Friday, April 27, 2012

Bikram. Days 17-25.


Day 17.

The classes are beginning to blur together. Bluuuuuur.

Day 18.
Another walkout in class tonight. It was a surprise because I’ve seen that person here several times. Later, the poor young lady next to me is exhausted. She sits outs several sets, and skips a couple of poses altogether. I’m tempted to join her.
Nice stretch later at the neighborhood 운동장. The Korean guy at the other end of the parallel bars looks like he’s trying to compete with me. Doing the same stretch as me while pretending not to notice me looking at him. This happens to me occasionally. Ha ha.
Day 19.
Standing separate leg, triangle, full locust, head to knee/stretching and camel were all strong. Especially triangle. I became slightly emotional coming out of the second set. Although on blowing in firm pose, it was all I can do not to gasp out loud for air.
Something interesting is happening with half moon. Despite being a consistently difficult posture, I did always find the back and front bends easier than the side bends; perhaps because I practice back and front bends pretty regularly. However, unexpectedly the side bends have become progressively easier and the back bend is actually becoming more challenging. The front bend is more or less the same, although with that I’m trying to learn to put more weight on the balls of my feet than the heels. Tonight I almost fell forward trying to do that. Yikes.
Day 20.
It’s Saturday and I tentatively planned to do a double today, but I was just so tired this morning. The rainy weather didn’t help. But class was okay and I didn’t sit out anything. Although during standing series I was really hungry and I kept thinking about food. I could see hamburgers floating around my head.
Visible progress on standing bow; feeling freer to extend my upper body further and “kick” a little higher. Also, keeping my knees further apart seems to make fixed firm more bearable.
Day 21.
Blah.
Day 22.
Possibly the best class so far. The only real bump (other than continuing to substitute tree for toe stand) was fixed firm. Also after the first set of locust, in my head I said to myself, “I’m going to sit out second set. I am so tired. I need a break.” Ball clapped his hands for the sit-up and I found myself doing the second set. It was a painfully long 15 seconds. Full locust was strong however, which made me feel better.
Day 23.
Decent class tonight (the second set of half moon actually felt good), although the last 20 minutes I ran out of steam. Part of this may have been because I didn’t sleep very well last night. Although I had a good day at work, after the first half of Bikram class in the evening my tiredness seemed to kick in. I sat out a few sets, including the second set of rabbit pose (which I rarely sit out, but after two sets of camel I was back to the exploding head syndrome).I didn’t even want to deal with spinal twist. I was also distracted because I was thinking about my plans to meet a friend for dinner near Olympic Park. After class my friend cancelled, to my annoyance. Although with the nicer weather I was able to take a slow walk on the way home. Later I returned to the 운동장 for some extended stretching. I’ve been relatively stiff the last few days (especially in my right leg), and I just wanted to take some time to work out some kinks.
Planning my first double tomorrow night. Honestly I’m not very excited about it, but I just need to get it over with.
I’ve tried to maintain a very practical approach to this entire 30-day thing. As tired as I've been, I’ve never once thought about quitting. And even in my worst classes, walking out of the room has never been an option for me.
Day 24.
The double (5 and 7 p.m.) went much better than I expected. Not to say that it was easy. I went light during the first, although by standing bow I was ready to go all-out. I ended up going strong on my easier poses and lighter on the more difficult stuff. Interestingly, going lighter than normal actually helped me to focus more on performing the poses correctly. Lisa gave me some helpful feedback on several points. I put them into practice immediately on the second class, partially because I wanted to do them well but partially because I was so tired. The first 30 minutes my arms felt like jelly, and I barely got through balancing stick. My towel was soaked from the first class and my foot slipped on the set-up for standing separate leg, almost turning that pose into a split. It was difficult for me not to laugh out loud. After that I felt more or less normal, although while I conserved my water in the first class, this time I guzzled it. By the end I thought I would be wiped out and in a way I was, but not in an exhausted way. By the time I got to the restaurant with Lukas afterward, I actually didn’t feel tired anymore.

Day 25.

Still feeling the momentum from last night. I may start doing doubles more often. The tall guy was back, and we were next to each other in the front. Sometimes it kind of annoys me to have to make major adjustments in my posture to avoid hitting another person (especially with full locust), but this time around I was glad to defer to him.

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