unac

Finished the challenge on Saturday morning. Did a double on Wednesday evening and then coasted through to Saturday morning.

My main thoughts on it are:

30 days is a long time! It feels strange not to have to think about how to get to yoga every single day this week – just a few days! The discipline is great – there were a good few days when I would not have gone without the discipline of the challenge and I was glad to have gone. On the other hand, I was a bit bored of going every day by the end. It takes about 2.5 hours all told, sometimes more, to go and it is a large chunk out of the day. I went to a very early class this morning and would go to more if the studio offered them – great to have it done for the day.

My practice has improved a lot – some of the poses that I thought would never master I can do. When I did my double class last week, and we did half moon pose in the fourth part (can’t rememeber the name) I was able to get my elbow behind my knees in the second class in a row, which I can’t do normally. Back to normal after that.

My knees are still the most inflexible part of me, and do not seem to be improving in flexibility at all – for fixed firm or tree or other poses . I will ask at the studio if there is anymore I can do about this or just be patient.

I am overall really glad I did it and feel a sense of achievement – I tended to tell others that it was no big deal, and not to make very much of it, and therefore feel a bit cheated? Does that make any sense?

I was very hungry the whole time I did it and haven’t lost an ounce of weight. Oh well……

Thanks so much for your support and help

Una

Thanks again.

I don’t thankfully have flat feet or anything wrong generally with my knees or ankles. They do seem to be inflexible though and I have been working on improving the flexibility bit by bit over the last few months; in the first pose after the spine-strengthening series, when the pose involves keeping the knees on the ground and going back (don’t know the name) I have just worked in each class on getting my sit bones on the ground as my knees are resistant; I am getting infinitesmally better at it with each week that goes past!

The class last night was great and I could feel a real improvement in my knees from the short rest, as well as better alignment in several poses; I had had a really good night’s sleep and I think that always makes everything better.

Will post again soon

I am on Day 10 of a 30-day challenge, posting this just before class at 11am. I have some random thoughts about the challenge that I wanted to put down somewhere
1. I am putting more salt on my food, which I guess is replacing what I lose in class by going every day
2. My practice is getting so much better with going every day – the main reason I decided to do the challenge was to improve in a way that just wasn’t possible with going three times a week
3. I normally would, with something like this, constantly think about the end, but I am trying and for the most part succeeding in taking it one day at a time and I have deliberately not even calculated when the 30 is up
4. My knees are a bit sore – I did a lot of biking on Friday as well as yoga, just travelling around for work and appointments and I think it may have done something. I am going to go to early class before work on Monday and after work on Tuesday and see if that gives some time to heal
5. I am getting very frustrated with my left leg in the standing series – I do try and in the last few days am trying really hard to lock out my leg, and engage the quadricep not lock out my knee
6. Since starting bikram yoga it has had a huge impact on my breathing – even when I do cardio at the gym now, which I have suspended for the challenge, I can control my breath even when my heart is beating really fast – it is still a strange sensation to me.
7. I am doing the challenge out of vanity really and need to be more mindful of what I am eating – I don’t want to have a great bikram body under a layer of fat!