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It's Friday again!!! Tomorrow we'll be halfway through our training. It's going really fast, and we're both a little overwhelmed!

We looked at Patanjali's Yoga Sutras II.3-11. It got a little too metaphisical for M's liking. S didn't say anything, but he felt the same way. Is this real? Are we real? Are our interactions real? BA-LO-NY!

We then studied the anatomy of the knee. It's actually really cool. The knee is a hinge joint (like a door hinge) but it also has a little rotation action to it in case you fall wonky and your knee has to rotate out or in. M suffers from hyperextension, which is when your weight sits at the front of your knee, putting pressure on one side of your menisci and lengthening the ligaments at the back of your knee. If you have hyperextension, then you need to have a microbend at your knee to engage all of the muscles of the leg to support the knee.

Our practice was active hip-openers. Active hip-openers are when you open your hips with the help of gravity- think of splits. In fact, our peak pose was the splits, Hanumanasana. Hip openers can be a little volatile. We store a lot of emotion on our hips and when we open them, it kind of releases all of that emotion like flood gates. After 2 hours of hip openers, we were all really for bed.


Lunch with the yogis on the lawn.

After lunch we talked about the benefits, risks and contraindications of hip openers. If you have knee or ankle injury, be hesitant. We then got into groups of 4 and sequenced a class- fun!

That being said, it's Friday, so we're going to treat you with a video of Surya Namaskar A (Sun Salutaton A). Surya Namaskar come from the Ashtanga tradition of yoga. In Ashtanga you do Surya A, then Surya B as a general (or targeted) warm-up. It seems pretty easy, but it's harder than you think.

Stay grounded,

S and M