A year ago, I enrolled to an Intro to Yoga class at a studio near home. The class completely changed my approach to yoga and helped me avoid injury. I continued to take classes over the summer but sometimes the heat was just unbearable to do anything. In September I moved back to Korea and by the end of October I had decided to practice Yoga at home. I found a dvd by Kathryn Budig and decided to practice yoga every other day. It’s a 25 minute video but for the first couple weeks I couldn’t even finish the whole thing. 15 minutes into the video I would be a panting sweaty mess. I was very much out of shape and just barely touching my toes.
It’s been 6 months since I started my home practice and I can really see a change in my body. For one, I used to do chaturanga (yoga push up) on my knees. Now I can do it with my legs straight and lower my body slowly rather than dropping from lack of arm strength. Another big change was with my posture. It used to be hard to sit for more than a few minutes with my back straight. My body had grown stiff from a sedentary lifestyle in front of the computer. Now it bothers me if I sit with my back hunched and feels better when I sit straight. Even though I’m not sitting straight 100% time, it’s still a huge difference considering I was never sitting up straight 6 months ago.
I’m still struggling with a sequence that goes from warrior 1 directly into warrior 2 that lasts almost 2 minutes. I can really feel the burn in my legs while staying in the warrior stance. I wonder if I’ll ever grow enough strength in my legs to be in the warrior position comfortably.
What yoga poses do you struggle with in your normal routine?
