Conquering the Yoga Studio

Some you all know that after a year-plus in Intro to Yoga, I finally moved up to Yoga I a few weeks ago. New poses abound. And last night there were three new poses for me, two of which my mind said, "you want me to do WHAT???"

I had a shoulder injury in college and have been walking around the last 15 years with my shoulders near my ears so the fact that I could do some of these things, or even willing to try, is amazing.

One pose is really a shoulder opening exercise using the wall ropes. You stand with you arms suspending all your weight leaning all the way forward with your feet at the wall. If the ropes are long enough, you might be looking directly at the floor from just a few inches away. Yes, it looks like your arms will be ripped out of their sockets. As if this was not enough, you are expected to move from prone to bent so that your head approaches your knees and your tushy is up in the air. Then prone, then bent in half. Back and forth. Needless to say, I was a tad hesitant -- OK, so a LOT more than a tad and I was vocal about it. But I did it. Arms are clearly still intact.

The other you-want-me-to-do-WHAT pose was a handstand. Now let me make this clear. I am a size 18. I am not a small woman. I do not look at all like that woman in the picture. I have ample junk in my trunk. So the notion of getting my behind airborne resting only on my hands is ... miraculous. Well, with a little assistance from my instructor I managed to do it for about 15 seconds.

The last new poses was back bend. Not particularly mentally challenging, but new nonetheless.

Now you will have to excuse me because the hour of downward dog we did before these other things seems to have strained my left wrist. And I kinda need it to type for work, well and type for pleasure, too. So I need to rest it now.