80/83 The Sit-up

10:30 am with Lenette

Lenette's classes are always very satisfying.  I come out of them feeling like I've pushed really hard, without totally exhausting myself.  

Today, she talked about the sit-up.  She was emphasizing the importance of the two loud exhales on each sit-up.  She says that often the first sit-ups in class are great, but by Camel and Rabbit, she can barely hear anything at all.  And then looking at the class she can see looks of dread and defeat on the class.  But just be getting the class to stay with the sit-ups, and to stay loud on the exhales, the energy of the class goes way up at the end, and so do the final postures. 

So I tried it today, and it seems to work.  This is just another small aspect of the mind taking the lead.  A positive attitude going into the sit-ups leads to more energy and good things in the floor series.  This seems like a small point, but as Lenette says, many of the small points in the Bikram series are there for lots of reasons.  There are other benefits to the loud exhales in the sit-ups, but the attitude adjustment it provides is more than enough to justify putting in the extra effort. 

The other thing that I found was that by focusing attention on the sit-up form I was able to do them better, and without hurting my hip at all.  The last several classes I've been really slacking off on these, in an effort to protect the hip.  But, it turns out that I can protect the hip just as well by doing them right in the first place.

In all other respects the class was very good.  The balancing series was better than it has been in a while.  I actually made it through a set of Standing Head to Knee with the leg kicked out.  That hasn't happened in a few weeks.  Standing Bow was good -- I still can't hold it for a minute, but I'm getting to where its no surprise to see my heel above my head.  Even Locust was good today.  I'm finally figuring out how to lift one leg without rotating my hips.  And I did well on raising both legs without bailing out. 

 I went back on my elbows in Fixed Firm, so today was a decent day for my knee,  at least in class.  After class, my knee felt a little bit funky.  It doesn't really hurt, but it feels tighter than it should, and much different from my right knee.  I'm starting to wonder if there is some relationship between my knee and the hip/sciatic problem.  It seems like every time my hip feels better, the knee starts to get worse, and vice versa.

Only 17 days to go, and I still need to squeeze in three doubles.  I'm not sure how I'm going to do it, but I've always been a bit of a procrastinator, so I guess I will start doing the doubles when I feel enough urgency.  (And I've toyed with ending the 100 days with a triple, just because...)