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May the Yoga Force Be With You!
Every day may not be good, but there is something good in every day...
At BYC, we like to help put that bit of 'good' into the everyday.
From the post class feeling of peace and well being, to finally getting your head to touch the floor in Standing Separate Leg Stretching, or by simply making it through the door...!
So, some extra good for you all, today.
In May, we are giving you:
2 FREE CLASSES
on every 10 class card.
The maths....
12 for the price of 10 (6 month expiry) is �115 = �9.58/class
12 for the price of 10 (6 month expiry) Concession Rate is �103 = �8.58/class
The (not so) small print: Ts & Cs apply. Offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offers or discounts. Concession rates only available at the studio with valid ID. Offer available until 31st May 2016. Limited to one purchase per student.
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Whatever your plans for the double bank holiday, this May - be it DIYing, partying, eating, sleeping, entertaining the kids, BBQing in the rain -
remember to make time for you and your yoga.
May Bank Holiday Monday Schedule:
Monday 2nd May: 10am, 12pm, 3pm & 6:15pm
Monday 30th May: 10am, 12pm, 3pm & 6:15pm
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Posture Clinic
Standing Bow
(Almost) Everybody's favourite posture is here!
Standing straight, feet together, arms by your side, palms facing in.
Now, turn your right arm to the right, so the elbow is facing the body
and palm of the hand is facing out.
Raise your right foot up behind you and rest the ankle in the palm of your hand, fingers and thumb together tightly gripped around the ankle.
You can rotate your right shoulder back to encourage the opening of your shoulders.
Engage the standing leg by tightening your quad and also turn that core on (focus on pulling up on your pelvic floor while simultaneously pulling your belly button to your spine.) Keep the weight evenly distributed thought the foot, as you move into the posture do not let your weight fall back into the heel, keep this even distribution.
Make sure you knees are together as if in one line from the side and your hips are forward also in a line.
Raise your left arm up, palm facing forward towards your smiling face in the mirror. This arm should be solid and powerful thought the posture.
You will have heard the command 'chin close to shoulder' at this juncture many times. Do not move your chin to your shoulder but your shoulder to your chin. Your upper body is roating so your left shoulder is moving towards the mirror and your right back towards the back wall, opening your chest, however your lower body should still be in one line facing forward towards the font mirror.
Concentrate on one point in front of you. Laser beam focus.
Do not take your eye off this point for the duration of this posture.
Inhale, kick your right leg back, naturally your right shoulder draws back, opening the chest, creating a lovely arc in the spine, like an archers bow. Try not to let the knee kick out to the side but keep it moving straight back, all the while keeping the left side of your body engaged though the extended left arm and contracted left leg.
As you see your knee disappear backwards from view in the mirror, charge your body forward. Do not come down before this point, your upper body should still be relatively upright, although it may be at a slightly inclined forward due to the nature of the movement. Before you charge your upper body forward we are trying to create a back bend in the spine, which is achieved by kicking the knee back and up and allowing the opening of the right shoulder. Never come down with a flat back.
Making sure your hips are still in a straight line, right hip has not fallen back with arm and is still forward towards the mirror, now charge your body forward.
Charging your body forward means keeping the power and strength flowing through the engaged left arm as you move your upper body down,
aiming one day for the abdomen to be parallel to the floor.
Continuously keep kicking the right leg back.
One day you will see it appearing over the centre of your head.
Keep your left arm charging forward, chin to your shoulder, sternum to the mirror. Your aim here is to have both shoulders in one straight line (your left hand pointing straight forward towards the mirror).
Try to always keep your head straight, chin to shoulder.
Kicking and stretching should be equal and simultaneous, 50/50.
Remember to breathe in and out throughout your nose.
Inhale lift and and lengthen, exhale go deeper.
If you fall out, don't worry, just get straight back in.
Kick back, body down, kick up, body down.
Change.
Here is a beautiful example of Standing Bow in all its glory
(that we borrowed from the internet, thank you internet).
One day this will be you (& me & all of us!)
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111 Days of Yoga Daniel's 'Superman' Challenge!
 We have a nick name for Daniel here at BYC, we call him Superman... and now he really has gone and earned his right to the name (and the red cape) having just completed 111 days of BYC yoga. So here, in his own words, are what 111 days of yoga has taught him.
