ONE-MINUTE HOLDS (!?!?!?!)

The title pretty much sums up our Wednesday Wisdom Warriors practice.  Desiree put together a nice series of poses, each to be held for one minute.

Let's be clear here, these were not un-strenuous poses.  She included poses like Warrior I & III, Trichonasana, Parvritta Trichonasana, Supta Virasana, Hanumanasana, and - not to forget - handstand and Urdhva Dhanurasana, plus about 40 others (remember, this is a 2-hour practice).

I have to say that I enjoyed the practice.  As we remained in poses, breathing as deeply as the pose allowed, I could feel my body shifting gradually into a more refined shape of the pose asked for.  My challenge, as always, was the handstand and Urdhva moments.

My goal is to work on both those two latter poses more diligently this year.  I have to admit that I almost had given up on handstand - just figured I will never be able to kick up, let alone hold it for any period of time, so why keep trying (and - be still my ego - embarrassing myself).  However, I just read a blog from the Core Walking website that offers some new ideas to consider (www.corewalking.com).  With new and untried possibilities, I can hardly give up, can I?

Wisdom Warriors is one of the sources of my teaching 'ideas' -- we practice, I then teach a WW practice in Temecula on Thursdays and I use much of the same stuff.  I even use some in my Gentler classes.  For example, in both groups yesterday, we did long holds on the poses.  I didn't have the timer figured ('chakra chimes' app on the iPhone), so we counted breaths, which - interestingly - makes things more manageable for some students.

Not only do I feel the body shift, but yesterday I noticed an interesting correlation - one I hadn't thought of before.  I am always asking students to weight the 4 corners of their feet equally.  It offers stability to their poses, firing muscles in the legs to help support them.  Sometime in the past few days, I read another blog post from the above-mentioned site regarding the affect of pressing through the inner edge of our feet on our inner thighs.  So, as we practiced yesterday, I tried to notice.  In prasarita padottanasana (wide-legged forward fold), if you allow the feet to weight on the outside edge it's pretty comfortable, especially if you are holding for a minute or so.  However, if you distribute the weight through the 4 corners (with just a bit more emphasis on the inner edge), you will feel your inner thighs begin to rev up.  Try it -- but, hold the pose for several breaths, settle into the pose, then try it.  Interesting.  (And, I wasn't the only person noticing it!)

So, another Gentle Class to teach today (Friday), 11:45am at Living Yoga.  And, Saturday -- a treat -- I'll guest teach an 8:45 am class at the MAC yoga studio right here in Fallbrook.  If you are close, stop by; would love to have a nice group.

Hope you all have a great day!