Struggling with yoga

This post was originally published at Get Fit Chicks. It may refer to posts on Get Fit Chicks that no longer exist. Please email me if you run into any of those and I will break the links. More information about the reposting is available here

(written on Friday)

Last Thursday I had the hardest yoga class I’ve ever had. And it wasn’t hard because of the sequence of poses the instructor chose. It was hard because I think my body had already checked out for the weekend.

Seriously I had no balance. I fell out of mountain pose (this is not difficult, check it out here if you don’t know what it is. Yes. I did. I fell out of that!), a high plank and side plank. I even fell out of downward dog. I think I probably would have even fallen out of child’s pose if I hadn’t already been pretty much all on the floor.

The instructor checked on me a few times because it was definitely obvious that something was up. Except I had no idea what.

I didn’t think I got much of a workout because I felt like I spent most of the hour picking myself up off the floor, but the next day my legs and abs were SORE!

I missed my first yoga class this week, but managed to make it yesterday. And I was very apprehensive. I did not want another class like last Thursday.

And thank goodness it wasn’t. But I still felt somewhat off balance and like some of the strength in my legs and arms was gone. But I managed to hold every plank. I even managed a modified eagle pose like this one except to make it harder you lean your torso forward until it’s parallel with the floor and the extend your arms. And it’s all on one foot. And I didn’t fall over.

And you know, that felt really good after last week’s frustrations. I don’t have any sore parts today, but my brain is definitely in a much happier place that it was last Friday!