Day Five (In which I feel like a yoga failure)

Wowee, today's class was a difficult one. It was another Anusara-inspired class where the teacher took us through a series of poses that might or might not be advanced by Anusara standards, but definitely were by Hatha standards. But regardless, I made two discoveries about my body- one is good, and one is not so good.

1. The instructor was having us pull our shoulders out and pulling our abs in, then taking almost a cow-like back and pulling our shoulderblades together behind us. I have never in my life felt my shoulderblades grinding together, but I did today. The front of my chest felt open, my heart area felt open, and I had so much less pain in backbends than I usually do (and I assume that it had to do equally with being able to bend in my upper back, and also tucking my tailbone and engaging my core to prevent my lower back from bending too much.

2. It became apparent during the class that I have really, really tight quads. This explains soooo much (like why my butt doesn't hit my heels in child's pose. I assumed I had really tight knees, but I never had any knee pain). The classes I usually take, and the classes I teach, have a lot of poses that engage the quads, but very few that stretch them out. Even pigeon on the floor- usually I am not asked to (and don't ask my students to) bend the extended leg. So, quads. One area I really need to work with.

I still found myself today working with some major fear. I have no problem getting into a headstand against the wall, but handstand was completely different. I had to ask someone in the class to assist me just getting up. And it's not like I couldn't- I have the core strength for it now. I'm just too freaked out by the prospect of falling. So I'm considering the possibility that I'm going to need to start practicing twice a day: once in a class, and once on my own.