Day 6: Suck Your Stomach In!

Today BYH opened it's doors for a 2:00 class for foot traffic only. B'more is still buried under its 2+ feet of snow and now there is more forecast for Tuesday. I'm lucky that I only live a few blocks from my studio. After a day on my own it was such a gift to be able to return to the hot room and a good teacher. Thank you Abby!

Before class I asked Abby if she could think of any reason the lower left side of my back/top of my butt hurt so badly. She thought about it a bit and then said it could be that I was collapsing on that side in half moon instead of sucking in my stomach and lifting up and over.

Inwardly I groaned. Somehow I knew sucking in my stomach was going to be the problem. One of the things you hear all the time in Bikram Yoga is that if you're naturally flexible, you use your flexibility to make you strong. If you're strong, you use your strength to make you flexible. I'm naturally flexible and have a core like mush. In addition, I've gained about 20 pounds since I last had a consistent practice and some of that weight is a flabby, multiple-rolls belly.

*sigh*

In the final spine twist I can't reach all the way over to grip my thigh because that stomach is in the way. I've always had a tough time breathing while sucking in my stomach and, because it's tough to tell in my slightly loose yoga top, I cheat. As long as I continue to do this, I will only be able to make so much progress in my postures and so I am cheating myself.

So, joyful to be back in the hot studio, I resolved to hold that stomach in for every posture I was told to. You may or may not know, but in Bikram's 26 posture series there are only three times we are not asked to suck in our stomachs {I know. I checked with Abby after class.}: the back bend that is part of Half Moon, Camel, and Savasana. That's a lot of gut-sucking. By the time we got to Eagle I was exhausted and that's only the fourth posture! I fell out on the same side during both sets and just laughed. There is always so much to learn and fix and struggle through, just like the rest of life.

I will be holding that belly in until maybe I finally develop that core strength I always hear so much about but never experience. And maybe, just maybe, if I can do that, I'll find the strength to do a lot of other things that currently feel impossible!