Intro to Second

OK, so since I can't even get through primary without a cheat sheet, I'm sure I had no business going to an Intro to Second class tonight, but oh well.

We did primary through Navasana, then started on second. This is the first time I'd ever taken this class, so I just wanted to see what I could do. Several of the postures were familiar from the Bikram series - salabhasana, dhanurasana, ustrasana. I've decided that I like ustrasana in a non-hot room much better; doing it in a hot room makes me feel like I'm going to either faint or vomit. I was able to get deeply into ustrasana without that feeling tonight.

We went through the rest of the backbends, then to supta vajrasana with a partner, then bakasana. We did it twice. I will probably never jump into bakasana, but I did a half-assed jump out of bakasana the second time. Of course, I very nearly fell on my face in the process, but so what? ;-)

Then we did eka pada, dwi pada, and yoga nidrasana. This is where my strength is, in these kinds of postures. I got each leg behind my head without much difficulty in eka pada, and John came over to help me sit straighter and extend over my other leg. I got into dwi pada also, but when John came over to help me lift up and get into tittibasana, I just couldn't - too tired. That is where my weakness is - arm strength. Then I got into yogi nidrasana and bound easily.

Then headstands - and I was so tired I mostly sat and watched. By the time I had set up for the first headstand, he was moving on. This is another area in which I am weak - balancing in inversions, and I'm especially wary of them when I'm feeling fatigued.

John went on to demonstrate the (seven?) headstands, and at the very end, he had someone hold his feet steady and he lifted his hands completely off the floor and balanced on the top of his head alone. Of course the rest of us were all laughing and going "riiiiiiight".

Now my lower back is quite achy and feels out of whack and my hip joints hurt. I guess it's all that foot-behind-the-head stuff I did tonight.

Wonder of wonders, we are having a cool spell here tonight, and I have the windows open and the air conditioning off. There is a steady breeze in the oak tree outside our bedroom window.

Nowhere to be tomorrow, until the 6:15 hip opener class (I'm determined to take advantage of all this alone time and do a class every day) so I think I'll sleep in tomorrow.