Today I took the train downtown and took a hip-hop yoga class at Back Bay Yoga. I didn't know the teacher and had no idea what to expect other than hopefully some good tunes. I love rap, so I figured the combo of the music and the BBY vibe would help me to really push myself.

I think the point I knew I was in trouble was when a woman with very cute and very short yoga shorts walked into the room, set up her mat right by the front, and popped right into a forearm balance. I've been very blessed with hips that open fairly easily and generally problem-free shoulders, but arm balances just aren't my strong suit. So far, anyway.

So the first song was "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice, and I was like, fail. This class is gonna suck. And I laughed for the whole first song because that song is so terrible, but then she started playing Dre and Rhianna, and then the sequences started happening, and boy were there sequences. Left leg back in a lunge, pop forward into half-moon, reach back and grab your left foot, push your foot into your hand and open your shoulder, bring your foot forward into a standing pigeon without touching it down, bring your hands up to heart's center, twist toward the right and set your elbow into the arch of your foot, grab your foot and set it at tree pose, lift up, take reverse namaste and bend backward, exhale forward into a standing split, shoot your left leg back into lunge, take a vinyasa, repeat on the left side. And that was just a warmup.

The way the music was used seemed like a distraction for the most part. I could barely hear the teacher and had to watch the front rows for the next poses. But, the teacher had us do a simple surya namaskar flow for an entire song, and that was where I felt like the music was awesome.

The advanced poses were intense. There was an option to take crow four or five separate times, plus about four variations of crow. There were options to take headstands, handstands, and other arm balances. I was in standing split like ten times. This was a much more advanced practice than I am used to.

And I kind of loved it.

I dunno. I haven't taken a class that kicked my butt that much in a long time, and the challenge of it reminded me that I have a long way to go with my asana practice, and a lot more poses to explore. I think I'm gonna go back next week.