Day 39: Hatha Ouch!

Tuesdays Hatha class was rough. If I thought I was sore on Monday after my hike on Sunday then I was surely surprised with Tuesdays pain. On Sunday I hiked "The Chief" in Squarmish,( http://www.vancouvertrails.com/trails/stawamus-chief/) about an hour north of Vancouver, on the way up to Whistler. It's a giant rock face known as a outdoor rock climbing Mecca but you can hike a path up the back of it to a peak with an amazing view. It's steep and pretty challenging and at the top you have to use a chain to pull yourself up really steep parts. Going up was fine, but the steepness coming back down was killer on the legs. My knees even started hurting which has never happened to me before causing my hiking pal to say "hurry up grandma knees". So Tuesday I could not walk without pain. And the Hath class that I went to was a challenging one, with heaps of lunges and balancing. Thanks universe. I thought for sure I wouldn't be able to touch my toes but sure enough after warming up the toe touch came easily. We did some plank poses and I actually felt strong in them though I know I have along way to go with the core shit. Core is my greatest challenge, the Sistine Chapel of my body work. If I ever get a strong core, which for me means being able to do a single sit-up un assisted, it's my CC on the bar cause that will be a day for a party.

Day 38: I am behind on my posts! Trying the catch up!

Day 38. Up early for the 7am Hatha class as I had a work event in the evening. As I am nearing the end of the challenge one thing I know for sure, I will continue doing yoga. However, I will NOT be getting up early for yoga. Once I am up it's all fine. I like the darkness and calm of the new day but the actually getting up part. I hate it with a passion only felt against world problems much larger than me being a lazy shit who loves her sleep.

The instructor had a really annoying voice too! I feel mean but it was like her "soothing" voice was totally put on. She was calm and breathy and it all felt a bit dramatic. Though it was early and I wad sore from a weekend hike so I just tried to zone out and stretch how I could considering my whole body felt stiff.
 

Day 37: Bad Blogger

Over a week without blogging, did ya'll think I fell off the yoga bandwagon? No siree, all is good. There was a nasty little exam last week that meant all my energy was spent towards that and there was no time for blogging. Just work, yoga and study like a good little student. My spirits are up, exam is over and the yoga continues. No big breakthrough, by day 37 I would have hoped to be able to stand on my head by now but I now realise I cannot be amazing at this in just 37 days. It doesn't work that way. :( My only miracle has been to be able to touch my toes and that is the miracle that I am holding on to. Ok maybe there has been another small miracle. There is this pose called "Happy Baby". Funny name, funny ass pose. It looks like this. 

I prefer to call it, "off to the gynacologist" pose

So I couldn't do it before, well I could kind of do it but it hurt like hell. But this week, we had to go into this pose, and I did it, and it felt totally easy. Which caught me by suprise cause I didn't expect off to the gynacologist pose to finally feel like this:

Happy baby! Of course! This lil fella is totally zenned out.

 So I suppose you can call that a little breakthrough. I can't believe I am on day 37 already. It's gone by so fast and has been so easy to incorporate into my life. I realised that every single other "activity" i have ever done I have always been aware of the clock. When I run I check the clock regularly and when I hit my destination or my running time limit I am well aware of the time spent. But the 1h 15m at yoga seems like it flies by, there are no clocks but I am always shocked when it comes time for savasana, I think, "wow, already?" it doesn't drag on at all. This is a good thing!

Day 28: Deep South Hatha

Friday nights Hatha class with Dan. It was pretty non eventful, I liked his class but I didn't loooove it. This could have been because he would start instructing in one voice and then part way through the sentence he would change his accent into an deep south american drawl. It was pretty comical really. God, I am getting really bitchy towards the instructors. It's hard not to.

