Day 15 – Hello hot room! Holy crap I was dying in there. Today’s class was a little better than average but I did not come out of it feeling like I had accomplished a lot. Hope this is not a trend.
Day 16 – I thought yesterday was hot. Today I was sweating within 20 seconds of being in the room. The standing series was a struggle to stay in control of my breathing. I felt a few moments of panic and envisioned myself passing out and having to be taken from the room and given oxygen – I am pretty sure this is as close to hyperventilating I have ever been. I struggled through, worked hard and by the time we settled into our first Savasana I was calm, cool and collected. Today’s intention was to do both sets of camel pose, start to finish. I started psyching myself up as soon as we went into half tortoise pose and what do you know…I did it, with only mild panicky feelings. Today I feel VERY good about my practice. Today I also brought my husband with me, a sort of date night I suppose! Its probably a good thing I already hooked him and this was not our first date because I think he would have dumped me if it was!! hahaha
Day 17 – Ahhhh evening class….as much as I would rather be sitting on my couch watching t.v. in the evenings I do love these classes the most. The only down side is I get home super wired and can’t get to sleep for hours. Not good when the following day is a 6 am class!
Day 18 – I LOVE Tree Pose. Its my absolute favorite. Why? 1) because it feels so natural for me. All my life I have had a habit of standing in this position (or a similar version of it) ALL THE TIME (well except for the hands in prayer part). Not kidding, if I am standing still, this is how I am usually standing…especially when washing dishes! Its weird, I know! and 2) Tree Pose followed by Toe Stand Pose (which I also love) signal the end of the standing series. When these poses are complete we get our first Savasana and its a whole 2 minutes long……
Day 19 – Today I want to talk about Triangle Pose. Its been added to my least favorite poses list…right after Camel Pose (which is still the absolute worst). I find that my foot is constantly sliding and I can’t concentrate because all I can think about is that any second now I am going to be in the splits and that is going to hurt so so so much!!. We are told to “engage the inner thighs” to keep this from happening….I’m sorry, my inner thighs are completely incapable of being engaged any more than they already are after this many straight days of Bikram classes. At this point in the game my inner thigh muscles are constantly screaming in pain as it is! Last night, I could barely get up the stairs, I practically had to crawl up them…ok, that may be a slight exaggeration! :p
I used to find this pose quite easy, so its perplexing that now its so hard. I know I have made some adjustments to it as per teachers instructions, so all I can guess is that I was cheating at it all this time and paying the price for it now. Its a constant work in progress…all of it, no matter how long you do it.
Day 20 – 6 am class – sucked. I had a chat with the instructor after and told her that I thought that by this point it would be getting easier. She assured me that if it feels like its getting harder its because I am getting better…I don’t know about that, but I am just going to take her word for it! Tomorrow and Sunday I have off. I am taking my daughter to a hockey tournament. Thankfully you get up to 5 days you can miss during the 30 day challenge. Don’t get too excited about that….you have to make them up. So, lucky me, next week I have to double up and do 2 classes at least 2 of the days.
This weeks tips for a better class :
Pick someone out in the class who seems to know what they are doing and park your mat next to them. Or as close as you can get. Its really helpful to be able to see how an experienced student does the poses.
Wear comfortable clothing that breaths and that you can move in. Trust me, its not a fashion show in there, the experienced people are too busy working on their poses to notice what your wearing and the beginners are too busy thinking about how hot and uncomfortable they feeling and wondering when this nightmare will end!
Pretty toes definitely make for a more enjoyable class
As a result of getting a pedicure, which comes with an essential oil leg massage, I did notice it was a heck of a lot easier to get into Eagle Pose as my foot just slid around my leg…HOWEVER…as a result of that oily leg massage I could barely keep a hold of my legs and feet in several poses. So, this tip is : do NOT moisturize your legs or feet too close to class.
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