The Endless Soreness

360 classes in 353 days.

It never ceases to amaze me how the body can and will continue to open up as you practice this yoga. I reached a bit of a stable point a month or two ago, where I was consistent in my postures and I felt very little soreness during or after class. I was starting to wonder when things were going to change again.

Sure enough, things started to change about a week ago. I've been spending more time after class working with teachers on postures in preparation for competing in October, and I can definitely feel it. The most noticeable thing is my right knee and other parts of my right leg. It's sore, very sore, but not painful. I've been through this enough times to know it's just more stuff opening up, not an injury or anything like that. But it's amazing how DEEP you can go in your body. It's like a bottomless pit!

One more thing, I'm doing my first advanced class on Sunday. I'm excited and scared, hope I'm alive to write a blog post about it:)

Greg

Posture Discussion Part VI - Standing Bow

352 classes in 345 days.

The next in my series of discussions on postures:

Standing Bow Pulling:

This is without question the most maddening of the postures for me. My trouble with this posture has to do with alignment, getting two shoulders in one line, etc. I have gotten much better over the months at kicking back and straightening my leg out more, and I can balance much better than before, but I still have plenty of work to do on the alignment. I'm not too worried though, as I'll be getting plenty of individual attention on this as I prepare for competition.

At this point in the class, the heart rate really starts going. It's one of my favorite things about the posture. Even Standing Head to Knee doesn't really get my heart rate moving, but this one does. It's also at this point in the class when you start to see people really struggle. Class has been going on for about 30-35 minutes, and you can start to really feel the effects of the heat and humidity. The real challenge is to keep getting back into the posture after you've fallen out (and you will fall out). Sometimes people just don't get back in, and end up standing on their mat.

What I've found is that getting back in over and over speeds up the heart rate, and is actually very important for giving you energy for the rest of the standing series. Sitting out makes it that much harder when you get into Balancing Stick next, and especially for Triangle, which is coming up shortly.

As a side note, I happen to think this is the most beautiful of all 26 beginning postures if it's done right. For me, that's still a big "if" at this point:)

Greg

You Never Know

349 classes in 342 days.

You never know who's practicing in the room with you. Everyone has their story, and once again I was surprised by someone I see all the time. There's a woman who I've seen a lot in the room. Not every day, because she practices at different times, but I've seen her a lot.

So I was talking to her last week and I found out she's done 115 classes in a row! She's doing a 120 day challenge on her own just because she felt like it. This is someone I can relate to:) I love finding other people that are "crazy" like me (and many others who read this blog)!

Maybe I'll find some more hidden 100 day challenge people out there...

Greg

And So the Adventure Begins

344 classes in 337 days.

A few months ago I discussed competing next time it came around and well... the date has been announced. October 16th!! The Nevada Regional Asana Competition will be at my home studio, Green Valley. Nice home court advantage, huh? So far there are about 8 or 9 people from my studio alone that have signed up, and I already know some people from other studios in town that will compete. Not to mention we'll have some people from Reno show up too.

I've looked forward to this even since I saw my first competition last October. I'm also looking forward to starting advanced class in the next few weeks, and all of the coaching and extra work I'll get to do with my postures. Not that's totally a new thing, as I work extra all the time, but it's always nice to have a goal to work towards.

I'm nervous, excited, worried, etc as you might imagine, but I'm sure I'm going to have a lot of fun along the way...

Greg

Traveling

336 classes in 329 days.

This past weekend I went to Southern California to see some friends over the Fourth of July weekend and I took the opportunity to check out two other studios in the area, Ventura and Santa Barbara.

Ventura:



I went to Ventura studio on Saturday morning. It's definitely smaller than the studios in Vegas. The room only holds about 25 people and it was packed. The teacher was good, not great and the room was a little cold, but not too bad. What stood out to me the most was the students had pretty good discipline, not doing weird things, walking out, etc. I think that's a good reflection of the teacher.

Santa Barbara:



Sunday morning I took class in Santa Barbara with Julianna (Dancing J)! The room was packed and it was HOT! Definitely hotter than Ventura and comparable to my classes in Vegas. Julianna was fantastic, with great dialog (as you'd expect) and great energy. The students were overall pretty good and there was good energy in the room. It was definitely a lot of fun to take a class from her. The room itself took some getting used to, as there are no windows in there and the lighting isn't very good, but I think one of the lights was burned out. But it was definitely a good class.

Back in Vegas now, but it was certainly a good experience checking out these other studios!

Greg