Thursday yoga was a small class, but we were a bunch of regulars. Diane tried out some different things with us, starting with a seated vinyasa that moved among seating poses such as forward bend, head to knee pose, seated twists, boat pose and cobbler. It was fun to do something different, and it definitely warmed up my hips quickly. We moved on to standing vinyasa, worked triangle in a few ways, did some pigeon and other “regulars”.

Then we moved to the wall and found our quads. I generally think mine are pretty open, but last night I found out how much more lose they could become with some focused work. With blankets and yoga mats under our knees, we placed one knee bent on the ground with our shin against the wall. The other knee was bent in a lunge in front of us. We leaned forward into the lunge for a bit. Then lifted up and rested our hands on our lunge knee. We worked toward leaning our heads back against the wall. Some of us, not me, were able to lift our hands above our head into somewhat of a warrior I upper body. Its quite the opener. I stayed focused on my quad work. This really isn’t a pose you would be okay falling out of & my quads were surprisingly tight and grumpy.

After this, we moved away from the wall and repeated the position with one leg in a lunge & the other leg bent behind us as it was at the wall. Using the arm opposite the leg behind us, we reached behind to grab the back foot, lifted up & did a forward lunge with a slight backbend and a quad stretch. I have trouble with the twisting action in this pose, so remembering that props are for pros I used a strap on one side. As is often true, the other side was different & I was able to form the pose without the strap.

When we were at the wall, we did a bit of headstand. I found I was able to lift up fairly quietly with out kicking. This is a huge accomplishment for me. I was also able to hold myself away from the wall, balancing without using it. I was thrilled. Now, as my headstand strength and balance continues to improve, I need to focus on better engaging my core while in headstand so my body doesn’t form a banana shape, which can be hard on the low back. I’m getting there!

We wrapped up with plough and shoulderstand. I’m really enjoying armless shoulderstand, where my arms are flat on the ground overhead. This “lever” shape allows me to lift my legs straight up out of plough into shoulderstand with out kicking, bending or slouching. It feels very dancelike, and I rarely feel graceful. Its sort of a treat.

Workout:

  • Type: Flexibility
  • Date: 11/29/2007
  • Time: 17:45:00
  • Total Time: 1:30:00.00