Day 6 Ouch!

I walk into the studio ready to kill it thinking I'm on a roll.. class #6!  Alright!   I sign up and the guy says "Wow…this is only your 6th class…you have a long way to go" Thanks…that's the pep talk I needed!  No problem…Not going to let that bother me…I got this.  After yesterday's class I am going to have complete focus and determination.  Cute shorts…check. Cute top…check.  Looking good…no distractions.  As class starts I can feel myself getting into the zone…feeling it and working hard….knees are closer to locking, thighs not shaking so much, stomach muscles tucked in and tight.  Standing sequence complete!  Floor series starts….doing good….remembering "rock" lesson and squeezing inner thighs and knees together moving slowly into the postures to get them just right.  Head to knee pose and stretching pose comes.  Just to back track a little I have an old sports injury.  If I overstretch through my sternum and intercostal cartilage something weird happens…some sort of overstretch response I guess…not a doctor.  Anyway my ribcage and sternum feel like they are contracting and won't expand and I can't breathe deeply or lay down.  I have to be very careful when stretching to not pull too fast or too hard.  So I am very careful in camel and all those other obvious chest openers.  But who would have thought that I could injure this area in head to knee and stretching pose?!  Not me obviously.  Because wouldn't you know second to last posture and BAM!…I feel it.  I pulled my chest forward too hard.  Ouch! Immediately after class I take some anti-imflammatories to hopefully stop this from becoming a legitimate injury.   I am going to keep loading up on the ibuprofen and I guess we'll see what happens….not happy.

Day 5 You again?

Day 5.  It's the small victories.  The best thing about tonight's class was my exit out of the second set of rabbit.  Rabbit and I are not friends…  My spine is not as flexible bending forward as I would like and I find rabbit pose to be very challenging. But none the less I give it a go and struggle hard to breath and round my spine, but as hard as I try my forehead still does not touch my knees.  I finally heard….(I'm sure they have been saying this the entire time, but this is the first time I really "heard"it) …pull hard on your heels as you come out of rabbit really making room and stretching your spine.  For a brief moment I felt my spine opening just the slightest amount.  Victory!  Subject change. I am really tired of looking at myself in the mirror.  I had a really difficult time concentrating in class today.  I was very distracted by my yoga shorts.  I looked around and feel quite self conscious suddenly.  There were only a few of us that have on shorts made for bikram.  Most had on long pants….no idea how they do that.  So hot!  Should I also be wearing long pants?  I used to think my bikram shorts were cute.  But having only two pairs alternately every other day I am getting tired of seeing them over and over again even though it's only been a few days.  I go online shopping in my head during class wondering what cute shorts I can get and how long it will take them to get here and what brand I should buy…slying looking around to see what some of the other girls are wearing for comparison.  Then my top comes into view…I have only two cotton tanks that I also alternate.  I am really thinking that I should be investing more money in my yoga clothes at this point.  Should I? Is it worth it? Should I get the special tops made for sweat? Wait!  That's not what yoga is about is it? My head is full of words!  So during all of this my yoga goes on auto pilot.   But I finished the class with a small victory at least.  So much for my steadfast focus.  Maybe next time. 

Day 4 thinking hard

I am ready.  I am ready to implement all of the things I learned with the amazing, albeit somewhat humiliating, rock lesson.  Ready to stand up straight, not hyperextend my knees…squeeze the backs of my inner thighs and lock that knee!!  Tonight's class was a little difficult. I felt that maybe the teacher thought I was being lazy as I was taking extra time to get into the standing postures, but I was really focusing on getting my leg muscles working correctly. It's going to take some practice. My knees are still working on staying locked in the standing sequence and shaking like crazy in standing separate leg stretching!!  Sometimes my thighs shake so much I feel like everyone around me is watching and can feel the vibrations!!  But the shaking means I am trying!!   Next task, concentrating hard on my deep stomach muscles, pulling them in connecting them to my pubic bone….especially in standing separate leg head to knee pose.  Trying to keep my stomach muscles in tight while breathing when I'm bent over forward with my head on my knee is proving to be quite difficult! I still feel that over the few years I have been practicing I have made no progress in that posture.  The floor series was pretty good...thought about my knees and connecting my inner thighs to my pubic bone and stomach and lifting from the inside of my legs.  Not too much drama in this class….I was thinking a lot….probably over thinking a lot because I want to get it perfect.  Right?  Perfect like the girl who can do the splits in standing bow pose, or the one who can place her head on the floor in camel pose.  Even if I did a 1,000 day challenge I am probably never going to able to do that!  I will just keep doing what I can and see what happens…how far my body can go over time.  And trust me, if I ever am able to do either of those things I will post pictures for sure!!!!   