Day 27: Cheerleader Vinyasa Power Flow

Day 27's class I decided to try a Vinyasa class as I was feeling chirpy and felt like something a bit more active. My new flatmate is a Yoga freak, I rarely see her at home, in fact, I've seen her more times at Yoga than in the house. Anyway, I remember her saying to me that she really liked Crista's class, but I remember that Crista was the "cheerleader yoga instructor" from the first intro class so I have kinda avoided her classes. I decided that I would give it a go anyway just in case my initial judgement of her annoying cheerleader tone and exagerated movements was unfair.

Her class was packed, she was clearly popular. Thankfully, although she retained a bit of a cheerleaders voice, she wasn't as bad as in that initial first class. But her class was very challenging and there was heaps of arm balancing poses that I was not even close to being able to achieve. And when googling images in order to demostrate what the poses were and how hard this shit is, I get images of an 83 year old woman doing them! What!!?? How weak am I!?

"The Crow" I can't do this and risk cracking my head open on the yoga mat but I feel like with a bit of practice I may be close to getting it. Yeah totally.

Headstand, It looks easy, cause we all did it as kids, but kills your head, neck and arms. You actually start this one with your feet on the ground. That's as far as I got. I might join the Sikh religion. wrap my head in a turban next time for extra support.

Grandma is totally showing off here. I hate her.

Day 26: Yin Love

Aaaaah, so my system when my body has been feeling fatigued has been an early morning class on one day, followed by the latest Yin class the following day, giving my body a pretty good rest between classes. This has been an excellent system and last night's Yin class was love-e-ly. Beverly is my new favourite Yin teacher. She was the one from last week who had that Pema Chodron quote and spoke about patience throughout the whole class. This class she spoke about uniqueness and loving yourself. She is the bloody Yin counselor I tell you. The last line of this massive quote she read was "I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments". Oriah

Whoa, heavy bro.

I can't help but bawl my eyes out during savasana at the end of her classes and I think I'm not the only one, the girl next to me was sniffling at the end too! Holy hell, yin-goers are a mess!
But after the cry I feel pretty damn good. I think she must have seen me crying cause she came up to me at the end of the class and rubbed my shoulder and told me that I'm "looking good, much more open". Hmmm, open! Cool. Not quite sure what that means, but I'll take it.

After Yin you just want to go straight home and jump into bed. You sleep like a baby. Insomniacs take note.

I hear ya homie.

Day 25: AWOL

3 yoga days and no post. Oopsie. I was still yogaing don't worry, I have not fallen off the 40 day wagon. Day 22 was a Saturday. I did an active Power class to get my body moving after my slow sore YIN practice the night before. I did me some sweatin and it felt good.

Theeeeeen Saturday night I got quite drunk. It was the tequilas fault. I was horizontal all day Sunday and I dragged my ass up to yoga for the last class on Sunday night, day 23. I wanted to vommit my way through the whole class and when I felt dizzy from down faced dog I just lay in childs pose for a bit until I had the stomach to move again. Yoga is friendly like that. No boot camp nazi screaming at you for being weak and lazy, no no no, yoga people say, "if anything is too much, just go into childs pose..." Yes thanks, I need me some of that.



Cept' I can't do proper childs pose, I need a support under my head like this guy. Mmmm almost like a pillow.

 I can't say I made any progress in this class, I was just lucky to survive it. And Savasana never felt so good.

Seriously, some people go all out for savasana and get props and blankies and everything. It really is a cosy time but sometimes I think people go too far. Maybe they are all hungover too and really need this like I did.

So day 24 I did a Hatha class  it felt pretty uneventful and quite frankly I felt pretty stiff, thought maybe my body was still recovering from that evil Mexican elixir from Saturday night.

Day 25, today, I woke up ridicuously early as I am going to see the Foo Fighters after work tonight. So I did a Power Class at 6.15 am. Man it was early. Today it may have been confirmed that I feel like I have hit a wall. My lower back is a little achy and I felt a bit tired in the old body. Like all over. It feels like the same wall I hit during week 1. My body doesn't feel like I can push it, it is acting like it's at a standstill and will not budge an inch. Stubborn mofo. Anyhoo. I don't have another class till tomorrow night and I might do Yin to give it a lil rest. It will not defeat me.