Another butt kicking.

Advanced primary this morning, a full house. Having taken two days off, I felt pretty good in class, but now I'm feeling a little battered.

John mixed in some second series work along with our first series - virabhadrasana III added to parsvottanasana on each side; then in ardha baddha padmottanasana, he had everyone who was in the forward bend lower into vatayasana. After trianga mukha before changing sides, we did krounchasana, then salabhasana two ways: the second series way, and the Bikram way with arms tucked under and both legs raised, bhekasana (each side first, then together), dhanurasana and parsva dhanurasana, ustrasana and bakasana. Then back to primary, where at Navasana we did it something like eight times, alternating between pincha mayurasana and handstands between each set of Navasana. (I can't do either, but I tried, at least.)

I was unable to bind again in supta kurmasana today; I got my ankles crossed and behind my head and once again my hair got in the way; once I got that fixed I was only able to touch fingertips together. I guess binding a couple weeks ago was a fluke!

Then all the way through to backbends, which he wanted us to hold in one long set - "this lowering down in between is a baaad habit," he said. During this long set, he had us raise alternate legs, then lower into kapotasana (neither of which I could do).

Then finally he left us to closing on our own.

Now my left knee, deep in the joint, hurts quite a bit. It has a tendency to do that anyway, but I've not been taking my glucosamine as regularly as I should, and I also may have stressed it in today's practice.

I'm also a bit frustrated with how slowly my upper body strength is increasing. Or not increasing. I still struggle with getting all the way through to the end without my chattarangas falling apart and by the time we get to backbends, I'm fatigued and struggle with doing three (or holding them in a long set). When I do backbends after a hot class, they are almost effortless, but hot classes require very little from my upper body. It seemed for a while that I was getting much stronger very quickly, but now I seem to have hit a plateau in that regard.

Maybe I'm just destined to be a weakling. I can twist and bind for days, but arm strength will elude me forever.