Day 40!!: Posture Clinics Are Back!

Do you remember the show "Picture Pages?" If you do, you're hating me right now for putting that theme song in your head. Whenever I think of "Posture Clinic" I apply that melody to it and it gets stuck in my head. Except I haven't found replacement words for "time to get your crayons and your pencils..."

Anyhow, today we were back at it. We had a 3-hour session in the afternoon, and two additional hours in the evening. I'm feeling a little...exposed. Two of the three teachers (Suzanne and Craig) who proctored our afternoon session were all avid readers of my blog before they got here! I was so afraid of being less than they would expect - a fraud, that girl who blogs who really doesn't know shit. It was Cobra pose, and aside from being told I still need to show my personality and my confidence, I rocked it out. I certainly knew it (it's been like a week since I've done a posture!) but still I felt all self-conscious and weird. Don't get me wrong, I love blogging to bits - but there are a few aspects of the reality of meeting readers who have read it, and in some cases, my other weight lost surgery blog, who know me and so much about me - whilst I am just learning their name! (Why not...it's www.sheshrinks.blogspot.com and if you just want to see pics when I was quite overweight, go to www.shesshrinking.blogspot.com).

Our 5 p.m. was taught by oldschool Bikram teacher Joel. He's a bit hippie, Hare Krishna (unapologetically - while there is mention of spirituality here, never any specific religion - he's the first one). And he has a murse (man-purse) that he wears around his neck. He seems to be one of those older affiliates who can get away with whatever he wants. His class didn't flow like so many others we've had, but it was ok. The morning it was almost cold in the room, apparently a heat issue - which, it seemed, was fixed by about Eagle in the afternoon class. Oy vey. A few people left (rarer now) and everyone was just like, "whoa, wtf??" at the end. My little pal Nikki's electrolytes are off and she's had two cosmic 5 p.m. classes in a row - not just blacking out, but also not being able to hear at all. She reported, though, that since she knew she could still breathe, she focused on breathing, laid down, and did as much as she could....but afterwards, she was definitely feeling the yoga-truck had come and left its wake.

Posture clinic in the evening was super cool - Joel was surprisingly much more appreciated in this setting than in teaching the yoga class. He started with a tip on the 3rd part of Awkward. And he just had a really holistic approach to the evaluations. He'd have a person come up, he stood (rather than sitting), asked them what they're usually good at...and they, what were they working on? They he'd ask the group, "Ok, you all know him, what's he need to do better today? " and after, he'd do the same thing with the person, and then getting feedback from the group. At the end, he showed us another exercise to get a feel for what it should feel like in your arms during Locust. Super cool, interactive, and engaging. Oh, and I think we got out 5 minutes early which was also appreciated and exciting.

For Bikram Yoga Peeps, try this:
To improve your strength in 3rd part of Awkward: Go to a wall. Put your heels against the wall, feet 6 inches (honestly measure, get a ruler) apart. Touch your butt, head and your low back against the wall. Lift your heels up about 1 inch, press your knees together, and slowing bend your knees down until they are parallel to the floor. Make sure knees are forward and slightly lower than your hips. Hips 1/2" off your heels. Now, the fun part - go up the exact way you came down - squeeze your knees together, keep everything glued against the wall (butt, head, lower back) and slowing come up to a count of 10. Prepare to say, "Ouch."

I couldn't do it. I fell forward, and it showed that basically, I am not strong enough to do this posture correctly - I must be leaning forward, etc. So now I am going to practice! I hate that I struggle to come up. Hope! Yay! Now, if there was just a magic pill for flippin' triangle...

Today's Pics:

Classes #60 & #61; Chunky and Kimi playing; The 3rd Part of Awkward exercise in action at posture clinic (you try now!).