Ashtanga yoga in U.P., stats: 300 lining up, 25 slots; 109 for zero slots left, 133 for 2 slots. Prof.Jon Cagas classes

photo by Rey Ramos

On its second semester of offering at the University of the Philippines, the demand for ashtanga yoga on the first few days of the computerized registration system rose to:

(and the active-lifestyle numbers are…….)

……300 students electronically lining up for 25 available slots; same figures for the other class, 300 for 25

both classes by Prof.Jonathan Cagas, computerized registration, five days ago.

The numbers change depending on, i suppose, how students are discouraged or encouraged by the numbers or by other factors.

As of this posting, the numbers are :

…..zero slots available, 109 students electronically lining up, one ashtanga yoga class; and

…..2 slots available, 133 students electronically lining up for the 2 remaining slots.

One semester is more or less 14 weeks, or 14 sessions of ashtanga yoga. As i understand it, and based on posts in the internet, a sem could cover from the standing up poses to some of the seated poses; that would mean: from the the sun salutes, then the standing up poses (triangles, wide forward bends, balancing poses, warrior poses, etc.) to some of the seated poses. This would probably be less than one-third of what is called “the primary series” (if you want to find out what the “primary series” is, you could attend our class at Flow Yoga QC and see KQ execute it, she makes it look easy, i sometimes catch her giggling or yawning while putting her entire leg behind her head.)

The trick however is in sustaining the active lifestyle to keep healthy. That means incorporating it with your life — like you do when you regularly spend one hour reading the newspapers, three hours browsing the internet, or five hours watching TV; one should be able to include it with those daily, we-take-for-granted activities.

I’m one to preach — i’m not as regular as my classmates are, my problem is in keeping my stomach empty for three hours prior; well, for some, it’s only two hours, but it’s three hours for me because i eat a lot. So what works (for me) is ashtanga before your first meal of the day, and if i fail to do that (like: always), like being in a hurry to go to work, it’s lost for that day, lost na yon, i just go to one class a week, which is not enough [one weekly makes my muscles sore the day after, it has to be more that one weekly so your muscles won’t get sore the day after and so that you could reap the health benefits; preach preach)

My ashtanga yoga teacher Joji Balcita writes in the website (Flow Yoga QC) and in her blog:

Quote “In my years of teaching yoga in UP and in private classes and hotel/spa establishments, I gained the notion that people who stay with yoga are those who are truly concerned about their health and physical fitness. They are the ones who have the discipline to keep coming back, who don’t get bored with the asanas.

Quote “Many come to yoga because it is popular nowadays, along with all the trappings of stylish yoga clothes and branded yoga paraphernalia, and all the talk about yoga spirituality (mantras included). Many also come because they want to lose weight and gain health. Whatever the reason for coming, I have seen people come and go and never achieve the style, the ideal weight, or the health they wanted because they simply lacked discipline.

Quote "In the end, I think it’s all about discipline, whether the student wants to achieve a fairly well yet consistent practice or an advanced practice. I have seen among the yoga students that it

(photo by Flow Yoga QC)

is they who have the discipline who eventually create a lifestyle of health including diet, weight, management, and yes a spirituality that unites body, mind, and spirit." closed-quote.

There are those who fall out of class after three or four sessions, and we never really know why, because there’s no exit interview. So....if more yoga classes for college students are opened (300 students lining up for 25 slots gotta be sumthin’), you could probably gather some empirical data from them....

There’s more empirical data that’s interesting. I was informed that the same huge demand was expressed, through numbers, for the following: 1) Striptease (of course! people are interested in this); 2) Birdwatching (which hopefully shows, that more and more are now environment-conscious); and 3) streetdance [probably the influence of Hollywood (?)]

And so, it’s quite stunning that ashtanga yoga is way up there in popularity and demand (at least, in this particular demographic) together with other “hip” activities. Like striptease.

For a time early this year, my ashtanga yoga classmates and i were interested in learning on our own, poledancing; but for that, we’d have to find our own pole and we couldn’t find any to learn our poledancing with within a one-hundred-meter radius. KQ suggested that the only way we could learn it on our own was to go the Quezon City Fire Department where they have a pole, but Del said that the firemen won’t be able to get any sleep if we did our inverted sliding there. One day, i found it. Where we could learn our poledancing. It was right there in the middle of it all. I reported to them that there was a pole right in the middle of the administration building, Quezon Hall, we could go after office hours because that was when they unstrung the pole and retreated the flag.

I checked the Revised Penal Code and there was no specific violation on it, however we decided against it because we might be arrested by the security guard on some city ordinance. The search however continues.

There are electric steel posts all along Quezon Avenue but that would mean dodging the cars whizzing by.

Based on my observations of the infrastructure of the city, the cheapest and most ideal place to learn your poledancing is right in the middle of the city. But it’s in mid-air…. : line up… get a ticket… and get inside an MRT shuttle train …. you have a choice of ideal, sturdy, firmly planted non-electrocuting steel posts meant for passengers to grip on. The swirling on these steel posts however should be done on a slow day.

There is the less infrastructure-oriented, friendlier, and definitely, more holistic ashtanga yoga — for more health, social, spiritual, philosophical, benefits without the trouble of looking for equipment. All you need is a certifiedly competent yoga teacher.