July 21, 2007
Day 18: Yoga X
Ooooohhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmm…
I felt good after the Yoga X workout today!
As I have written, the first two times I did Yoga X, I did not feel good during or after the workout. During the workout, I felt stressed and frustrated. I was unable to do many of the moves, and I felt as though I was doing many of the moves that I did do poorly. At the end of each workout, I cried during the ohms and did feel some relief, but afterwards I found myself alternating between feelings of sadness and anger for the rest of the day.
As I have written, this experience is not uncommon. In fact, I have gone though it before when starting a yoga program, and it was certainly a contributing factor to my not sticking to any of them for very long. It is no surprise that I would have this experience with Yoga X, especially given that it is one of the more challenging yoga programs I have attempted and that, generally speaking, I have not been very happy lately, my father’s recent passing being the main source of my unhappiness.
As I have written, I did Yoga X last week a little differently from the first week. When I was unsure of myself, rather than struggling to hold a posture while being unsure of whether I was even trying to do what I was supposed to be doing, I stopped, breathed, and watched Tony & Co. I feel like I learned a lot by doing so, and I think my performance and feelings about my performance today, as well as the way I felt when it was done, indicate that my decision to watch more and do less last week was a good decision.
In truth, I did even better this week than I expected. I was pleasantly surprised by two things in particular. The first was that I balanced myself in and held the “crane” position for a few seconds, and probably could have held it for longer, but Tony & Co. were moving on. The second was that I got myself into wheel and held it for a few seconds, and probably could have held it for longer, but I was so shocked that I had gotten myself into it in the first place that I think I just kind of wimped out.
Crane is a very difficult balance position. With a crouched stance, you place your hands on the floor, about shoulder distance apart, and open up your knees a little wider than your elbows. You then place the inside of your knees against your arms and lift your feet off the ground while supporting yourself with your hands. It’s kind of like a mini handstand.
Wheel gives you a crazy stretch all across the front of your body. To get into wheel, you first get into bridge. You get into bridge by lying on your back with your feet on the floor and your knees bent, and raising your pelvis as high as you can with your hands clasped and your arms underneath you. You then get into wheel by putting your hand on the floor next to your head and straightening your arms and legs. I think some would call it a back bend… but if we called it that then we wouldn’t be doing yoga. 
The only problem I had today was that my left wrist was a little tweaked, so I had to be careful with it. It didn’t bother me much though. Really the only thing I did differently was skipping the push-ups that Tony likes to do during the vinyasas.
I didn’t cry during the ohms today, although I thought I might. And, I really felt pretty good when I was done. I certainly have not felt angry today as in the past.
Today’s P90X Yoga X experience was closer to what it should be… and that in and of itself makes me feel good.
