One More Week

I started out well in today's class.  I got really, reeeeaaaally far into Half Moon and the first Back Bend, which was lovely because it usually takes me a while to warm up and those two postures normally hurt quite a bit. I pushed my hips out to the side and pulllled my arms up and over and felt only a deep stretch.  Unfortunately, it all went downhill from there. 

I must have been tired today--tired from lack of sleep and leftover muscle fatigue from Tuesday's class (which was amazing, but totally kicked my butt).  I wanted to strive, I wanted to improve, but just didn't have it in me today.  The worst offenders were my hip flexors and quads.  I had a lot of trouble locking my legs and kicking out during both the bow poses, which was so disappointing because I rarely have any trouble with Floor Bow.  My rockstar cred was somewhat diminished in today's practice.

Then after Eagle, I nearly choked on my water and my poor sad throat was sore for the rest of the class, which made breathing (and therefore concentrating) rather difficult.  I nearly fell on my face after Standing Separate Leg Stretching because I wasn't concentrating on locking out my legs and dumped weight into my head. Boo! Expert tip: Don't do that.  Keep pulling on your feet and refrain from putting any weight on your head, just graze the floor.  Good news, though--I brought my legs in a little bit closer and still got my head all the way to the floor.  There's always a bright side, right?

Positive Posture: Seated Stretching Posture

Like I said last time, my hamstrings are gradually loosening with regular practice, at least with forward folds.  They still need a lot of work with stretching away from each other, like in Standing Bow, but I am noticing less and less resistance with all of the Hands to Feet postures.  This one comes at the very end of practice, when everything is all warm and noodly.  I stretched and pulled and felt like I could almost graze my feet with my forehead.  I'm sure I actually did nothing of the kind, but after a frustrating practice, it was really nice to end on a more positive note, especially one with a delicious stretch to my legs and spine.

Struggle Pose:  Standing Balancing Forehead to Knee
Yuck.  That's all.

Okay, with the aforementioned muscle fatigue, neither the standing nor the kicking leg wanted to lock out for long.  I think I did get to the fullest expression of the posture, but only held it for about 0.5 seconds.  I think after another, more productive day of rest tomorrow, I should be ready to work on Saturday.

Now I'm warm and comfortable on the couch, with a purring kitty working the kinks out of my stomach (or would be if I had any).  Who couldn't love a face like that?  Even if it is in the sink.

I'll hit the sack early tonight, do some serious relaxing tomorrow, and look forward to better practices this weekend.

Until Saturday!

-Allie