Sunday, October 19, 2008

114/124

2:30 pm with Miranda

I'm back on a roll again.  Stamina just isn't a problem for me anymore.  On Sundays, I go in without having eaten all day, and I used to really suffer from lack of energy.  Recently, that hasn't been an issue.

I started off a bit stiff, maybe from taking yesterday off, and I didn't feel completely with the class until the second set standing Head to Feet.  I'm just barely away from touching my forehead to my shins, and from there I think I might even be able to lock out me knees.  But since this is a forward bend, I also do not want to take the risk of pushing too hard just to make a breakthrough.

Balancing series was pretty good, especially standing bow.  I only fell out at the very end of the first set poses, and then not at all in the second set.  Standing Head to Knee was ok.  I'm still falling out as soon as I think about flexing my kicking foot, but otherwise I'm fairly secure in the foundation.

Since I haven't been doing Toe Stand at all recently, my Tree Pose has become very secure.  Today, Miranda explained in more detail what she means by "hips forward".  I've always taken this to mean that you should push the hip of the raised leg forward.  It turns out that I was listening wrong.  What I had been doing would simply tend to rotate the hips.  Instead, the idea is to push both hips forward.  Go figure that you are supposed to do what the dialogue actually says.  Doh!  When I tried it her way, I could feel more of a stretch in my knees.

Floor series was good, especially Cobra, Full Locust, and Camel.  In Camel I'm now routinely seeing the mats of the people behind me, and in second set I can feel that I'm making even more progress than that.  In Cobra, if I really squeeze my hips, butt and thighs, I can get a very good stretch in my upper back and even the front of my neck.  And I go up higher in Full Locust than I ever imagined I would.

After writing about all my joints cracking yesterday, I paid some more attention to it today.  It turns out that my back, shoulders and hips crack even more than I thought.  My wrists crack in Eagle.  And my elbows, as I said before, are the only joints I have left that stubbornly remain silent.

My knee felt a bit stiff in the morning and also going into class.  It didn't interfere with anything in class, and it has felt much better afterward.  I was actually doing some full out running with the dogs at the park this afternoon, with no ill effects.  So things are looking up.

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