supreme bikram

There are good classes and there are bad classes, although even the bad classes are good. There are classes that start off wobbly and then improve with each posture, and others where it gets harder and harder.

And then there are classes like tonight, where I felt my body almost click into place with each posture — my chin grazing my shins, or my forehead grinding into my knees, my legs extended and my knees locked, my elbows glued to my sides. It’s been 10 weeks of going at least twice a week, although I try to make it more often than that. And my body is finally starting to understand what it’s supposed to do.

The glorious victory of a locked knee! It’s not like we don’t hear it a hundred times during a session — “lock your knees, lock your knees, last chance, lock – your – knees!”. But only now are my knees locking during standing head to knee and head to knee stretching pose. I pushed myself so hard today — I always do seem to do better when the lovely Josh is leading — and I could really see the difference. I had a pretty despicable day at work, and had to work late, for extra despicability, so I really needed this class. It flew by. I can’t wait to go back in, possibly tomorrow evening if I can.

The rest of this post is basically meaningless jibber-jabber if you don’t do Bikram, and not even worth reading if you do — but I want a record of all the ways in which this class rocked, so I’m writing it up anyway.

I felt strong in all the poses, but I really felt a shift, a “never done so well before”, in the following:

I still hate half-moon pose but I have definitely progressed close to where I need to be.
Standing head to knee pose: extended leg and knee locked! I started working my elbows down towards my knees.
Standing bow pose: kept my extended arm to my chin, got my chest down parallel to the floor, leg stretched out furthest it’s ever been.
Standing separate leg stretching pose: got my forehead within an inch of the mat.
Locust pose: I’ve worked out the placement for my hands underneath my stomach to get leverage when lifting both legs up at once.
Bow pose: feet up over my shoulder blades — and no pain, now that I’ve worked out how to keep my feet straight.
Fixed firm pose: don’t know what to say other than it just felt easy and relaxed.
Camel pose: my old nemesis has gradually become a strength, but today I was able to push my hips right forward and my chest up and really curl my spine back.
Head to knee stretching pose: SO EXCITED how I can now lock my knee and get my forehead down, elbows tucked against my calves…. and then finally I can lock my legs and get my heels off the ground when I grab my toes, and keep them there as I bend forward. And then in the last posture — pop! it happened! My chest hit my knees at last. YESSSSSS