The Yoga Trifecta

The VeganAsana does not support horse racing, but does like horses.

In the hours between getting home from work last night and going to work this morning, I took three vigorous vinyasa classes. I’m sure for some hardcore yogis, this is no big shakes, but it’s more than my usual relatively respectable one class per day rate.  And in this period, I feel like I learned some valuable lessons.

1. Three vinyasa classes = a whole lot of catturanga, adho mukha svanasana, and urdvha mukha svanasana!  My shoulders know it for sure today.  I don’t think I really notice how many flows there are in a class.  It’s a bunch.

2. My practice, like my bowling game, improves near the end of class one and the first 2/3 of class two.  All of the sudden, my bandhas seem more engaged and the jumps forward and back are more controlled, urdvha mukha seems more expansive, and I’m more in touch with my breath.  So, apparently I need about an hour to get warmed up, but I start to flag at about 2.5.

3. I’m almost always up for pinca myurasana 😉

4.  Yoga studios smell a little more funky to me when I’ve been sweating in one for multiple hours.

5.  Some of #4 is probably me.

6. Speaking of sweat, as a low-sweater (not to be confused with the knitted garment that reveals cleavage) I have tended to poo-poo the need for a towel.  Two classes in a row means I need a towel for real.

7. It’s always the right shoulder and the left hip giving me sass.  It’s never the left shoulder and the right hip.  What’s up with that?

Oh yeah. See, this is much better.

8. Having been told many times by the fabulous Beth Filla of Yogawood about how my unrestrained desire was getting me into poses in a way that really was not that helpful (Oh, hello, curvy curvy upper back!  Fancy meeting you here!), I think I’m finally getting it and being better able to feel the difference myself.

9. I like doing a lot of yoga in a shorter time frame, but it does wear me out a little for the rest of the day. I think I need one of those retreats with lots of yoga, but with someone else cooking, no work tasks to get done, and much clean food/living.  Oh, and a nice pool and warm weather – I think that would help too.

10. I’m so proud of my YTT class.  Wow.  We have come such a long way.

11. I need some yoga shirts that don’t cut into my shoulders.  Why do you suppose that clothing manufacturers think that breast (sorry, dudes) size is directly correspondent to shoulder size?  That is not where the breasts are… honest.  If they are, no sports bra in the world is going to fix that issue.

12.  I like my yoga, like my blog posts, with a little humor.  It helps me get through and it brightens the whole experience.  I don’t want Dane Cook – seriously, it would be a long blog post to tell you all the ways that I don’t want Dane Cook – but a little joking is nice.

13. I apparently have a hard time blogging on a day when I’m yoga tired! So, if you hung in here this long, thanks a lot.

Will I do this again soon?  Maybe, but I wouldn’t suggest betting on it.  Go, yoga!

L