ROLE MODELS

"The over-50 crowd gets quite wild and funny when they are free from having to serve as role models.  Independence of another sort!" - Ramosh Rao

This was part of a caption from under our new pic taken at the start of practice yesterday.  

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Quite a turnout for the Wisdom Warriors' 4th of July practice -- 30 in the room, according to Ramesh (did he count the camera person?).  I worried that - because of the holiday - turnout might be sparse; but no, it was the opposite and did we celebrate.  

The music was rockin', everyone was a bit more 'jazzed' than usual (meaning a bit more chatty), lots of laughter (which is usually the case), and some good/great/wonderful yoga. You know, that bendy, twisty, pretzel kind - the kind some people equate with yoga. It's also the kind I find most challenging; if you know my history (golf, running, weights) - you can guess why.  Little flexibility, but lots of desire.

From a vague beginning "let's just do a well-rounded practice" (per Desiree), the tempo quickly shifted to twists, hamstring openers, with some quad stretches thrown in (just to make them feel included). A personal first for me - a stable parvritta trichonasana (revolved triangle) WITH lower hand on OUTSIDE of front foot (must be all that rib knitting, tailbone scooping stuff). 

The best? That pose where you take one foot out front, extend the other behind; kind of like the splits, but not the 'cheerleader' splits -- these you need to square your hips as you move the legs away from one another. I purposely wrote the beginning of this paragraph in this way to demonstrate the manner in which the pose was 'called' to us -- "take your right leg out in front of you, as you slide your left leg back".  But, we fooled her; we all knew what she was talking about -- that "H" pose. You can't fool a room full of 50+-year-olds that easily, you know.    

After 2 hours of this type of twisting, opening, movement, I still felt strong; in fact, all through the practice I felt strong. To me, that is a sign that this practice, this pushing myself beyond my comfort zone is working. And, it's fun work. 

Following the fun, we had a party! Went to a fellow Warriors' beautiful home overlooking the beach and ocean, enjoyed great food and new friends. Great finale to this 4th of July.   


Today?  Therapeutic Yoga at Yoga for Life, 12:30pm; then Basics at Living Yoga, 4pm (can you say that "H" word anyone?) 

Have a great July 5, everyone!