One day I'll land the crane

Day 11. Yoga. Last week I gave the Yoga X video about 20 minutes of my time. After 20 minutes of downward dog, I said the heck with it and did cardio. Today I vowed I was going to stick with yoga - all one hundred and two minutes of it. I did the downward dog to ashtanga to upward dog and back again. What I didn't see coming (since I had already gotten p.o.'d by this point last week) was the more strenuous poses that challenged every muscle in my body.

The warrior, triangle, and twisted seated poses were difficult and, for me, unattractive, but doable. The crane and some other God-forsaken pose, however, were not. The pose I can't remember the name of started from twisted warrior 1. With one arm behind your back you put the other arm through the front bent knee to wrap around and lock fingers (okay, yeah, sure!)with the other hand that's still behind your back. If you can't picture what I've described, it's because I have no idea how I got into the position and therefore am not describing it well. I didn't completely suck at it, though. I would have been better and might have completely locked my fingers if my fat rolls hadn't gotten in the way. I just couldn't lean over enough!

Okay, so the crane...this one was prefaced with a warning not to do a face plant into the floor...I braced myself for what was coming. You put your palms on the floor and hitch your knees around your triceps. Then slowly push off your toes until you are holding your whole body up with your arms. Um. Sure. I tried the full minute. I even tried the modified version *grinds teeth-grr* with my toes still on the floor but still couldn't do it. I've seen other people do it so that makes me want to do it even more. I should mention that the crane was part of the second half of the video devoted to balancing moves, which I liked.

Today was a success, I suppose. I still haven't made it all the way through the video, but still much farther than last week. I have about a half mile walk and then five-story-climb up to work and I noticed my muscles were very fatigued, confirmation that I did in fact do something productive instead of just bobble around. My only complain is that the heels of my hands are RAW from downward dog. I think I'll have to get some gloves or something. Which sounds out of place in a yoga setting. But Tony did say this isn't just Yoga, it's Yoga X! So I better get some gloves so I can Bring It! again next week!