I turned off the alarm, went back to sleep, and then came awake with a start just in time to make it to class. As a result, I didn't get my ordinary spot, which is probably just as well. I think I've grown too attached to the air flow. (My favorite spot is next to a post which is directly under the hot air blowers. Even though this is the hot air coming directly from the heating system, it blows fairly strongly and causes enough evaporation so that it feels cool.)
Anyway, I went to the deep end of class, where the mirrors meet. It's probably about the hottest spot, and the air is pretty still there. I was afraid the heat would cause some difficulty, but there was no problem there. The heat, by itself, just isn't much of an issue for me anymore. But, when other things are going south, the heat seems to be the first thing that gets the blame.
Class went very well, despite lingering stiffness in my left hip and hamstring. I paid particularly close attention to what bothered my hip. Eagle pose was the first offender. Surprisingly, it was not when I wrapped the left leg around, but when I tried to wrap the right leg around my left. The pulling on the left leg from the right, while trying to balance caused the hip to complain a bunch.
Then Standing Bow and Balancing Stick caused similar problems. My hip didn't want to stretch forward while balancing on the left leg. In both of these, I could ease forward and actually feel a good stretch, which probably helped.
On the floor, the biggest problems were the sit up, and then the last stretching pose. In the sit-up, they tell us to dive our head forward to the knees and then pull twice. I was in a no diving zone. In the first sit-up, I learned fast that a quick forward movement was going to cause more problems. So, instead, I did each sit up much much slower than usual, and was very deliberate about the pulling. Again, this seemed to help alot, and the sit up itself was probably better for my abs.
The funny thing is that I don't really feel injured at all. Just really stiff and sore. After class, I learned that some of the other people deep in the challenge are nursing their own brands of stiffness. Dinette says that her hamstrings are pulled. She was next to me today, and was having a tough time with the sit-ups too. So she's trying to work through that tightness. Another woman was asking about stiffness in her lower back that is sensitive to the touch, almost like a bruise.
One answer is that this sort of thing is just normal. After the challenge is over, a few teachers have said, some rest will allow things to settle in properly. Then people typically see great advances come. Despite recent tightness, I'm still well beyond where I started in most poses, and I generally feel great. So if the teachers are right about what happens after the challenge, that will just be a terrific bonus.
No comments:
Post a Comment