Author Archives: Lucy Bannister

A bee sitting on a flower

Hum like a bee to reduce stress and boost your immune system

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As autumn descends it’s not just our heating we need to switch on but also our immune systems. We are about to be bombarded with cold and flu germs. Add to that the end of the holiday season, meaning more work, and most likely, more stress, and you can see why people start to dread the change of seasons.

Amazingly there is a yogic breathing technique, known as a pranayama, that can tackle all these problems (except the weather, sorry). The ‘humming bee’ breath or Brahmari breath helps to alleviate stress and insomnia, lower blood pressure and boost the immune system!

How does it work?

Brahmari breath stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system helping to relax body and mind, and that combined with the positive effect it has on the endocrine system, which is responsible for the vitality of your immune system, means that it offers a whole range of benefits through one simple technique.

A minute of working with this breath will leave you feeling soothed and calmed so it can have great results when used to treat insomnia. And if you already have a cold you can adjust the pitch of your hum to relieve and clear the sinuses.

How to do it?

  • Find a comfortable, upright seating position
  • Breathe in
  • As you breath out, begin to hum gently, keeping the exhalation slow and steady
  • You should notice the sound reverberating in your head
  • Adjust the pitch of the hum to reach the nose, throat and sinuses if needed

Practice for a minute to begin with and then see if you can build up to longer. You don’t need to spend ages humming but doing it regularly will really help.

If you have, or would like, a meditation practice you can use this as a preparation breath. For those that find meditation difficult you can start with this breath as a meditation in itself, as the sound occupies that busy mind.

For mums-to-be

And if all that wasn’t enough it is fantastic for mums-to-be, and is recommended throughout pregnancy. Benefits include helping to reduce labour times as the stimulation of the pituitary gland can stimulate contractions once labour has started. The calming, soothing effect of the breath is also fabulous for the baby; practice this regularly during pregnancy and you will be able to use the humming post-natal to soothe and calm your little one.

Want to give it a go in class?

I introduced Brahmari breath in my classes this week and we will be continuing to work with it for a while, so if you’d like to give it a go in a group then come along to one of my classes. All my classes are open to beginners and are suitable for pregnancy (after 14 weeks).

Tuesdays 7pm

Vauxhall Gardens Community Centre
5 Glasshouse Walk, London SE11 5ES
£7 per class
7 – 8.15pm

Wednesdays 6pm and 7:30pm

Westminster Quaker Meeting House, Covent Garden
Elizabeth Fry Room, 52 St Martin’s Lane, WC2N 4EA.
Please use the side entrance at 8 Hop Gardens
£10 per class, loyalty discounts available.
6 – 7.15pm and 7.30 – 9pm

Classes in Walthamstow re-start on 31 October and new classes in Peckham coming soon. Subscribe to my mailing list for the latest news.

 

Lucyoga feature in the Southwark Weekender

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I am delighted to have a lovely feature about my yoga classes in Peckham in this month’s Southwark Weekender - the free newspaper that is distributed across the borough of Southwark. The last Rooftop Yoga class is this Saturday and there are just a couple of spaces left for the October classes in a secret Peckham venue! So book now if you would like to join in, or subscribe to my mailing list for the latest news on my mission to find an early morning class venue.

Image of the feature on Lucyoga in the Southwark Weekender newspaper

View a PDF of the Weekender feature

Thanks to Laura Burgoine for the article and to Holly Whittaker for her fantastic photos of Rooftop Yoga.

"Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you return to your work your judgement will be surer" (Leonardo Da Vinci)

Covent Garden classes every Wednesday 6 and 7:30pm

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Every Wednesday 6 – 7.15pm
and 7.30 – 9pm
Westminster Quaker Meeting House, St.Martin’s Lane

“A lovely class, and definitely one to consider adding to
your yoga repertoire if you haven’t already. It was different to
others I have tried and I felt nicely stretched rather than aching
as I often do after other types of yoga. However, my mind was just
as peaceful, if not more so than usual, and I felt a connection
from my head to my toes, and my brain to my breathing. It stood the
test of the schlep back through Covent Garden as well, so something
was definitely right with this class!”
Read more from Carly’s, aka Project Hot Bitch,
review

Venue:
Elizabeth Fry Room, Westminster Quaker Meeting House, St.Martin’s
Lane, 52 St Martin’s Lane, WC2N 4EA.
Use the side entrance at 8 Hop Gardens
(please note that there is a lot of scaffolding around Hop Gardens
but full access to the building is still available. Look out for
Gymbox - Hop Gardens is just to the left side of their front door)

Normal class price:
£10 drop-in or buy a
six class loyalty card for just £50 (valid for eight weeks)
Please book before attending your first
class.

