Ahhh, this is more like it.
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33 comments:
Teehee. I loves me some tiny shorts.
men seem to have less trouble with showing more skin... I am curious now, who is Pete? is that an English-ism?
definitely an English'ism - no idea who Pete was though...
Says Megan Walker RYT : ) wearing long pants in her picture. I can't practice in long bottoms, tried it when it was really cold here, give me my skimpy shorts anyday. Tempted to try some Encinitas 70's speedo's just for the hell of it.
Thanks Stuey. I think it's to save saying for god's sake or for heavens sake, Claudia. Don't know who Pete is either.
PS I really want to learn to wrap a dhoti like the young SKPJ, how cool is that.
hehehe. two serious yogis&teachers i know practice in speedos. i tried it two weeks ago. i don't know what is better, the freedom of movement, or feeling that you're being like a yogi of old in a loincloth. two other serious yogis i know, the best practitioners in my old SF shala used to practice in what seemed like bathing suits, maybe like what you describe as a 70s speedos. i would have to work at it to not feel self concious in them. there's a bit of a so what attitude you need when practicing in them in a public room. and if i started self photography of my asanas wearing them, i might worry about what my mom would think. haha.
I love these pics. I always wear long pants, but I must say, I was so surprised by the recent contoversy involving one K. MacGregor and how so many of the comments related to her skimpy attire and how she is somehow anti-feminist because of it. Um...look at all these famed yoga masters wearing next to nothing to practice and be photographed. Ok for the men but not for the ladies? To me, THAT is anti-feminist.
This cracks me up!
When viewing at pictures, videos, etc. I appreciate a closer look at alignment that less clothing affords.
In my own practice, rarely are the rooms warm enough to justify anything less than pants and a long-sleeved shirt! That's not so much a modesty thing. It's just always an effort to get a decent sweat going...
I should come through on that idea to get my burlesque dancer friend to make some OM pasties for me & shoot a video...
Hahaha! Very nice post, Grimmly. I don't know if this adds to the discussion in any way (it probably doesn't), but I practice in my underwear in the morning, even though my practice room is only heated up to the seventies. To me, it's not about modesty (nobody's there to see, anyway); it's about giving you enough room to move without clothes getting in the way and/or sticking to your body when you sweat. And the best way to do this, in my experience, is to wear as little as possible.
And don't worry, you won't be seeing any videos of me practicing in my undies anytime soon (don't need to start another blog-storm :-))
Interesting that you posted this just as The Reluctant Ashtangi wrote about teeny weensy shorts ;) I can definitely see the value in practicing in skimpy attire, but I'm too much of a luluhead to give up my crops!
I'm for freedom of movement Arturo, tend to have some Nike Pro's for 2nd series and my skimpy nike shorts for primary, find I need the bare legs for garbha P. curiously I use a pair of stripped PJ bottoms for Vinyasa Krama.
Hi Kristen. To be honest I'm a little surprised it hasn't kicked off long before this, wearing something colourful, pink even, in a dour Ashtanga room, almost more shocking than skimpy. Why would anyone care what anyone else was wearing.
Actually in my early videos here I used to change into those Long blue stripy pants when recording but then figured, we're yogi's, see each other half naked everyday, nobody cares about such things. Naive again, perhaps I better go back to the long pants myself.
Exactly Mike, if'd been better at photoshop I would have made up Saudi yoga manual with the model demonstrating poses in a burqa, might have got in trouble though for showing too much ankle.
hey Birthday girl, thought the OM pasties was funny the first time but three times? : ) Actually not sure what OM pasties are but can kind of guess.
Have you seen sparavignavirginio's yoga video's on youtube Nobel? Always admired him for not seeming to worry about what he was wearing during practice.
Did she S, never saw it ( Damn i commented, caught). Not having a dig at my friend Kai though just saw the topic still seemed to have some legs in it and i'd thought about a post along these lines last week.
Are you allowed to wear lululemon in an Ashtanga room? i guess they do some dark colours too.
Kristen said it for me. Double standards.
Indeed Ragdoll. The picture of Krishnamacharya in his dhoti and the still from the movie of the woman in full yoga sari (his wife, daughter?) is from 1938, good to now that we're keeping the tradition alive : )
Actually it's not a Dhoti Krishanamacharya and jois are wearing but a langot. Here's a link to how to tie one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6jL-eZtKCI
Off to ebay now to try and find one, see if it's more comfortable than my nike's.
No, Grimmly, I haven't seen sparavignavirginio's yoga videos on youtube. I'll go check them out soon :-)
Allow me to make some very obvious observations here:
(1) The quality of one's practice has no correlation to the amount of clothing that one wears during practice.
(2) Some yogis and yoginis choose to practice fully covered from head to toe.
(3) That's cool (because of (1)).
(4) Some yogis and yoginis choose to practice wearing practically nothing.
(5) That's cool too (again, because of (1)).
(6) So, one way or the other, everything's cool! WRYB (Whatever Rocks Your Boat).
My legs won't stay on my arms in Bakasana if my pants are shorter than knee length! I've tried! Doesn't anyone else sweat buckets like I do in practice?!?!
Maybe I just have weak thighs?
All these pictures are from Yoga masters who are demonstrating postures. How will be able to see movement and position of muscles if they are covered up?
Indecency is in the mind of the viewer.
Rani hit it on the head.
When one is demonstrating alignment / taking photos or videos, it's important to see the body.
Wearing very little clothing in class can be distracting to others, plus it can be seen as disrespectful to the teacher. Traditionally, one covers up in class (note how the Sivananda students dress, as well as how the students of Mr. Venkatesh attire themselves, and the ladies at the former AYRI who've been asked to cover up, and the little note that used to be on the wall of Dharma's studio asking students to dress modestly).
