Friday, November 2, 2012

Inspiration from Yoga - Day 16 - Lift Me Up!

Another great upper body workout for yoga! It's astonishing how just subtly altering an exercise can change its outcome so drastically. Tonight's practice involved some pushup drills with hands wider than yoga mat width. Dropping down and pressing back up while keeping my core tight and lower back lifted was quite challenging enough in such a wide reach, but when we turned fingertips inwards to engage the triceps, I concede that I had to drop a knee to the mat and rest after several reps. Meanwhile, the lovely slender Asian lady demonstrating continued to pump out the "Tricep Terminator" pushups while I severely checked my competitive streak.

Yoga is non-competitive.
There are no awards for best Warrior 2 Pose, nor do they award medals for longest held low plank (Chaturanga pose). There are no recognitions for your yoga pants wherein you earn a new color of pants for poses learned (I tend to avoid the use of %the word "mastered" as when have we TRULY mastered anything in our lives? Isn't there always room for improvement?) They do not hand out trophies for cutest yoga outfit either, gym bunnies ... :P

Mindful of misguided inclination to overface my body in the desire to keep up with a video yogi who wasn't in the slightest aware of my presence, I pushed back up for a handful more triceps then gratefully moved on to a vinyasa sequence.

By the end, my body was tired, but grateful. So what if my hands may have trembled a wee bit while brushing my teeth? I am stronger, and maybe next time I won't have to take a breather!

Namaste!

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