356: ostrich and arm balance

75 minutes: forrest yoga

last night, i went to the studio for yoga tuesday. the class i chose had my usual instructor, but she changed the format from being a vinyasa 1/2 class to forrest yoga.

forrest yoga was developed by ana forrest. the forrest yoga philosophy begins:

Forrest Yoga is renowned as an intensely physical and internally focused practice that emphasizes how to carry a transformative experience off the mat and into daily life.  The practice challenges students to access their whole being and to use Forrest Yoga as a path to finding and then cleansing the emotional and mental blocks that dictate and limit their lives.  Students cultivate an acute awareness of their own practice and life process, creating a unique and powerful opportunity for them to make practical life decisions based on their own experiences. 

 the intention, in my understanding, is to overcome adversity and build power through yoga. the intention for our class last night was self-acceptance. i had read an article in yoga journal earlier in the day that talked about slowing down and not using momentum through transitions, but to focus on proper form and then adjust. i kept that inside as my own intention. to move mindfully through transitions.

in this class, i found two new poses that i've never done (or have never been able to do) before.

first, ostrich. it's called ostrich because you look like you're putting your head in the sand.

credit: the joy of yoga

from warrior 2, you turn to face your open side. then, interlace the fingers behind you and being careful not to stick you butt out for balance, lean into a forward bend and let the arms pull away. the tricky part is staying balanced over your legs and not tipping forward or back. amazing.

second, an arm balance.

starting again in warrior 2, plant your hands on the open side like you would in plank pose. then, lean into the hands like pulling into plank position. on the first side, i had to stay here. but on the second side, i was able to balance on my left hand and right foot and grab my left foot with my right hand and balance for a moment or two.

my first arm balance. i am so proud of myself right now!

yoga tuesday: relaxing the shoulders

V, my older daughter, at times, struggles to figure out ways to calm herself down in the face of whatever it is (usually not getting what she wants). each evening, we take deep breaths together and recently we started connecting motion with our breath. we take 5 deep breaths in and 5 deep breaths out. we breath in when our arms go up and out as our arms come back to our sides. for the last one, we bring our hands to pray position before hopping into bed for books.

this is great for evening, but i wondered if the yoga instructor for the class i attended tonight had any suggestions. she has a little girl who will be 3 in a couple of months. she was very thoughtful with me and suggested doing many things that we already do- use my breath as a model, use the abc yoga deck, intersperse activity with periods of rest. she also suggested bringing her to family yoga. it might be a good way to give her more tools to put in her toolbox for when she's on her own. having the muscle memory could really help.

the only trouble is that it's offered once a month. good luck remembering when that is...

after our chat, class got started and we mainly focused on moving our shoulders away from our ears. each pose and each series of motions had a component of drawing away and back with the intention of relaxing instead of gripping or forcing.

somewhere in the middle, we did a series over and over, each of us following our own breath, moving between warrior 2, reverse warrior, triangle, side angle and back to warrior 2. it was kind of amazing. more like dancing than yoga.

i'm going to try it with V one of these days. i think she'll really like the rhythm of the flow.

back to back fitness

for yoga tuesday this week i attended our on-site zumba class with a handful of co-workers. the class lasted a very short 45 minutes. for me, i felt much less awkward than the first time i participated. i don't know if it was because i knew the moves a little better or if i just felt better generally. regardless, my arms felt sore this morning from all that pumping and punching.

from yoga journal

then, this morning, i rolled out of bed with the full intention of a good 30 or 45 minutes of practice, but instead ended up cleaning up cat puke. and then following the cat around the house as she continued to puke in various rooms. awful.

eventually, i managed to find a little cat-puke-free space and practice for about 10 minutes. i started with a couple sun salutations, then moved through warrior 2, side angle pose and triangle on each side. using vinyasa to transition, i ended with pigeon pose, seated forward bend and cobblers pose. i tried to sit quietly at the end of my practice, but i just couldn't let the thoughts move past.

stupid cat.

binding, binding, binding

90 minutes - vinyasa 1/2

finally, i made it back to the studio after moving. i have practice precisely once since we actually moved homes primarily because working, having two children and unpacking is a lot like have 2-3 full time jobs. i fall into the bed every night and take every spare minute in the morning to collect sleep.

this morning, however, i committed to the studio. i'm so glad i did. it took me a minute to warm up, but the whole practice revolved around warrior 2 and moving from warrior 2 to a variety of other positions.

my milestones today include binding in 2 positions that i've never been able to manage before. first, the yogic squat. basically, you squat with your knees and ankles pointing the same direction (for me, slightly outward) and put your hands in prayer position. (my girlfriend taught me how to sit like this almost 20 years ago because it's how the old korean ladies sit in the market.) then somehow the instructor got me into the bind- one arm under and one arm behind. i've never done that before.

then, the second bind came right after. we were in side angle pose and i made it into the bind there as well. except i couldn't hold it for the whole time. i don't know how many breaths we were taking, but i made it about half way through. i guess that's what i get for not practicing for 3 weeks.

still, i'm pretty proud of my progress.

day 19: condensed full practice

30 minutes - quick essential poses

this morning, i feel like we took a full practice and crammed it into 30 minutes. we started with 3 sun salutations, did a couple standing poses (warrior 2 and triangle), balanced in mountain, transitioned into seated poses and ended in hero.

for me, i would have chosen a different series of poses, but the flow made sense. i just didn't care for the seated poses we did. apparently so much so that i can't remember what they were. meh.

maybe instead of doing an online class, i'll take some time this evening to design my own practice. i bet i can come up with a series that takes 30 minutes, follows a similar pattern and takes the path i want to take.

maybe that will be my challenge within my challenge. do you have any tips for planning a practice?

day 16: better than coffee

30 minutes - vinyasa flow

better than coffee? i'm not so sure about that, but i will say i felt more awake when i finished than when i started. this was the most active practice i've done in about a week and it felt good.

from yoga journal

in all truthfulness, i couldn't actually manage a couple of the poses. standing split? at 5:45am? nope. camel pose? i didn't even know what this was. apparently, one kneels, then lengthens through the torso, then leans back and grab's one's ankles. not happening. (proper instructions can be found at yoga journal.)

it felt good to get moving  and even though i really, really didn't want to get out of my nice warm bed and wander downstairs to find my mat, i'm glad i did.

day 9: upper back and shoulders

30 minutes - vinyasa for athletes

not being an athlete, i feel i may not have benefited as much from this class as say, a footballer, but i do have tight shoulders and this certainly worked out those areas. it is the first proper level 2 class i've done since i started the 30 day yoga challenge and i think it's safe to say that i'm not quite there yet. i got totally out of breath and couldn't get as deep into the poses as i would have liked.

we did one section that started in warrior 2 and keeping my legs in that stance, i brought my right arm up toward my head with my arm bent and my left arm pulled my elbow back. it was a great stretch, but we held it for so long that my arms started to tingle and now my right arm is still tingling. that was an unanticipated outcome.

on the whole, it was a good morning practice. this morning, i really wanted to stay in bed and skip it altogether. i'm glad i didn't.