Day 3 Woop! Woop!

Day 3 finds me still stiff and sore but slowly regaining strength in my arms and legs…I'm feeling great about my classes so far and then I see the schedule.  The only class I can get to today is being taught by my nemeses…let's call him "Joe".  Just because I don't know any Joe's…don't want to offend anyone.  This requires a bit of a backstory…maybe a year or so ago I was taking a class with "Joe".  He is the instructor that will not let you adjust your towel, you may not wipe off sweat or drink water except for when says.  All of that is fine because I don't do those things…I don't fidget…I am focused….I thought "I got this, right"?  Wrong!  Apparently my triangle was not up to his satisfaction and rather than letting me take a well deserved savasana after two sets I had to do a third set of triangle!  What?!?  Who does that? So not a big fan of Joe.  Backstory complete.  I don't have a lot of free time so I have to go to yoga whenever I can squeeze it in…Joe's class it is.  I get there and set myself up…focused determined.  There are some newbies in class which is great because he's leaving me alone then. I am very focused as he talks about standing still in the waterfall of gravity.  Then we get to the floor series. I have some wonky knees that I thought were just built that way.  Apparently Joe thinks they need to be corrected.  I'm in locust and he puts a rock between my knees and says "don't drop it". The whole rest of the spine strengthening series I have to hold this rock between my knees!!  Every posture he would put it back in "don't drop it"!  I didn't drop it.  I almost cried….but I didn't drop it.  After class he came to me and gave me a very thorough lesson about my knees and my hips and how to correct the malalignment and helped me to learn to feel the muscles of my inner thighs and lift from there rather than rotating my hips and lifting with my outer glute muscles, how to stand and lock my knees without hyperextending them, and how to connect my inner thighs through my pubic bone up to my stomach muscles deep inside.  I learned that I have a lot of work to do….over the last three years no other teacher has ever noticed the issue or just didn't bother to correct it.  Thanks "Joe".    You Rock!!  ;)

Day 2!

Woke up feeling a bit sore and stiff from my first class. Felt those long lost back muscles that I had forgotten about. Hamstrings tight. But I knew that hot hot room would help to to stretch everything out again. I got to class early just to get warm and let my body feel the heat.  It was a pretty small class with an amazing teacher. Apparently she used to be a part of Bikram's teacher training team.  Just hearsay….maybe, maybe not.  But she's great!  I felt pretty good in class but a bit frustrated with my knees….I tell them to lock and my thighs to contract but they are not following orders.  So I stay in the beginning phase of 'standing head to knee' and a few others just waiting for my muscles to strengthen again…. its a lesson in humility and patience. I can only do as much as my body will allow at this point and I need to quiet my ego about I 'used to do'. The depth will come with time….I see it as a reward for hard work.  I had a heavy mouth breather next to me which really helped me to focus and calm my breath.  It was a tough hot class but I was able to calm my body and just breathe. At one point the instructor said this about breathing… "just tell your body it's okay….because it is okay".  One great thing about coming back from a long break is that instead of being a beginner and the teacher just saying a lot of words that you can't possibly do and think about all at once….now I am able to dissect them and really feel what it is my body is supposed to be doing.  I feel like even though I don't have the depth I am getting the "correctness" of a posture.  blah blah blah…..2 down/28 to go.  Good times! 

I must be crazy…..

So….Let me just start by saying I have been doing Bikram Yoga for a year fews.  I'm not that great at it.  I have taken a bit of a break over the past 3 months indulging on the good things in life and my body is definitely paying the price.  What better way to get back into shape than 30 days of hell in "Bikram's Torture Chamber"?!  That is a well deserved punishment for my over indulgence.

Yesterday was Day 1.  I always love when people post before and after photos so I can see the results but I am much to vain for that.  Let's just say that I don't look that good and I don't look that bad… So yesterday I spent the day hydrating and mentally preparing myself for the challenge ahead…I was pleasantly surprised that my first class went a bit better than I had imagined.  It was nice to see familiar faces welcoming me back….although silently judging me for my "new appearance"  (no….yogi's don't do that do they?!? ) Without the boring details I made it through and it felt good to sweat again…. I have lost some strength and flexibility of course….eating pizza on your couch is probably not going to make you stronger or more flexible…. But I held my head up high and focused on my postures and breathing and it felt good.  I am glad to be back.  I guess we will see if that holds true for class #2 in a few hours!!