THIS month’s National Yoga Asana Championships, held at the Hudson Theatre in NYC, were a window into a whole other world of bendy. So what really separates the winners in the men’s and women’s categories from the rest of us wannabes? We asked them how they prepare, exactly how much green juice a person can get through in a month and what the ultimate mind body connection really feels like. Over to you, yogis.
HE WINS! Jared McCann, New York
Age: 32
Sign: Leo
Day job: Yoga teacher
Studio: Various, plus private clients. Will open his own studio later in 2013.
Practising since: 2005
CONGRATS ON WINNING. YOU WERE A KNOCK-OUT IN THE REGIONAL HEATS…
“I actually got a lot of flack for that performance. I wasn’t so focussed because I knew I had it in the bag, so I winked at my boyfriend in the audience, that kind of stuff!”
CHEEKY! HOW DO YOU GET IN THE ZONE ON THE DAY OF THE COMPETITION?
“I try to stay in the zone all the time! It’s just another day doing a yoga demo for me, because if I start thinking ‘I have to win this thing’, I end up just stressing myself out. On the day I stay quiet, I do meditate during the day, I do my asana practise to stay warm and keep my body loose…This year I had three students enter also, so actually I was way more worried about them. And my girl Talia won NYC, and came 5th in the Nationals and one of my guys came second in the regionals. And you know, I already won this thing last year, so I was more happy and excited that my students did so well.”
WHAT’S YOUR YOGI POWER FOOD TO GIVE YOU BENGAL TIGER STRENGTH FOR THE FINALS?
“I make my magic smoothie every morning, which is lots of spinach, a banana, some different strange powders I throw in…but I can’t say there’s anything I did differently that day. I don’t do yoga for the competition. I’m training and opening and strengthening my body to evolve myself, and to help other people improve their physical, mental and emotional health. I’m doing my thing all year long, the competition is just a snapshot of that. I think I’m different from the other competitors in that way.”
WHAT POSE HAS BEEN YOUR NEMESIS, AND HOW DID YOU FINALLY MASTER IT?
“Four years ago I saw an Indian competitor do the two poses I chose for the competition, the Handstand Scorpion and the One Arm Peacock, and I remember thinking; ‘I’ll never be able to do that. He’s probably been doing yoga his whole life…’ So those two are a signifier of ‘no limits’ for me – in my body and my mind, because now I do them, and I do them easily. It was definitely a questions of practise and more practise…although of course there was that time when I first touched my feet to my head in Scorpion, and it was like’ ‘Oh my god, THERE they are!’ But I don’t really think in terms of those benchmarks. It’s actually about finding more space in your chest, learning to tuck your tailbone more to traction your lower back. Lengthening your chin to stretch your throat. It’s more about all the little elements one should be feeling than the final expression of the posture. In the pose, I’m never thinking ‘touch my feet to my head, touch my feet to my head.’ I’m asking myself, ‘how does this feel and does it feel good?'”
IS THERE ANYWHERE YOU JUST CAN’T GO?
“I’m really working through my hips right now, and I avoided it for so long because for some reason that pain, of stretching my hips, was something I just could not bear. But I’m really into the idea of doing the thing you don’t want to do, or the thing you’re scared of, because that’s the cool thing about yoga. Tracking, why do I have this hip evasion? Hips are about moving forward, hips are sexual, hips are your stability in a lot of ways. Facing my hips has meant dealing with the pain, but it’s also been uncovering things to do with the way I was raised…all kinds of crazy stuff I’ve been able to explore and free up so I can be a happier, healthier functioning human being.”
WHAT’S YOUR TOP TIP FOR ANYBODY STUCK IN STANDING-HEAD-TO-KNEE POSE?
“Move really slow, and follow your eye gaze down to your big toe. And just, you know, don’t rush it. The pose is actually about all the little moments as you bring your head down, every step along the way.”
WHAT’S THE BEST PIECE OF ADVICE YOU CAN GIVE ANYBODY FOR DEEPENING THEIR PRACTISE?
