Leg Breaking Pose

How the name suits this asana.  I have just started exploring this pose in the Advanced classes.  It looks like the movement happens in the knee but I feel the stretch in the hip and hip flexor.

If I understand the pose correctly, eventually my foot should be tucked up underneath my rib cage.

Here is what Leg Breaking may look like one day, in the future.  I don't know the Sanskrit name for this pose, if anyone knows it and would like to share...
Update September 11: the Sanskrit name is Eka-pada Gokilasana.  Thanks Dancing J!

Lotus, Ouch!

I practiced 3 hours of yoga today!  Love it!  My studio has started having advanced classes again, so I participated in my first one in nearly a year today.

All I have to say right now is, Lotus, my god, it hurts so much.  Not my hips, not my knees but my ankle.  Specifically my right ankle.  We do a whole series of Lotus poses that last for what feels like forever.  I can stand the first quarter of the series and then my right ankle starts to kill me.  I know that it is from the many, many times I have rolled it and pulled the tendons and sprained it.  The tendons are used to being so tight and this is finally allowing them to stretch out.

So, really, this is a good thing.

And, that's all I have to say about that - for today.

Happy Labour Day!

Cobra and Breath

I learned how to breathe in Cobra pose, yesterday.

I did my first set of Cobra, as per normal - I love Cobra pose.  And then during Savasana, the teacher started talking about how you need to inhale up into the pose and then you naturally exhale but then on your next inhale, focus on the expansion of the chest, then exhale 20% of your breath and then inhale and expand again.

Well, if I wasn't looking even further back on the ceiling in my second set of Cobra.  I always thought I was breathing in the pose, maybe I was but maybe I wasn't breathing enough.  This morning I tried it again and it felt good - new, different, deeper.

On another note, I tried to do the splits yesterday, which I haven't done since the competition and holy tight hip flexors!  I guessing with all my BodyRocks and weights some parts of me have tightened up again.  I'm also not as far along as I was 2 months ago with King Pigeon pose - a sore shoulder and lack of back bends and practice will do that.  So new goal is to practice King Pigeon and the splits a few times a week.

But I've improved with Crow and Crane pose!  Yesterday I was actually able to balance in both those poses for maybe 2 seconds.  I like to think that I've gained some upper body strength and some confidence!

Advanced Class

I took my first Advanced Bikram yoga class today.  I skipped out of work for a few hours - feigning an appointment - which it was and went back to the studio at 11 this morning.

All I can say is that it was amazing.  The first thing Ida Ripley said to me was that I was there because I was advanced enough in my yoga practice to know my own limitations.  Holy, compliment!  I did poses I never thought I could do.  I learned that my right ankle, that has been sprained many times, needs time to loosen up before I can sit in Lotus pose.  I realized that my back is rather flexible.  I found two possible poses I will do in the competition.  And I bailed hard when I was trying to do headstand!  I had to laugh - I fell hard flat on my back with a loud and wet smack!

I went back to work a few hours later and felt high as a kite.  I still feel amazing.  Challenging myself with these new poses has given me a little push - a push I've been needing for while.

The Dancing J gives a great break down on the Advanced Series here.