I think most colds typically have a peak. I’m going to optimistically assume that yesterday was my peak and work to manifest feeling fantastic for tomorrow (partially because I’m freaking done with feeling sick but mostly because my friend and I have tickets for the John Mayer concert).
Today, once my dayquil/ advil combo had fully kicked in, I decided to move my body by way of a mellow yoga class. The class itself was 60 minutes and VERY mellow. Lots of holding poses and a good fifteen minutes at the end devoted to stretching. AKA just what my sick body needed. And yes, maybe it would have been smart for me to stop there. But…
One huge perk of doing at-home yoga (and I don’t find that there are many) is that your time is your time. No one is telling you what to do or when to do it. If you want to stop your hour long virtual class and just flow yourself, you can. If you want to practice a new pose you’ve been trying to nail for an hour AFTER the virtual class is over in the comfort of your own home, you can.
I finished my virtual yoga class and was feeling great. My sinuses were clearer than they’d been in days and it felt so good to workout again, even if it was mellow. There’s been a pose I’ve been struggling to get for a while now and it frustrates the HECK out of me that I have yet to nail it. The chin stand.
Now, I can do a headstand. I can do a forearm stand. There has even been a time in my life that I’ve gotten a handstand. A chin stand, though? For whatever reason my brain and my body cannot get their sh*t together and figure out the chin stand. A chin stand, for those who have the good fortune of never having heard of this abomination of a pose, should be fairly easy if you have decent back flexibility, and core and arm strength. I do. Or thought I did. Essentially, you balance on your chin, looking forward, and both hands, which are placed behind your head/chin. Then your legs point up towards the ceiling. I’ll include pictures at the end.
I looked up some image tutorials, set up my video camera (this is key! Videoing myself helps me SO much with yoga poses and is a huge perk of an at home practice) and got to business, working to replicate the step-by-step processes the images laid out.
Oh my god! I exclaimed after falling out of the dang chin stand before even getting both feet in the air. Why the heckin heck is this so dang hard?! (And yes, this quote has been modified for a slightly more PG audience.)
I tried a few more times and checked my video. The most recent chin stand looked okay, just incredibly shaky. Wow. I could not believe a pose I thought was so simple was giving me such a headache.
Upon further research (which, I’ll be honest, was driven by my hope that I was doing something incorrect), in a lot of the tutorials the person’s body was not just balancing on their hands and their chin, but was also using their chest as a base. I was, in fact, doing the ‘hard’ version of the chin stand.
With my newfound knowledge, I returned to my mat. And nailed a (much easier version of the) chin stand.
Maybe once I’ve kicked this cold I’ll master a chin stand with my chest lifted… but for now, the easier route feels just as good.
