"Ab Work"

I was late this morning to my Sunrise Yoga class. Disgruntled about having to disrupt the initial meditation with the sound of my rain coat and boots. Luckily the teacher was talking about his excitement for the pain our abdominals are going to feel today. Going on about how this class is going to be so hard and how excited he is about it made me even more frustrated.
Starting out my class in the wee hours of the morning frustrated was not my ideal. I would have rather stayed in bed than listen to the ab work we were going to go through. Instead of starting the class with some opening postures (we just got out of bed and a night's sleep) we started in dolphin. As my tight shoulders inhibited me to be able to 'relax' into the posture I was second guessing ever coming back to this teacher's class again.
"5...4...3..3 1/2...2...1...rest"
I opted out of the numerous sets of crunches we were instructed to do. I spent them in child's pose and other times downward dog. It frustrates me that flows are getting interrupted by the count of sit-ups and the breath is lost while trying to "hold it for 30 seconds." I wonder what Iyengar would think of our "ab-work." In his book of Yoga his own belly doesn't make it seem like he would care.
Flowing through you poses and meditation is more important than what your abs look like. If you care about your middle then go to Pilates or a core class; but please don't try to incorporate it into my mediation. Vinyasa flow classes are taking out warrior 2 and replacing the crunch. Studios are turning into gyms. I have nothing against gyms but I usually don't go there to relax and mediate.
So this was my rant against corporate yoga. I won't even start to go into my "pay period" or my "membership account." That will have to be next time

Unbrand Yoga...A grass roots yoga initiative