Thursday, August 30

I sped to RSY today to get to the 5:45pm class who was supposed to be taught by Shawn, but to my surprise I saw Susanne there and she was subbing for Shawn. There were only 3 people at the class today and I was very excited. Susanne is such a great teacher, motivator and “adjuster” so I am glad that I showed up today and am able to get her full attention today.

I am still very sore from Kickboxing on Tuesday, and in fact, when I tried to hug my knees into my chest, my quads were screaming. Needless to say, I was very stiff during my practice, but I was able to stretch out as my body warmed up.

I learned a new pose today, it’s called the Tripod Headstand. Although I didn’t get to do the full version, just learning to balance the knees on the triceps are enough to challenge my edge.

Like always, I was very eager to learn more about the mechanics of this pose so I got Susanne to break it down for me after class. She made it look so easy I got home and I Googled it, of course… I learned that there was another way of getting into the pose, which was from the Standing Straddle Forward Bend with the head on the floor, which is how I normally get into my splits.
Susanne’s method was to start from Table Pose and then walk the hips up to Downdog position and then the spine and pelvis will stack itself. The toes will automatically start lift off the ground at this point and the knees can be supported by the triceps when this happens.

Positioning

Sorry, not the best picture found on the net, the spine should be properly aligned before this should happen, the toes should be pointed to engage the legs and core and the neck relaxed but supportive. There are quite a few things that are not right with this picture.

Getting into Tripod Headstand from straddled position

I was not able to lift my legs further because this was only my first day trying this pose, so my core will have to strengthen a lot more in order to lift the legs out to the sides, out 90 degrees or all the way up to the ceiling. Another area that needs to be strengthen is the neck, but actually the key is to proper align the cervical vertebraes of the neck which will help balance the pose. With all these being said, the most important thing to know about learning to get into poses like the headstands and the Crow, is to have a sense of humour. So every time I fall, I laugh

I think the counter pose for this is Child’s Pose.

One thing that Susanne said in the class really struck me today. She said that often, we as a society focuses too much on “working out” and neglected to “work in” instead. I cannot agree more.

Meals
B: Coffee, oatmeal
L: TJ Fresh Noodle Salad, Organic banana
D: (Raw Food Potluck @ RSY) Zucchini Spaghetti with raw cheese and capers, raw chocolate raspberry pie, and lots of antioxidant juices!!!