That said - when practicing at home, in summer, my favorite bottoms are men's underwear.
But not at the shala!
I guess it's that 'distracting to others' bit that I have an issue with personally. Why would I be even noticing what anyone else is wearing or, further, have an issue with it, though I might notice their mat : )
On the vinyasa krama course we were all pretty covered up as you can see by the pictures on that Ramaswami chanting video posted last week, but then it's a slower practice.
I remember going to those one-to-one VK lessons in the Yurt a couple of years back. the teacher went to get something while I changed, he came back full length tracksuite bottoms and t-shirt, meanwhile I'd stripped down to my skimpy ashtanga shorts ( Ashtanga it was all I knew) bit embarassing for a few moments.
Ashtanga, it's such a hot practice in a hot room I just feel that woman should be able to as feel comfortable in that room dressing as minimally as men without it being an issue, whatever they practice in at home. Or be pretty in pink rather than shaved head and tatoo's if that happens to be their thing.
I'd personally prefer everyone to wear dark colours just so you dont get a flash of lemon or bright pink out of the corner of your eye as you move into a posture. That said if there was a sign on the wall banning it I'd come to practice wearing lemon top to toe,surely it for me to deal with whether I'm distracted or not.
Why am i even writing on this i dont even go to a shala, maybe it's time to switch off the web as well as james suggests on Claudia's post, Pratyahara 0.1
Perhaps its where I practice (in a Silicon Valley suburb) but lulu clothes are pretty common in the shala. We have the occasional burst of color but most of my shalamates tend towards the darker colors - the most colorful item I have is a violet tank...could not bring myself to wear turqoise, I think it would give me a headache!
That Saudi yoga manual sounds awesome! Albeit a tad politically incorrect, no? ;)
Haha! This reminded me of a post I read a long while ago somewhere about men's ashtanga clothes, and I fiddled and googled until I found it. It was on Leaping Lanka, very funny, wait till you get to the banana hammock part...
http://leapinglanka.blogspot.com/2006/08/sartorial-stretching-as-i-am.html
And I'll add I'm a freaky non-sweater, part lizard Grim has called me. I wear long pants, long sleeve shirts and often a cashmere sweater to do my primary in. Sometimes a hat. It's nuts. Summer is better, tank and yoga pants. If it gets over 90 I might go to shorts, but no one sees me here at home except my kids.
I love this post it has made my day - "The quality of one's practice has no correlation to the amount of clothing that one wears during practice." Quality!
Not all yoga masters up there Rani, figured if i was going to post pictures of all those guys half naked it was only fair to put one of my own up there.
'Indecency is in the mind of the viewer' like it.
Just a tad un PC Savasana, just a tad
Just read Maya 'the lizard' Leaping Lanka link on men's yoga wear highly recommended here's the link again
http://leapinglanka.blogspot.com/2006/08/sartorial-stretching-as-i-am.html
Even better than mowing the lawn Micqui? read maya's link above, you'l love it, I actually laughed out loud
HAHAHA! I love this post! I usually wear capris and roll them up for Garbha P. Once, just ONCE, I tried practicing in my living room in my birthday suit on my own (I guess to see what the fuss about naked yoga was)... But it got really distracting when there were puddles of sweat on the mat coz there weren't clothes to absorb it all. Don't recommend naked ashtanga AT ALL! LOL!
There's a story about a girl who showed up to the shala in pretty much a string bikini top and hot pants where ass-cheeks hung out, and Sharath turned to her and said "You! Go home and put on some clothes NOW!" and refused to let her practice that day. So I guess he's with you on this one (even as he's bare-chested in your pictures!)
You got the irony right Skippetty ( or did i just miss yours?) My feeling is that, unless there's a sign on the wall of the shala everyone should be able to practice in what they want without it being anyone else's business. If you want to wear skimpy pink shorts ( not that i do , honest) then you shouldn't feel the need to excuse it as good for making the pose harder and strengthening the legs. that said, string bikini seems a little insensitive in mysore but in Goa? But hey if Sharath's gonna charge California prices...... Nice to hear from you, missed you, have you posted too I wonder, must check.
Removing your clothes are meant as a sign of respect for god, the guru and the practice. In the northern spiritual reaches, it is not uncommon to find sadhus completely naked.
The continued westernization of yoga, of course, causes reinterpretation of many of yoga's original reasons. Nothing wrong with that, of course.
Still catching up in blogland.. thanks for this post! The purpose of Kino's shorts is to develop more strength, and if you've ever practiced in shorts in a very sweaty shala and tried bakasana and any other straight-arm arm balances, coming up from laghu, walking hands along your calves in kapo or grabbing legs in chakra bandhasana, getting your legs to stay crossed behind your head etc etc, you'll know that it really is a lot harder. Assuming you sweat like I do. I'm going to TRY (maybe) to make the transition to shorts this summer, and it won't be to show off my ass, it'll be because Kino recommended it TO DEVELOP STRENGTH. For the moment I prefer bright lycra leggings - why? - because it's easier! And because bright colours are cheery and good for my mood. I have to admit it never occurred to me that the colours would be distracting to others, but I agree with you that being distracted is the problem of the distractee :)
thanks Sram, interesting didn't know that, though perhaps the string bikini was a little more honour than was called for.
hey Susan , welcome home. of course us guys have been mostly been practicing in shorts. As it happens i tried long Nike's once during winter and found them impossible to practice in don't know how you all manage in tights, perhaps that's why I'm so sympathetic to Kino on this.
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