and I went completely crazy and did five days of classes in a row. It…felt…fabulous!

Interested? Send me email or contact Susan directly.

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