Friday, May 6, 2011

Lone Yogini

Because AK had to return to class on Saturdays after Spring break, I found myself alone on my way to Long Beach at 7 AM to take a non-heated hot class alone. When I got there, only one other person was already in the studio and one walked in right before me. The instructor from the previous weekends was there. I scanned in and she said something.

You know how we'd had problems hearing her during class? I thought that maybe the music had something to do with it. Or maybe it was because we were in the back of the room. Once we were about a foot and a half away from each other and she said something, I realized, no, she's just a low talker.

Not hearing what she said, I asked if she could tell when my membership ran out. She said that my scan didn't go through. Ohhh, that's what she had said--didn't work. So I scanned again. Again, it didn't work. Jeez. Of course, the day I go by myself, I'm like out of the club. I gave her my name and she found me in the system and told me the date my membership ended. It's too soon! Only until May 16. Not enough weekends between now and then :(

I set up my mat where AK and I had been the last time. Several more women entered along with one more man who put his mat smack dab in the middle of four of us--two of us were kind of next to each other and two women were behind us and so he went right in the middle to make a fifth. The woman next to him moved over and he was like, You don't have to move.

She didn't have to but she WANTED to, buddy. She graciously told him, there's PLENTY of room so I'm giving you more space. I couldn't move because I was near a wall, so I'm happy she moved.

This class began (late! again!) with alternate nostril breathing. I figured that out when I saw the woman in front of me begin to do it. I couldn't hear what the instructor was saying exactly. At first, I thought she wanted us to sit in a pose that imitates Buddha, our left thumb and pointer touching with the back of the hand down and the other hand up with some fingers in the air. Then I saw the woman move her hand to her nose and was like, ohhhhh, breathing. It's a very calming exercise.

After the hot horrible class, this class was a blessing. Aside from the instructor being a low talker, she's great. She has a soothing quality about her. She eases us into the poses using the breath (that's hatha for ya).

Some people were not as eased as others. And by some people, I mean the man who plopped down in the middle of us. Every move, he gave an uh! ug! ung! owowow! errra! It was torturous.

The instructor adjusted him as she adjusted everyone else. She's so great at adjustments. At one point, I was in updog and she came over, grabbed my bun at the top of my head, and pulled it back to pull my head back. No joke.

In the middle of the class, some of the women in the front were really hot. The temperature was a bit warmer than it had been the last time I was in the non-heated class. It wasn't up near the hot class, but it was warmer. The instructor opened the front window, which meant the curtain had to open as well. I like a darker room with less noise, but now the breeze was coming in along with the sound of cars and the occasional truck. The breeze makes getting into the postures a little more difficult. I did not want the challenge.

Towards the end, we were getting into fish. I was just about done with moving, my body having gone through P90X hell all week, so I was doggin it. This instructor? Does not let you dog it. But instead of taunting you, she comes next to you, lies down face to face, and says, Now this is how we do fish. How can you not do the pose when she's on the hard floor with no mat next to you showing it? So I stopped being lazy and did it and she said, good good, got up, and adjusted ouch!oomf!ow! man. (FYI: I am aware this picture looks like one of those dummies you use to learn to do CPR on. It also looks like a bald albino child in 70s polyesther pants that you know his mom makes him wear though he's unhappy about it--dang, isn't being albino enough of a challenge?).

That's pretty much why I enjoy taking classes. I can't get away with being lazy.

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