Although it's tough to get enough motivation to attend a Saturday morning yoga class, I really love how I feel once it's done. I feel energized and satisfied that I don't have to procrastinate my workout for the rest of the day. What an accomplishment to get all my Saturday goals done before 2pm--with the rest of the day to spend at my leisure!
The other challenge with morning classes is that my body hasn't had the whole day to loosen and become limber. The stretching poses are a lot more difficult when I've only been up for a couple of hours. Luckily, I had Mr. Humidity to help me out with that today. I started tight, but the heat and high humidity sure helped me to loosen and get verrry deep into my postures today.
Positive Pose(s): Standing Bow and Floor Bow
You know you've had a good practice when you excel in more than one pose and today was just such a practice. I think the combination of the humidity and the early hour--since I wasn't quite awake enough to overanalyze anything--meant that I was able to reach and sustain very deep expressions of these two postures:
I've been complaining to Vicki that since I've been slacking on a regular practice, I was gradually getting worse at Standing Bow. My foot would cramp up, I couldn't lock my knee, my hamstrings were too tight, and any number of miscellaneous excuses for not being able to complete the posture. Even though today was only my third class in the challenge, I think my feet are already adjusting to balancing again--no cramping and very little falling over today. I felt like a rockstar in this pose today!
Regarding Floor Bow, I usually do pretty well in this posture. Well, I get my feet up pretty high, but have to think very hard about rotating my knees back in to keep them from splaying and then I fatigue pretty quickly. However today's magic combination or humidity and not thinking meant that I was able to keep my legs much straighter for much longer. Yay!
Struggle Pose: Half Moon
Ouch, this one hurt today :( After the first breathing exercise, this is the first posture in the series. By that time, I was still very stiff, especially in the waist, as it turns out. I was only able to get about half as far down as I usually do and even that was painful. Here's hoping I'll be looser by Monday evening's class and maybe haz inner peace like Yoga Cat:
He seems to be enjoying Half Moon more than I was today.
Vicki's been threatening to take come Week 1 vs. Week 4 photos of me in some of these poses, so next time I might have some pictures for you that I didn't just take off Google Images.
Maybe.
Looking forward to Kate's Yin/Yang class tomorrow!
-Allie
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