14

Its finally the weekend.  Its been a long haul but we're officially half way through our training.  We slept in for a miraculous 30 minutes extra since we start class on Saturday's at 8:00 instead of 7:30 on weekdays.  To mark this momentus occasion, when S arose he made pancakes with trail-mix.  It makes for a very hearty pancake mix and quite delicious with heap loads of maple syrup.  To match that S and M both enjoyed piping hot teas (M was surprised by a fruity tea from her 'secret-angel' from yoga class, while S had an extra cube of sugar in his early grey).

Two bunnies from our walk on Friday
not our car - ignore license plate!

The walk was wet.  It didn't look too bad when we left the house, but the drizzle picked up until it was a constant mist.  M wore her white rain poncho, which she thought was impermeable.  But when she arrived to class she was soaked thoroughly.  During our walk we were surprised to see a black bunny with a painted white nose also forging the dreary weather.  Quite a surprise. We would've taken a picture but it was too wet.

At class we were pleasantly surprised to find R and E both teaching - E took the weekend off last Saturday, so we assumed that R would have this time.  Turns out both are super troopers.  We're really lucky to have them teaching us.  We began with the anatomy of the wrist.  Quite interesting.  S and M were both familiar with the bone structure of the wrist.  M was surprised by the carpal dance that occurs every time we move our wrist (those bones love to party). S was  astonished by the nerve layout in the hand - a major nerve runs right along the heel of the palm.  The key message for today was to press down through the 4 corners four corners of your hand, but to keep most of the weight in the knuckle of the index finger as its the most stable.  This is because the metacarpal of the first two digits sits further back into the carpals.

BKS Iyengar rocking
bhujapidasana

BKS Iyengar spreading wide in
tittibhasana

After our anatomy lesson we enjoyed a labourious practice focusing on arm balances.  Arm balances are super hard.  It's strenuous on the wrist if you don't put weight into the knuckle of the index finger, but once you can get up it's exhilarating.  M found bhujapidasana easy - like crow but your feet are in front of you and crossed at the heel.  S couldn't get into bhujapidasana but found tittibhasana (from which bhujapidasana derives from) very easy.

Random lady rocking
vasisthasana

Iyengar making bakasana
look easy

After practice we talked about the benefits and risks of arm balances and we got into groups of four to practice teach.  We had to instruct cat/cow,  surya namaskar A, vasisthasana (side angle pose) and finally bakasana (crow pose).  S's energy levels were drained from practice and lied on the floor with his arm in the air when vasisthasana was taught.  R said he looked like a mermaid.  M got probed by E because she has big trapezius muscles that don't let her stand up straight.  E kept drawing M's shoulder blades together.  M really wanted to tell her to 'go away', but its for her own good.


To close practice today we said one word to sum up our training so far.  S's was exhausted.  M's was anxious.  These two weeks have taken a toll on both of our bodies and minds.  It's a good challenge to do and the rewards will be even sweeter when we're done.

Afterwards we went to the grocery store and had what seemed like a never ending walk back home.  We bought gross corn nuts with lemon and spice flavouring.  M said something unrepeatable about what they reminded her of.  S agreed that they were disgusting, but went back for seconds just in case the flavour changed.  It didn't.

Tonight is a chill night in the apartment.  Loading up a movie, resting, and possibly giving into our hamburger/pizza cravings we've been having all week - it might be a non-vegetarian evening.  Tomorrow we get to hang with our new besties C & R.  Enjoy the weekend all.

Homework:
YYoga Binders: read pages 11, 12 from sequencing chapter
Anatomy Colouring book:  page 57
Sutras chapter 2: read 15-18, 28-29
Teaching script for vasisthasana (general form, dual action, contracting and expanding energy)
Study for quiz next Thursday

Stay Grounded,

S and M