“For your practise, be it ten minutes a day or four hours a day, utilise that time to be with yourself, and focus on letting the other stuff go. That’s when you’ll start to move forward and unlock your body, and your emotional and mental self, and your spirit. It sounds so cliched; ‘be present,’ but that’s when start to pick up on all sorts of cool things. Weird little thoughts that you didn’t even notice before were coming up whenever you did a backbend, the little freak outs. Ultimately what we all want to know is; ‘who are we?’ And yes we are all unlimited divine love, but what is that thing? A yoga practise is a wonderful opportunity for you to define that for yourself.”
SHE WINS! Gianna Purcell, 25, Texas
Age: 25
Sign: Sagittarius
Day job: Yoga teacher, drummer with Barefoot On Bumblebees
Studio: PURE Bikram Yoga, Austin, Texas
Practising since: 2006
HOW DO YOU PREPARE MENTALLY FOR THE COMPETITION?
“My mental preparation comes during my training in the months and weeks leading up to the competition. On the day itself, I always practise class to calm myself physically, which transfers to mental calmness. I don’t sit in stillness or anything before going on stage, but this year I definitely felt a sense of calm that I feel like I’d been practising for over all the years I’d competed up until that point.”
WHAT ARE YOUR YOGI POWER FOODS LEADING UP TO THE BIG DAY?
“I am a green juice connoisseur and I do smoothies and juices, with with maybe a tiny, tiny dinner at night, for about a month before a competition, with only juices for the two days before. If I feel my energy levels drop I chew on an avocado or some nuts, or I might add some coconut oil to my smoothies. During my intensive training period, I’m doing two classes a day with lots of homework in between. It’s hard to find time to sit down for a meal, and when I’m practising that intensely, my body is using all its energy to keep healing itself and going deeper, so I don’t want to waste energy digesting heavy food. When I’m purely on juices, I can feel my body more, so on stage it’s just about the postures and the breath.”
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHT PROCESSES GETTING INTO A POSTURE?
“Purely what is going on at that moment. I’m not ever thinking, ‘okay, here we go…’ I think about my keeping my breath consistent, and contracting my body. Outside of the postures, my mantra is ‘I love my healthy body.’ I try to say that at the end of all my classes, to thank myself for working for myself.”
HAS ANY ASANA EVER BEEN A PARTICULAR CHALLENGE FOR YOU?
“They’re all so hard! I don’t feel like I’ve mastered any of my postures, as there’s always a way to get deeper or mentally understand the pose better. Standing head-to-knee at the beginning of the series is always a trial, a test and a demonstration of your mental and physical strength. I know if I can demonstrate my confidence in that posture I’m going to have a good routine. I know that at that moment I have mastered my own self.”
SO WHAT’S YOUR CHAMPIONSHIP TIP FOR GETTING YOUR HEAD DOWN THERE?
“Embrace the excitement! It’s a scary thing at first to move your gaze away from the mirror, and the more excitement you have about reaching the next stage of your posture, be it getting your head down, keeping your head down, or releasing your hands with your head down…the better. As a teacher I get so excited for any student who starts to get their head down, I hope they can feel it!”
WHAT’S THE BEST ADVICE GENERALLY FOR DEEPENING YOUR PRACTISE?
“Going through class can bring up a lot of emotion, and at the end of class, even if you’ve been upset, or angry or frustrated the whole way through, you still have to be thankful and in love with yourself for your practise and what your body is doing for you.”
IS THERE ANYTHING YOU TAKE FROM YOUR YOGA PRACTISE INTO YOU DRUMMING?
“Yoga as a sport builds flexibility and strength, it makes you nimble, and in turn helps with focus and concentration – and the more agile and loose but strong I get, the more fluid and exact my drumming becomes. It’s been a really cool thing to see the shift in my drumming that occurred when I began my yoga practise.”
WHY DO YOU THINK COMPETITION IN YOGA IS IMPORTANT?
“The physical aspect of a yoga life is the postures – and if I choose to compete in this aspect of my life, I see myself as no different from an athlete in any other sport. The USA Yoga Federation trying to get into into the Olympics and demonstrated internationally is huge, because so many people, from all walks of life ,will see it, and may chose to adopt it. It’s super important when you think about the problems with childhood obesity, for example. There’s a shift towards a healthier lifestyle going on around the world, and yoga being demonstrated as a sport is helping things in that direction.”
