Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Goals

152 classes in 148 days.
5 classes in 5 days in the 101 challenge.

I figured I'd list out some goals of mine for the 101 challenge. Of course, the real challenge isn't doing the 101 classes, but making some noticeable progress in my practice. I'm way beyond the point of struggling to make it to class every day, but there is PLENTY of work to do on my practice. So here's a few goals I have over the next 100 days or so.

1. Improve my back bends on Half-moon and Camel. I'd really like to at least see something on the floor from the standing back bend. This is a lofty goal for 100 days, but hey, why not?
2. Get my left leg to wrap around completely and consistently on Eagle. Right leg is already fine.
3. Consistently touch my forehead to knee and hold it on the left leg on Standing Head to Knee. For the right leg, get this to consistently lock out. It's much stiffer than my left leg currently.
4. Improve my Standing Bow Pulling. This is a little vague, but I know what I need to work on with this. Besides, I get at least one new and interesting correction on this posture every week, so things change.
5. Consistently touch my head to the floor on Standing Separate Leg Stretching Pose. I'm currently all over the map on this posture. A few times I've actually touched my head, and sometimes I can barely grab my feet!
6. Do Toe Stand consistently from the left foot. Right foot is ok, but I need to straighten out my spine better.
7. Generally improve the spine strengthening series. There's a lot to this obviously, but it's mainly improving the depth, plus some form improvements on Bow.
8. Get my knees closer together on Fixed Firm. A little background on this posture - I have to spread my knees out quite a bit on this. This was one of the hardest postures when I first started. I had all kinds of knee and foot issues prior to starting Bikram. I couldn't even sit Japanese style for the first few weeks. Now it's much better, but I had to start from pretty much zero on this one.
9. Look at my feet in Camel. I'm getting there - slowly.
10. Keep my head on my knees (without walking the knees up) in Rabbit. This is a major work in progress already.
11. Generally improve the depth on Head to Knee with Stretching. This is another posture where I'm all over the place. Sometimes I go really deep, and sometimes not at all.

This might look like a big list, but it's pretty much stuff I work on every day. And don't think there isn't other stuff to improve, but I'm just listing the major stuff. There are always improvements to form I can make every day! I hope you each have your own goals for the 101 challenge!

Greg

6 comments:

  1. 12. Go to teacher training in 2010
    ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I like number 12!

    I wrote down a list of goals for 2009 last year. I took a look at it last month. I have not done ANYTHING on that list! I HAVE made a number of improvements, but they are all in areas that I did not expect. Goals are funny that way! It may, however, be time for me to set some again...

    ReplyDelete
  3. You have really clear and thoughtful goals, which is fantastic! The intention is key. Think it and it will happen! Best wishes.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm sure you guys like # 12 on the list! And yes, it's true, I'll probably improve things that aren't on my list, or things I haven't even thought of. And yes, LZ, intention is the key!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for bringing the goal-issue up, I had to think through mine and readjust them a bit as there has been some changes to what I first thougt would be the goals of this challenge.

    The funny thing with this yoga is that it takes us to places we didn't think of and we will improve in ways we didn't even know about and things we set as goals become unimportant.

    ReplyDelete
  6. My biggest goal is #9 - to look at my feet in Camel. Sometimes it feels so close and sometimes it feels so. far. away.

    ReplyDelete