People practicing Dru Yoga in Peckham, south east London

Free yoga in Peckham

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Presented by Pocket Places Peckham and Lucyoga

Wednesday 4 September
7am, 8am and 9am

Holly Grove Park, Peckham
(Next to Peckham Rye Station, behind Rye Lane McDonald’s)

30 minute FREE outdoor yoga sessions. Mats will be provided so you just need to turn up and take part. Dru Yoga is suitable for all abilities, shapes and sizes and you can even wear your normal clothes.

Why #PocketPlaces?

Pocket Places Peckham is a project set up by Sustrans to put unused pockets of land around Rye Lane in Peckham to community use. When I saw this project tweeting I knew I wanted to get involved. It’s aims and ideas align closely to art projects I have undertaken in the past and I still have a real passion for working in what I term ‘orphaned’ spaces - areas of land or buildings that are not exactly abandoned but have lost their sense of community ownership.

Since starting the Rooftop Yoga classes on the top floor of the Peckham Multi-Story Carpark I have become very aware as to how unusual, and special, practicing yoga in an open, urban space is. However a class that costs £9 is not accessible to everyone, and being up high on the roof means we are a bit removed from day-to-day life down on Rye Lane.

Street level yoga

So the scene was set to undertake what Hannah from Pocket Places is calling a ‘provocation’ - trying out alternative ways of using the spaces. Utilising one of the six zones identified during the Pocket Places consultation period I’ll be taking my yoga mats down to street level and offering free yoga classes to whoever wishes to take part.

I am hoping that this will give people who otherwise would not not have thought to try yoga an opportunity to do so. If you are a yoga aficionado then I hope you’ll come along too, to try something new.

Additionally yoga is not something you see round the back of McDonald’s everyday of the week, so this is going to be something a bit different for Rye Lane. I hope that people will stop by and ask about what we are doing and why, and see that this mindful, peaceful practice has a place in the heart of our community.

If you would like to join us then just bring yourself to the small park next to Peckham Rye Station either at 7, 8 or 9am. The sessions will last 30 minutes and I will provide mats (you can bring your own if you wish).

Slow sign on the road with shadow of person doing Tree posture

I teach slow yoga

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London is fast. Everything moves quickly - people dart from work to pleasure, fuelled by caffeine and the latest superfood smoothie. We walk fast, we cycle fast, we run down the escalator and push past people to get on the tube, we jay walk and jump red lights. We even try to drive fast, although that is usually futile.

Slow yoga?

I never even thought about whether the yoga I taught was fast or slow until I moved to London. But after a few months of teaching here I have become very aware of the distinction.

In a fast-paced high-stress lifestyle it is almost inevitable that those seeking respite from their routine will do so in fast and dynamic exercise. And there is nothing at all wrong with that - the intensity of the training helps to distract the busy mind, the sweat feels like an instant detox, ridding the body of the stimulants and tension that have built up through the day. I too use dynamic workouts as part of my fitness programme.

But I don’t teach dynamic yoga, or fast yoga. I teach slow yoga. And I do so for a very good reason.

Through focused, slow(er) movements the body is able to stretch, flex and tone. The mind calms, becoming aware of its connection to the body and finally has chance to understand the barrage of physical sensations it is constantly receiving.

That doesn’t mean that we stand still for a whole class. Not at all. Most of my classes will involve salsa, latin or disco warm-ups and flowing sequences keep the body moving. But essentially my classes are about slowing down, finding stillness in the mind and allowing the body to move with awareness and sensibility.

Slow yoga is about giving your mind and body breathing space in the day to build strength and resilience inside and out, which you can then take with you out of the class and into the speedways of London town.

Where can I try it?

If you want to give it a try I teach across London. My evening classes in the heart of Covent Garden return from 11 September. I will be running two classes on Wednesday evenings in the Quaker Meeting House - one at 6pm and the other at 7.30pm. Normal price is £10 per class but during September you can get your first class for just £5.

I also teach in Vauxhall, Peckham, Whitechapel and Walthamstow. See my class timetable for more information.

And you still have a few weeks left to experience slow yoga on a rooftop, looking out over our beautiful, busy city, observing it from your very own still point. Book now for Rooftop Yoga in Peckham

A dose of Orange Theory

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Gyms. Like Marmite you either love them or you hate them. I adore Marmite but I am not a fan of gyms. I’ve tried a few times but I always end up just using the swimming pool. In truth I find them uninspiring, too loud and far too sweaty!

So I guess it was surprising that I was quite excited when I headed off to the new David Lloyd Studio gym in Islington (previously Sequin Park Women’s Gym) to try out the latest fitness craze - Orange Theory group training.

Having spent the week bopping around in my living room to a vintage vinyl workout, this training method from the States was probably going to be a bit of a shock!

All Mod Cons

In a high-tech room decked out with banks of brand new rowing machines and treadmills my group, who are varying between being evidently confident in this environment to seeming somewhat confused, is split into two. One half works on the treads, the other on the floor. At half-time we switch over.

