Imagine you’re a princess going to a yoga class. Now imagine a pea a little smaller than a tennis ball. Now, you have to roll around on this kind of hard, rubbery pea. No mattresses between you and the pea. Sound like it’s going to hurt? You’re right. It’s supposed to hurt. Otherwise, you’re not doing it right.
Now, before you think I’m some weird masochistic yoga freak, let me explain.
This morning, I went to a yoga class at lululemon (yay, free class!). Todd was teaching a Tune up class. I’ve done a class with Todd before, at Pure, and I loved it. I had not done his tune up class, but I figured it would be just as awesome. It was, but not in the same way.
He handed us two rubber balls and warned us it was not easy, lazy yoga, but princess and the pea yoga (I didn’t come up with that catchy title on my own). First, he had us take a forward bend and told us to pay attention to what it felt like and how far we could reach without bending our knees. Surprisingly (or not) my hands did not touch the floor. My friend Dominique, who was beside me, had her hands flat on the ground. But whatever. Yoga’s not a competition you know.
After the forward bend, we placed a ball under each heel and rolled it around. We shifted our weight from side to side and back and forth. Then we placed the ball under our arches. Some people did not like this. We ended with the ball under our toes. At the end of all this, we took another forward bend. I did not notice if my hands went down more, but it sure felt better all the way up the back of my legs!
After working on our feet, we worked other parts of our bodies. Arms, legs, back, shoulders, neck. Todd told us that if we found a spot where it really hurt, then we should keep working it, because our body was telling us it needed help. We were also told to make sure that after we stopped, it felt good. If we felt like we had bruised something, well, we did something wrong.
You can’t see the ball too much here, but it’s under my arm. Don’t be fooled by my “I’m at the beach” pose. I was working my tissues something fierce.
Both Dominique and I really liked the neck, shoulder and upper back work. It felt like something was letting go. Of course, that’s after we stopped rolling around on that big giant pea. This is good for runners. It was easy to tell when someone found a good spot because we kept hearing “ugh”, “arghh” and “ahh” noises. Pretty funny stuff for a Sunday morning. I believe I made some of those noises as well, when I was rolling around on my neck.
This class felt like a massage. One of those let-me-find-every-knot-you-have-and-knead-it-like-pizza-dough massages. I went running after class, and I could feel the difference in my upper back. Good stuff.
I had done a little of this tune up stuff before, in Natalie’s beginner class, but I didn’t know what it was called. Now I know, and I’ll definitely do it again!
The Bliss Project 