Last night I practiced hard. It was great. It's not that I don't normally practice hard. But yesterday I was in the zone and was working every posture during class. I am beginning to feel something of a six month itch, I think. My six month anniversary from coming home from training is coming right up! I have the urge to do a 30 day challenge sometime this spring - probably after I get home from New Orleans.
My goals in class right now are to really really try to hold standing bow without falling out. I fall out so much that I know I'm not getting the effects of the posture in my body a lot of the time. So I'm really, really trying to hold it. Most of this has to do with (duh) the standing leg. When the muscles are burning, you're so present with the body. A momentary lapse of attention and the leg loses stability. I have a nice deep bow - good flexibility, but need the strength and stability to hold the darn thing!
I also want to use my core muscles more in standing head to knee. Well, there's a lot about the standing leg I want to work in this pose too. I am prone to external rotation in the hips so it feels like I'm always being pulled outwards. These are the goals, it seems to me, ongoing!
The Bikram series is so amazing. It's continually a place to work. In other news, the scholarship I'm applying to in Bali (teacher training, viniyoga style) at www.YogaTrex.net is pretty much good to go - I've submitted most of my materials and a marketing plan and now I sit back and wait. I would love to be a social media ambassador for this training. The thought of Bali is with me always - and it's alive on my desktop a click away... all day long.
2 comments:
I have the same issues with external rotation and standing bow (not at the same time, usually, though)! It's funny that it's such a relief to hear that other people have similar issues in our tissues... Re: the external rotation - are you tight in the back of your hips? I've found doing some pigeon after class has helped.
It's so cool to hear about the expansion of your yoga pedagogy. I am a Bikram junkie, but there are so many other traditions and ways of thinking to explore. And it seems like viniyoga explicitly lends itself to teaching with compassion, whereas with Bikram classes, any emphasis on compassion is at the discretion of whoever is teaching. Not sure if that makes sense...
Have you read "Eat, Pray, Love"? The last part is set in Ubud. Sounds like an amazing place. xoxo
I absolutely am tight in the back of the hips - actually my left piriformis (muscle that goes across the butt cheek) has been tight and I recently got a chiropractic adjustment that really helped. I haven't done pigeon after class. I have done it before. But great idea to do it after class! When you're all warm and bendy.
I haven't read eat pray love but I will definitely pick it up.
Viniyoga is absolutely on the other end of the spectrum, except that it's all about the function of the poses just like Bikram - what it's doing to your insides, not just your outsides. But working with people in cold workplace non-yoga settings you do not have anything like Bikram as an option. My goal would be to wake people up to yoga then get them into the studio with me!
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