Each participant has a heart monitor strapped around their chest (ladies, make sure you have a comfortable sports bra on or this will not be pleasant) which monitors whether you are in the ‘Orange Zone’ or not. Your readings are being displayed up on TV screens so you, and the personal trainers, can keep an eye on how you are doing.

Keep on running

I spent the first half hour on the treadmills and was pleasantly surprised that it was quite fun. The personal trainer was constantly challenging us to up the pace, or slow down for rest periods, meaning the whole group was working together. Some were power walking (me), and others were running (how do they do that for half an hour!?), but that didn’t matter as we all had to build up and slow down as a group.

Get on the floor

The second half was spent on the rowers (more fun) and doing floor based exercises with suspension straps, free weights and steps. I found this quite confusing - my brain just doesn’t get exercises that quickly and I had to keep hoping someone else was on the same set of repetitions as me so I could copy them.

Maybe in time I would get it but by then I was feeling a bit knackered and sweaty and like a slightly flailing and difficult child (admittedly I had never previously even picked up a set of free weights). Plus I was a bit dispirited that I hardly went into the Orange Zone. I couldn’t work out if this was me being a bit crap at pushing myself, or if I was just fitter than I realised!

I’d like to see if with some familiarity I could grasp the floor exercises a bit better. I didn’t get on with the suspension ropes at all, which was a shame as they looked like fun.

Feel good factor

And I did feel good after, once I’d stopped sweating (which took a while!). In keeping with the claims made about the format, it was surprisingly energising, something I’ve not experienced when I’ve been trying to work my own way around a gym. The group work was motivating and I liked being able to share raised eyebrows or companionable remarks with the others.

So how does this work in relation to my yoga practice? Well I couldn’t see much of the influence of yoga in the workout itself, other than the runner stretches in the floor work, but I did appreciate not being all out, all of the time, and working within my limits (you are advised not to stay in the Orange Zone for too long at first).

It was an unexpectedly good companion to the yoga in my day (I managed to nip off and go and teach a class straight after my workout), and I could see myself enjoying the challenge of a few weeks of this in order to achieve a specific training goal. Especially if I could convince someone to pay for it for me!

Students doing the side bend from the Dru Yoga EBR1 sequence on a rooftop in Peckham

Why choose Dru?

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A lot of my students have never tried Dru Yoga before. I get asked a lot about what makes it different and what the classes are like, which is great because choosing the right style of yoga for you is really important.

But sometimes I find that my students explain it the best. I asked one of my Rooftop Yoga students, Gail Schock, what it is about Dru that has had her come back week after week. I was particularly interested as I know that Gail does a lot of cardio fitness and yoga, including more dynamic forms such as Hot Yoga.

Gail’s response was so eloquent and beautiful that I wanted to write a special blog post for it.

“Dru Yoga, particularly on a rooftop, adds a remarkable stillness to life, heightened with a stunning panoramic view of London this practice is one that will challenge in ways perhaps a little more unusual to yoga.

It’s not a practice that demands immediate strength, the content isn’t rounds of sun salutations and repeated warriors, leaving thighs burning and a nose that drips with sweat. This practice is gentle, soft and slow, movement is measured and teases tension from the body.

Dru encourages a heat in the body, it builds increasing flexibility and gentle strength. It feels a little like a mixture of T’ai Chi and dance. Flowing sequences enable the body and mind to relax, release tension and to shift energetic blockages.

This might be one of two things, those that believe in the auric field might sense a shift, those that recognise shoulders wrapped up around the ears and a cramped lower back will feel space in the muscles as the class unfolds.

Dru Yoga is a wonderful practice to compliment other styles and there are movements which can easily be incorporated into day-to-day life.

Whatever your pace of life, give Dru a chance, it might surprise you.”

Follow Gail on Twitter or Instagram to join her on a journey to live clean and create positive body changes.

A journey into vintage and orange hued fitness…

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Having tried the #Fitin5 workout I am now quite intrigued. There is a whole world of fitness out there that I am yet to explore. So with this in mind I have been investigating some other fitness techniques to complement my daily yoga practice, not least to make sure I am ready for my personal training session with Susan Dyson at the Hiitgirl studio!

It’s early days but this week I dug out this vintage gem from Felicity Kendal.

Front cover of Shape Up and Dance with Felicity Kendal

I found it when the Quaker Meeting House in Covent Garden were having a clear out prior to their summer refurbishment. One Wednesday after my yoga class I had a rummage in their give-away boxes and came up trumps with this 1981 vinyl treasure. You might well laugh but it’s actually a pretty good work-out and fun (booty shuffling to Bucks Fizz!). Lots of yoga influence on the moves in there too, much to my surprise.

And today I am going to the complete opposite end of the spectrum to try out the very latest in high intensity group training from America - Orange Theory. No I have no idea what this is either. But it’s orange so it’s got to be worth a shot, right?