111 (+1) days of Bikram What can I say about my experiences whilst doing 111 + 1 days of Bikram yoga? There is probably close to a million and one things that throughout the duration I had come to learn and realise. Some of which are relatively minor in comparison to others, some things being a bit more of a breakthrough. There are things regarding specific postures, realisations that are more orientating around the mind and mental aspect yoga, and other things that are a bit more general. If I was to include everything, this would not only take forever to write, but would also take forever to read. Instead, I will only focus on the one thing that I found to be the most important and will hopefully improve others on their whole Bikram journey.
That said though, everything I've learnt is important, but maybe they are best left to be figured out in your own time.
 So what is it that I believe to be the most valuable thing I had learnt? Simple. It the importance of BREATHING. Throughout the Bikram dialogue we are bombarded with directions to "breath deep, fill your lungs, inhale, exhale every last drop", so much so that it's easy to take these directions for granted and totally ignore them. What I found was that by consciously slowing down my breathing and also synchronising my breathing with my movements, that my progression in both mind and body began to grow quickly. By slowing down, breathing deeper, exhaling longer, and overall controlling your breathing, you begin to slow down mentally. Things become clearer. Focusing becomes that bit easier. From there, synchronising your body movements with the rhythm of your relaxed breathing, not only lets you flow more naturally and gracefully in and out of postures, but also allows you to maintain that calm state of mind.
Don't breathe to match the movement of your body, but move your body to match the rhythm of your breathing. I believe that breathing is the core to all progression. Want to focus? Control your breathing. Want to extend your postures? Control your breathing. Seeing rainbows and unicorns after first set of Camel pose? Control your breathing. Want to hold back from running over that parking warden who put a ticket on your car for going five minutes overtime? Control your breathing. Without control over such an automatic bodily response, how will you have control over the rest of your body? Put simply, breathing (for me), is the core foundation to everything. Calm breathing leads to a calm mind. A calm mind leads to better focus and awareness. Improved focus and awareness leads to improved postures. Physically the main improvement that I have noticed the most during the 111 days has been the extra range of motion I've gained through my spine. Be it laterally, back bending, forward bending, or rotationally. Back bending mostly.
When doing the Bikram sequence consecutively for so long, you become more mindful of how your body feels in each posture, when and where you need to push or pull through, how to breath in the posture. Because of this (and some great direction by the instructors of course), the postures have a bit more purpose instead of just bending over and sticking my ass in the air whilst sweating into my nose.
I've felt that my back bends in half moon, standing bow, camel, and in the belly down section have all improved over the 111 days, some more than others, to be honest.
Another thing that I feel has improved a lot is the strength I have in my legs. All the knee locking, engaging ones thigh, and balancing on one leg seems to really have made a difference. I've seen / felt this the most in triangle. Before, I would only be good for about 20 seconds in full expression until I start getting the shakes and loose balance. Now I feel I can last the whole set and still remain strong and still.
Favourite postures? All of them! Not really. Half moon, Triangle, Eagle, Standing bow, Rabbit, Savasana, gasping for air pose, grab my water pose, mat on rack pose, walking out the door pose, 20 minutes in the shower pose. Least favourite. Balancing Stick. Oh boy is that posture my arch nemesis. I'd rather balance naked on barbed wire. Mentally Bikram has helped me with focusing my attention both inside and outside of the studio. What has really helped is being able to maintain a calm state of mind. Away from Bikram I do Thai boxing, which includes a lot of training and sparring, which can get a bit chaotic. Sparring in particular as someone is constantly trying to hit you. With Bikram, without realising it, you are training yourself to stay calm and relaxed during the chaos and stress of not only holding a particular posture for a minute, but also doing that whilst in 40� heat. Indirectly, training that for 111 days now means that the level of calm I had during sparring has now been reinforced to a much higher tolerance, which in its self is a very weird thing to experience. I can only liken it to playing a violin whilst in the middle of a war zone. You manage to stay calm, focused and involved in what you are doing even though there is complete mayhem happening around you... I don't play the violin by the way.
In the beginning I never aimed on doing 111 days. To begin with I was only going to do a maximum of 35. 35 days even seemed daunting in comparison to my usual comfort zone of 3 times a week. Very quickly it became a habit and a part of my routine. Once it became routine, the days flew by.
