This afternoon I attended the Hot Power Hour at Indaba Yoga Studios with Hortense Suleyman from 12:30-1:30pm. While initially apprehensive about the class (namely because I’ve never been a fan of hot classes), the room wasn’t uncomfortably hot and Hortense had a nice smile and charismatic energy about her paired with a ‘no-nonsense’ attitude. She seemed to know the names of many of the students and was quick to offer words of encouragement.
Combining an interesting mix of sequencing from Dharma Mittra to pilates, we were challenged with things like vrksasana and pinchamayurasana, prasarita padottanasana into tripod headstand, and had an option to do a full wheel. There was even time for a few seated postures and twists. Hortense also played a nice combination of music that kept the class moving.
The one thing that I would have liked to have seen at the beginning was a warm up reminding the beginning students how to protect their lower back from the multiple back arches we did throughout the class from the beginning and a reinforced reminder throughout class. In lieu of an unsual seated breath exercise it perhaps would have been more useful to bring the attention to lengthening the lumbo-sacral junction while opening the upper back.
While there was no spiritual aspect brought into the class, for an hour-long fusion class Hortense struck a nice balance between asanas and ‘exercises’, and I left feeling positive and energized, and for an hour long class, maybe that’s enough!
Tomorrow, Graham Burns class from 13:45-15:30 at the Life Centre, Notting Hill.
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