I’ll report back on the Orange Theory after my free VIP press taster session at the new David Lloyd studio gym in Islington this afternoon. Apparently the person who created it was a yoga and Pilates teacher so I’m going to be looking out for that influence whilst trying not to crumple in a heap in front of lots of scary media peeps.

Wish me luck!

I won #Fitin5!

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A month ago I decided to see how far my body had really come over the last few months and take on a fitness challenge set by Hiitgirl Susan Dyson and Sweaty Betty.

I embarked on the challenge with determination but also a lot of trepidation. As you will see in my previous blog I have had an interesting time with my health for many years.

One key thing I learnt over the years was to not push myself too much as this depleted my energy and healing ability. #Fitin5 was all about pushing yourself. Further, harder, faster than the day before. Yikes.

But I did it. Every day as promised. OK not quite, I had a day off because my lower back hurt but I did a 6 mile walk and a long wild swim instead…but I think that’s pretty good going.

I documented the journey in pictures as well as reps - I took the challenge on holiday with me to the stunningly beautiful hills and beaches of Wales and Ireland, it was fantastic to do my exercises on the beach then dive into the ocean for a refreshing swim.

Below is my photo album of locations, and you can read all my scores in the comments on my initial blog.

Thanks to Susan and Sweaty Betty for setting the challenge and to all those who joined in - the competition was fierce! I am still shocked to have won - I really mean it when I say I don’t think I’ve ever won a sporting challenge before.

Winning aside I learnt that my body IS strong enough, that my resolve is rock-solid and that I do know how to listen to my body well enough to be able to push it a little further each day. So that’s the challenge now - to keep this going. To keep pushing, to keep getting stronger.

Tomorrow I’m off to spend my vouchers and then in a month or so I get to go and join Susan in her new Crouch End studio for a personal training session. I am little bit scared but hopefully Susan isn’t as daunting as her challenges!

#Fitin5 and how I’m learning to trust my body

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You may have noticed some tweets and other social media updates about something called #Fitin5. #Fitin5 is a high intensity workout set by Hiitgirl Susan Dyson and being championed by Sweaty Betty.

I have decided to join in on the two week challenge and see how I do. But first I want to share why I am doing this, and what it means to me.

I [don't] trust my body

Those who know me might think it a little unlike me to do something like this, and they wouldn’t be wrong. Well not about the old me, anyway. I didn’t used to trust my body, my energy or my strength anything like enough to do something so demanding. Now I do.

On November 23rd last year I had an operation. It was meant to be a quick day op to remove a lump. It turned out to be a bit more complicated. What they found was much, much bigger than they had seen on the scan.

Dismissed by the doctors…

What had been dismissed by doctor after doctor as being ‘all in my head’ turned out to be all in my abdomen. Well a rather large amount of it anyway. So no it wasn’t anxiety, depression, attention seeking (!), Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, phantom pregnancies, or as I had been told since I was 10 – IBS. In fairness it is apparently very rare, certainly for the lump (a remnant of a rudimentary foetal reproductive system that should have dissolved away) to be as big and problematic as it was. I couldn’t even find much about it on Google.

But it explained an awful lot – I knew now why my body, my general health and immune system suffered so much. The years of dogged struggle against such deep seated chronic pain that my brain had stopped recognising the cause and just registered it as deep, deep tiredness. And then there was the acute searing pain each day, which I’d had since I was a child and had become second nature – I thought everyone had it, but apparently not! No wonder Sitting Forward Bends hurt so much.

Recovery

It’s taken a few months to recover from the operation, and for my body to recover from years of being dragged down by pain. The lump was just one of a number of challenges my health has faced. I have, and will continue to, nurture my mind and body with Dru Yoga, but now I am ready to reap the rewards of years of determination to be healthy.

I have jumped feet first into running my yoga business, giving up the desk job to focus on my teaching. And yesterday I saw a picture of me practicing yoga. It took my breath away – who was that lady with the definition in her arms, legs and torso? Who was that person who could lithely stretch into an extended runner? Surely not me!?

Lucy doing yoga on the rooftop in Peckham

You are strong

I used to hate living in my body, my skin didn’t fit and every touch was painful. Anyone who has had an injury or illness which has taken away their strength and replaced it with tiredness and pain will be able to understand how horrible it is. But now I know I CAN trust it. I can build its strength and I can achieve things I never thought possible.

Having seen how far I have come I want to see if I go a bit further. Taking it easy of course, I’ve not got here without learning to love my body, work with it and listen to it when it says no!

Completing the #fitin5 reps in the park this morning did hurt a bit but it was exhiliarting. I can feel my muscles, not because they hurt, but because they are stretched and strong.

Want to join me? Watch the video and then post your reps below – don’t forget to share them with Sweaty Betty too.