I think its human nature to be scared or reticent of what we don't know and therefore its easier to stay where we are comfortable. However progress and growth doesn't come from comfort. Our self preserving bodies are programmed to keep us in comfort, it may say: Your not fit enough, your not flexible enough, you don't have the time, it's too hot, it's too long, it's too late, do it next week. It's all lies. If Helen offered a million pounds to whoever does 112 days I bet everyone will do 113! Maybe change your perspective. Instead of the award being one million dollars (Dr evil voice), the real award is better health both mentally and physically, which you cannot put a price on....
I would like to thank everyone; staff, teachers, and practitioners at BYC for their help,  motivation and positive energy (there's a lot of names). Practising alongside some great focused people, all from different back stories, is very inspiring. I would like to make a special mention to Helen, Carolina, Fed, Rachel, Andy, and Kat, for always doing great energetic sessions , and always giving extra motivation, help, and advice throughout.
Overall, doing the extended challenge has been a great experience. Learnt a lot mentally, progressed physically, and have gained a higher understanding. What's exciting is that there is still more to learn and develop on. I would definitely recommend anyone practising to doing consecutive days.
...I have a confession. Sometimes I don't need to dry my hands on my towel. I just squat down so I can breathe some of that cool floor air that drafts in.....
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At home Pampering just for you!
The awesome folks at Blow Lts are offering you, are amazing
BYCers, �10 off your first service with them.
Blow LTD bring salon beauty to your home. Their hand picked, CRB checked and fully licensed team of expert beauty therapists offer Blow Dry, Make-Up, Nail, Facial and Lash Extension services in the comfort of your home, hotel, office or event
(London Zones 1,2 & 3).
Featured in VOGUE, Sunday Times Style and Grazia, it's a top quality service at an affordable price that you just can't do without.
To claim �10 off your first service. Simply download the "blowLTD" app or book online and enter code BYC2016 before you submit your booking. Offer valid from 1st-31st May 2016. Find out more at http://www.blowltd.com/.
Terms and Conditions apply.
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by Ian Buckley Starring our very own
Fed Zanni & Katrina Cooke! On from 17 May 2016 till 29 May 2016 
Dynamic young film-maker Angela is excited by her latest assignment - the case of the man with the missing past. What better starting point for an episode of the Realife human-interest series? But soon she finds all is not what it seems. She's navigating dangerous waters which threaten to overwhelm her. As events begin to slip out of control, who can she turn to for help?
Buckley's latest play deals with the relationship between a media machine hungry for stories and the ordinary people who are their fodder. Based on real events, he paints a picture of talented film-makers who struggle to reconcile their desire to do good with their need for a good story.
PERFORMANCES: Tuesdays to Saturdays (7.30 p.m.) Sundays (6.30 p.m.)
Additional Matinees: Saturdays (2.30 p.m.)
TICKETS: �12 (�10 Concessions) ON SALE NOW - BOX OFFICE: 020 8932 4747
EMAIL BOOKINGS: Send date & number of tickets required to l ondontheatre@gmail.com & pay for them, in cash, when you come to the performance! |
 BYC Reminder Our Doors Close 1/2hr after class. Dear BYCers,
This is just a little reminder that we close half an hour after the end of each class. Hopefully this is plenty of time to have your savasana, shower, glamourise and hit the high street relaxed, rejuvenated and glowing! This is simply as we have daily studio maintenance, cleaning and other such exciting tasks, to keep your BYC in tip top condition, for all of you. We appreciate your understanding and help.
Namaste
The Team at BYC
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Grab a Bargin
Onzie Capris & Legging Sale.
We are having a sale on a selection of our Onzie Leggings and Capris.
Capris:
Original price: �35
Sale price: �28
Leggings
Original Price: �45
Sale Price: �38
Come in and grab yourself a bargain while stocks last.
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 Welcome to the World Our new little addition. We would like to congratulate our wonderful teacher Katie and her husband, on their beautiful new addition. Baby boy Rex. Welcome to the family Rex!
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"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less." - Marie Curie
Yoga is about learning to understand yourself,
learning to listen to your body and learning to quieten you your mind. Remember we are all on this journey together and we are here to help you. So if you ever have any questions please always come speak to us.
So we will see you in class very soon.
and the entire Team at BYC
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