Tonight was the best yoga class I’ve had in a long time. My injuries are subsiding, and I don’t feel like I need to back off. Just the opposite — I need to go deeply into the poses. Tonight I was ON! My breathing was steady, my attitude was right, and my body was cooperative. It was a true level II-III Flow class, and I was flowing right along with it!

It was pretty warm in the studio, which really helped. We did lots of hip opening lunges, built heat with lots of salutations, and did a ton of back bends. And, my back was bending!

The coolest thing for me was actually achieving “Bird of Paradise” pose.  No, I didn’t do as good a job as what you see in this photo, but I was able to squat down, wrap my arms & complete the bind. And, on one side I was able to hold the bind and stand up. I didn’t get my leg as perfectly upright as the link photo, but the fact that I got into the bind (on both sides) and was able to fully stand on one side is a huge accomplishment for me. (On the other side I sort of stood up, but I broke the bind & it all fell apart from there.)

What’s so cool about this for me, mostly, is the binding. I have a history of shoulder problems, which yoga has really helped alleviate. I have great rotation & strength in them now. YAY!

To get into this pose, after a lot of shoulder & hip work to warm them up is squat, wrap your shoulder under your leg and rotate it around. Wrap the other arm up & over to meet the one “under”. Connect. If you connect, stand into the “bound” leg. Lift the other leg. Stand up. And, if you get this far, do what the guy in the photo’s doing, if you can. Someday I will. Diane promises to work on this one on Mondays through September, so I hope to be pretty solid in it by then. Wish me luck!

We also did Bow, which is a pretty fun and invigorating pose for me — most backbends are in their fiery ways. Diane came along and gave me a slight lift in my chest, which gave me that much more stretch into the pose.

After class, I was very loopy. My clothes were also soaked through — something that hasn’t happened in weeks because I’ve been backing off to allow my groin to heal up. Still, we went to the pub next to the studio for dinner. I ordered a celebratory beer, but didn’t even really want it. Water & food was way mo-betta!

I’m enthused to hit tomorrow’s flow class as well. I can’t wait!

Workout:

  • Type: Flexibility
  • Date: 08/27/2007
  • Time: 17:45:00
  • Total Time: 1:30:00.00