Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Day 2: Spleen Damage

I didn't really hurt my spleen. It's sort of a joke between me and regular Andy. The first time he tried Bikram he said afterwards "I think I crapped my spleen out halfway through class". He's so deadpan when he says these things. Cracks me up. So on the menu for tonight was 5:30 90 min Moksha Flow with English-accent-I'm-going-to-kick-your-butt Mark. He was a tough tough Bikram instructor. Guess what. He's still pretty tough teaching Moksha! The 90 minute flow was just hard. I was so impressed with the strength, endurance and flexibility of some of these yogis, just like when I'm taking a Bikram class and see awesome postures in there. One of the postures entails standing on one leg, while holding the toe of your other leg and swinging the sucker straight out to the side (I can't do that FYI) and then extending your opposite arm and looking in the opposite direction of your extended leg. Looks like something a dancer would do. (I can't do that FYI!!). So now, my new obsession, besides being able to fully get my head down in standing heed to knee in Bikram is that posture. Wish I knew what it was called. I did almost all of the series. I say almost all, because towards the end when they started to do the very evil "down dog, plank, chataranga, updog and do it super fast" series I pooped out and ended up sitting on my knees for a minute. That series is hard for me. In part because I'm quite sure I'm not doing it correctly, thus don't look anything near graceful, and quite frankly don't like it. Perhaps when I learn how to execute it properly it will grow on me.
Well, I'm quite sure I'm going to hurt in places tomorrow that I probably didn't know I even worked tonight. I'm looking forward to it! Tomorrow is Bikram again.

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11 comments:

  1. Big GNovember 10, 2009 at 9:36 PM

    That pose sounds impossible! But so did a lot of the poses I do everyday now...

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  2. bikramyogachickNovember 10, 2009 at 10:02 PM

    It was impossible for me! That's why I want to do it so bad now! :)

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  3. DorothyNovember 10, 2009 at 10:49 PM

    That pose is called Utthita Hasta Padangustasana. It's a real bastard until your hips open up.

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  4. tracikNovember 11, 2009 at 6:03 AM

    Never tried Moksha but sounds challenging! I'd love to give it a shot. Good luck with it!

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  5. hannahjustbreatheNovember 11, 2009 at 8:23 AM

    Ohhhh, I love the sunrise salutation sequence (downward dog, into plank, into up dog)!! Once you get your movements to match your breathe, you're golden. It becomes so much easier. I'm jealous!! When oh when will Moksha come to Boston?!?!

    I think it's awesome you're mixing things up, Michelle. I know, I know---you didn't really want to, and the purists will disagree with me. But, I think there's something to be said for giving your body a little surprise with some new movements and challenges. :)

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  6. bikramyogachickNovember 11, 2009 at 9:43 AM

    Dorothy~ The pretty long name is fitting for such a gorgeous posture! I was extremely impressed by you and the others who stood quietly in the full expression. Amazing and beautiful!
    Tracik~ I love that it's similar enough to Bikram that I can do most of it, but yet has enough extra thrown in to sink your teeth into! The room is still heated too, so you get the sweat and detox. Ahh!
    Hannah~ Do I smell a cross country flight in your future? Perhaps in the spring, when J is here for training? Yes, I am plotting! You can meet two las vegas bloggers (me and Dorothy), visit J AND try Moksha! That's alot of birds with one stone, er flight.

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  7. thedancingjNovember 11, 2009 at 11:39 AM

    Hee. The Moksha sounds really similar to a lot of other yoga classes I've done, like a Vinyasa flow kind of deal. I still go to other styles every now and then, and it's so entertaining. Some of those classes have you stand on one leg for a LOT longer than Bikram, and I am hopeless at it!! There was one sequence that ended in freaking tree pose, and i couldn't even balance in tree cause my leg was so tired!! LOL

    Hannah, why do you think you need Moksha when there are SO many other great yoga schools in Boston?! I know you did a bunch of Baptiste for a while. Another one to check out is South Boston Yoga, which is apparently awesome. My friend Jen, who taught at BYB for a while, is teaching there now. And it's nice because... ahem... you can CHOOSE when and where you want to go try a different style, instead of having it involuntarily thrust onto you....

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  8. bikramyogachickNovember 11, 2009 at 8:50 PM

    J~ I'm curious about babtiste now! And you are such a rockstar I can't picture you getting too tired to balance in tree at the end of a rough sequence. :)

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  9. thedancingjNovember 11, 2009 at 10:23 PM

    I never did the Baptiste, Hannah is the one to ask about that. She has an entry on it somewhere in her archives. And heck yeah, there's plenty of stuff I can't do... and plenty of stuff that I CAN do, too!!! ;-)

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  10. Duffy PrattNovember 11, 2009 at 11:08 PM

    Here's a link to a decent picture of that pose, as close to the way you described it as I can find. I've encountered something similar in the few Ashtanga classes I've taken, and its just not a guy friendly pose. It baskically required being open in all the areas where I'm closed. Here's the link:

    http://whatsthatpose.blogspot.com/2008/10/utthita-hasta-padangusthasana.html

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  11. bikramyogachickNovember 12, 2009 at 8:10 AM

    Duffy~ I tend to be tight in the same places as guys...hips, hamstrings...so I can relate! That picture is exactly the posture with the exception of the arm extended out at the end and the head turned. Seems unlikely I'll ever get there, but then I think I felt the same way with some of the bikram postures at first!

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