I did a lovely water-free class yesterday. I drank about two liters of water beforehand so I knew I was juicy enough to not even bring water into the room. Right front and center. I was pouring sweat during the breathing! It felt like just when I got back from training, when the humidity and sweat of the east coast felt really foreign to me.
Standing head to knee was not wonderful yesterday - I have such a hard time with the initial set up of that posture. Because of the length of my arms / the size of my chest / the size of my thigh getting the initial grip around the foot is so very difficult. However, yesterday, when I kicked out on one side, I quickly readjusted my hands into the fully interlocked grip and it felt great.
I know the point is to have that grip the whole time but my arms do not reach at the beginning. I'm not sure what to do with that. Just keep trying, I guess. I don't want to be moving my hands a lot in class, setting a bad example... but it's much better form to have the full grip as I kick out. Thoughts?
Standing bow is coming along. My flexibility is there. I need to take a pic from the side to see how close the leg is to straight. I'm sure there's some ways to go but I'm completely abdomen and chest parallel to the floor. I know what it means to come DOWN in that pose. So many people spend so long (like years) not coming down! Come down! Fall out! Join me! Fling forward! I do it a couple times a class, but I know it's the right thing to do. Keeping the standing thigh burningly tight squeezed to the bone is the name of the game in this posture for me. I try try try. I'm one of those people who can easily get the leg straight (because I'm flexible) but it's more of a challenge to keep the thigh burning tight to the bone. I'm working on it.
Some postures that were awesome yesterday
- Standing separate leg stretching second set legs close... felt good.
- Separate leg head to knee did almost all of both sets with both legs locked out, hands in prayer. Where did THAT come from!
- locust - for some reason my body is loving this pose again. Haven't since training. Finally getting the leg back up to 45 degrees and getting a little more height and strength with both legs.
- full locust - a teacher came into our studio to practice on Sunday and the teacher had her demo this posture. Thank you - it has changed my idea of what it's supposed to look like going in, being in, and coming out of this posture. Love it.
pretty much the rest of the floor series felt great too.
I think my body is healed from training. I can't explain how much better things feel this week than... any time since I was at training. Whoopie!
I got some feedback on my energetic class from Monday night... participant (not teacher) said - great class - amazing energy! Then said that there was too much energy in triangle. !??!?! I know I have to take all feedback lightly which I'm trying to do. I need all the energy I can get in triangle, and I figure most people do too. The line that was the most energetic was "reach up, reach up, reach up, touch the ceiling!"
I liked what I did with it. There. I said it. :)
3 comments:
Too much energy in triangle = person was dying by that time and anything over 15 seconds felt like agony. :) Nothing you did!
I'll let the teachers answer you on the standing head to knee issue. I'll just say that on my "stiff and feeling like an 80 yr old days" my grip is problematic in that first part too. Interesting.
Thanks for the "thigh tight" tip for standing bow. I am going to keep that one in mind! (I'm sure it's in the dialogue, but I have a really tough time in that pose and am probably not really "hearing" anything!)
So glad you got a compliment for the class you taught! External validation can be nice.
byc ha ha indeed. I know full well that a lot of "feedback" is about the person giving it just as much as the person getting it. That much we learned at training after weeks and weeks of posture clinics.
Yolk - the instruction comes only in the setup unfortunately and it passes by so very very quickly. It's easy to skim over it as well as you teach, frankly. (Meaning to forget to say it - guilty as charged!) Once the posture begins all the commands are about the upper body and the kicking leg if my memory serves me correctly. But my thigh muscle doesn't just turn on and stay on... it's a continual effort to keep it really tight. I'd be interested to hear how it affects your posture if it does.
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