The saying You get what you pay for came to me in yoga today. It wasn’t what I’d paid for the class, but what I’d done to my body over the holidays that bubbled this one to my thoughts.

During the holidays, I wore heels, exhausting my feet. I didn’t exercise enough, tightening my usually limber muscles. I ate…and I ate….and I ate some more — some healthy, some very not healthy. Result = yoga was rough today. I had to work really hard to balance my mind while my body seized up now & again, breaking my breath balance and my flow.

The teacher for today’s only class is a hard one, and her classes are very different from most of my other teachers. I knew this going in today and was looking forward to it. She does loads of core exercises, which let’s face it, I need. She holds poses for a (relatively) long time, which I’m not used to. And she doesn’t do a lot of vinyasa, which I adore and crave. So, I had to put on my beginner’s mind hat and let it be.  I settled in and was ready for this as we started our opening meditation and breath practice.

Then, as I opened my eyes just after beginning meditation, just after the teacher had locked the door (indicating that late comers are too late to join the class), a woman is standing outside the window facing me, waving her arms like mad, insisting I give her my attention, demanding that I open the door for her.

Okay, first off, this is bad form. If you’re late and the door is locked, tough cookies. As an adult, didn’t you learn this by now? Next, it is really not cool to distract a yogi who is clearly just coming out of meditation and starting a practice. And, if the teacher locked the door, do you think a student should really interrupt the teacher to tell her to let in a late comer? I shrugged my shoulders, broke her gaze, trying not to be annoyed, and settling quietly back into my in-progress practice.

THEN she started pounding on the door! The teacher got up to stop her. She did let the woman in. Actually, I don’t think she could have kept her out without a baseball bat. This woman was about to push her over to get into the class. Okay, so maybe she needed a yoga class, but geez, I was not impressed by her behavior.

Okay everybody breathe, right? So I did. I didn’t think about rude lady again until I started writing. I was too busy trying to keep up in class to concern myself with the past.

Okay, maybe I was thinking a bit about the past. Everytime my foot cramped up or my IT-band cramped up, I released a pose to stretch or massage out the cramp, mildly cursing myself for neglecting my body over the past few days.

And, class was hard! If you know what chatauranga is, have you ever held yourself 1/2 way down in it for 3-5 breaths? Have you ever done it in reverse? No. Well imagine getting into plank pose, which is somewhat like a push up but your body weight is held by your core and arms. You’re balanced, but not weighted on your tippy toes. You bend elbows, keeping them tight to your ribs as you push forward and down, hovering above the floor. Yes, hovering for 3-5 breaths. And, if you were kickin’ ass today, you reversed this back into plank after doing up-dog, and then into down dog. (I was not kickin’ ass today.)

I managed to hover, but there was no reverse chatauranga for me today. It was definitely a core strength class rather than a lot of flexibility work. I’m glad I went. I’m glad I forgot about rude lady for the duration of class.

And honestly, I’m looking forward to getting back on track with my regular practice as soon as the holidays are over. There’s something very comforting in routine sometimes.

Workout:

  • Type: Strength Training
  • Date: 12/28/2007
  • Time: 14:00:00
  • Total Time: 1:30:00.00