My Week in Yoga: Not the Normal

I went into this week knowing that my schedule would mean missing all of my normal classes. Which meant in turn that early morning alarm was getting switched on and pre-work practice was going to be a prominent feature. This would not have happened before yoga teacher training. Or if it was still dark and cold outside. But as neither of those things are the current situation, I’m just going to roll with it!

Monday:

40min pre-work flows. I spent most of it working on variations of mermaid arms for some reason – I think this was the first time I’d ever really tried it and it was so fun. Flipping my grip in dancer’s and bow poses is still challenging on some days, and basically still inaccessible in poses like pigeon and low lunge (thanks tight hips!), so mermaid is a much nicer variation to work into a flow where you are moving through families of poses like these and want to keep your arm positioning consistent. I then finished off my morning practice with 10mins of pincha work – the results of which I used for a #transformationtuesday post the following day. Am consistently getting hang time now, and working towards straight. Consistency is the real game changer.

I then topped and tailed off a strong start to the week with an evening 75min level 2 vinyasa class with a colleague visiting from New York. We have been working together for a couple of years but I only found out that he has this amazing yoga practice a few months ago. Now we make an effort to go to a class together whenever we are in each other’s cities. I love practicing along side different people in my life, and how yoga creates unexpected connections like this.

Tuesday:

Busy busy busy, so practice today was an evening affair. Some pranayama followed by long hold flexibility work. Did a little flow first of the poses I was going to then hold for some time: this technique is great for yogis like me who struggle to stay still. Your body just seems calmer when you have already moved through the shape a couple of times. 30min.

Wednesday:

Went to sleep planning an early morning arm balance practice. Ticked off the early morning part, and some arm balances, but can’t say it was much of a practice. I was super distracted and not at all present with my breath or mind. So really this was just a few drills and lots of sitting on my mat twiddling my hair. Hmpf. Such is life sometimes. 30min.

Realised I had skipped my morning pincha attempts, so did 10min when I got home from work. And busted out my best ever straight line!! The ups and the downs of this practice never cease to amaze me.

Thursday:

Pre-work flows again. 45min. Mix of strength work (lots of two-point planks and down dogs) and flows that centered around binds. All finished off with pincha practice in the garden.

Friday:

No yoga today. Well, no asana at least. Instead I spent the day romping around the beautiful Lake District on a work/client charity event (how lucky am I?!). We kicked off the day with a 10 mile hike through the most stunning countryside (it was meant to be 5… we might have got a little lost…), a 140ft abseil into a natural quarry (which was INSANE!), and a session canyoning up a river (cold cold cold water, but lots of fun). Living and working in central London, and being somewhat of an inside person, means I don’t do a lot of time in nature. But I like to think this means when I do I really really appreciate it. This was one of those times.

Saturday:

60min vinyasa class with a friend. The flow itself was very gentle, but the teacher gave us a good few chances to level up, which meant I got to practice my pincha (another long straight hold – yay!) and I cracked the tripod-headstand-to-crow transition for the first time. Boom!

Came home and flexed out another 20min on my mat because I felt so full of energy and happiness.

Sunday:

90min vinyasa class. Felt too slow for where my vibe was, until the teacher had just doing pincha’s and I managed to do my very first in-class-no-spotter-no-wall-long-hold-straight-amazingness-can’t-believe-this-is-me forearm balance! Being able to do things I can do at home in class is definitely not a given for me. People watching (at least in my head!), being scared that I might fall on them, being more focused on the teacher’s instructions that my own body or breath all contribute to missing those moments more often than I hit them. But today was not one of those days. And it rocked.

• Self-Practice: 2hrs 55min
• Dynamic Classes: 3hrs 45min
• Flex Focused Classes: 0
• TOTAL: 5hrs 40min