I took the advanced heavy weight yoga class at Ganesha last night. I’ve been taking heavy weight yoga for over a year now. The *heavyweight* descriptor is exactly what you might imagine. The class is designed to help good size people benefit from yoga. I love it. I started off going to one class a week. After four months, I started taking two classes a week. This week with the advanced addition, I’ll take three.
My current classes have had a revolving door of newbies in and out. I don’t mind because yoga is an individual practice. So as others learn the basics, I push myself within the comfort of the familiar. The advance class introduced me to more aggressive poses. It was definitely harder and awkwarder. Some of it, I was able to do. On my knees, I stretched right back into a camel pose. It opened up my chest significantly. Later, I was unable to morph my downward facing dog pose so my forearms were on the mat, the dolphin pose. It’ll take practice. The class showed me I can and should strive for a higher level.
Over this past year, I’ve also incorporated restorative yoga (my fave) and sun salutations into my practice too.
On the quarter, Ganesha offers a 2.5 hour restorative yoga class. They schedule this class perfectly for a Sunday evening. The practice uses various props to stretch the body in various poses. The props are typically pillow-type bolsters. Cindy, the instructor, is also certified in reiki. As people are in their poses, she comes around and adjusts for optimal benefit. Or she tweaks the energy forces. I am the most relaxed I ever am right after this class. I go home and sleep like death.
Since November 1st, I’ve been doing daily sun salutations at least 6 times a week. I usually give myself a skip on Sunday because I’m going into to serve brunch. I do 24 in three sets of eight. My preference is to linger in each pose and really feel the stretch. I’ve found that I can also do them quickly which is good. My tight schedule can’t be an excuse for not completing this daily meditation/exercise.
In this horrific winter, I did let 6 days go by without sun salutations. My body’s response was startling. I was old lady stiff. I would bend down to pick something up and not know for certain if I was coming back up. Painful! Internally, my body was in full protest of the salutation slow-down. The revolt manifested itself in major gas. I was omitting loud and long vapors. Imagine a helium balloon releasing its air in a long stream of squeaky. That was me many times a day. I got on the internet to diagnosis myself. I was concerned for my health. I thought I might have concocted a rare and smelly chronic condition. (what a way to go out! EGADS!)
Nothing else had changed in my diet or life. Without my sun salutation practice, my body was concocting big batches of nasty. The toxicity was literally accumulating in my insides. Once I resumed my ritual, the stink bombing went away. My body returned to its norm.
Practicing yoga is making my body nimbler and my spirit gentler. It’s the only exercise program that I’ve ever looked forward to. Without it, I’d be a smelly mess.