I’ve been told a number of times by Sarah about my propensity to flare my ribs and jut my hips forward, and at my last mysore class I definitely noticed that happening. She stopped me in my upward dog and explained to me that I was doing this, and that I need to really work on holding them in, while lifting and opening from the pose, but working across the back of the shoulders, not just flopping out, as I am prone to doing. When you do it that way, suddenly it’s way harder (and is slowing down my vinyasas a lot!). Always something to learn...
I also asked about wheel (see pic!) while at mysore, as I know that there are many people who can just lift themselves up into it (like my mum, who used to be able to walk around on her hands), just as there are plenty of people who, in Pilates, can go into Bridge and then lift their leg off the ground (spoiler alert: I can’t) and pump it up and down.
Sarah says this kind of stuff takes years to work up into, and showed me a good way to start working my back by a pose that is essentially, as far as I can tell, camel (leaning back using your abdominals and lifting the chest, then slowly bending the back and reaching hands to ankles). She said, as ever to just be incremental. She’s a very safe teacher, I think.
It was funny, then, to go to Tammy on Wednesday and see her help a woman who’s not done much yoga into wheel during the course of the class simply because she wanted to try. Who’s right? Maybe they both are – if it’s safe and the teacher is there, who cares? Yoga should be fun.
As Tammy said during the class about something else (I was asking about a move someone in a different class had shown me of lifting your arms up during navasana – boat pose – to ensure your abdominals are held in) different teachers will advise you differently, you can incorporate what you want into your own practice.
I did feel a bit weird during that class – I was thoroughly exhausted from a heavy few nights last week, my future sister in law’s hen do (picnic, flower arranging, ‘evening tea’) and ten hours of veloteering at the RideLondon100, where we were crossing guards, shouted encouragement, held up stop signs when there were ambulances and police, etc. Totally worth it, though, and would definitely do it again. But my body is hurting, my knees are sore (which is always worrying) and my head is constantly foggy. Gah.
A cool thing Sarah also showed me how to do in mysore last weekend was supported headstand prep. As anyone who read my previous post mentioning it will know, I’m not a big fan of putting lots of pressure on my back and neck muscles (partly because of my old whiplash injury, partly because I personally just don’t think it’s worth it), and I was forgetting how to do the move. First she tried putting a strap around my arms, but then I couldn’t get my head past the strap, and it was looking impossible and strangly.
Her other option was to put four thin blocks lengthways against the wall, then a thick, squat block beneath it. You then line up your palms against the squat block, put your forehead to the ground (as close as you can get) and push up into a semblance of a downward dog. Walk your feet forward and make sure you bring your abdominals with you, until your head pushes into the blocks. When you’re there, you’ve done it.
It felt amazing and quite shocking, even though we were no further off the ground than in many other poses – and when I came out of it, I felt like I’d done some kind of crazy inversion. ‘That’s how you’ll do your head stand from now on’, she said. Whoopee!
Because I’m so tired, restorative on Sunday had the outcome of making me almost fall asleep in class, the closest I’ve ever been. We were doing a lying twist on bolsters and I felt myself shoot up and gasp (that thing you do just before you fall asleep and your brain realises it). Very embarrassing, although a sign I shouldn't ignore. However, Sarah also showed us a great inversion for tired legs - lie up against the wall or just on the floor/up against a bolster with your legs in the air and just stay inverted. It's tough to start with but after a while it feels amazing on your legs. Once the class was done I had gone from feeling deliriously tired to just normal tired - what an amazing thing yoga can be!
It was a lovely class – a lot of people I’d never seen before, including one surfer dude who had urchin spines in his hand (!) so wasn’t sure if he’d be able to put any pressure through it. He was swimming in the sea, decided to swim to a rock, misjudged the distance, was knackered by the time he got there, was washed onto a rock by a wave and put his hand out, only to find, well, that. One of my worst swimming fears!