ollieyoga

My Yoga teacher wants to do a 3o minute Partner Yoga workshop for our club's "customer appreciation" day; by "our club" I mean our Park District's Public Health Club at the Riverplex.

The one thing that we have to work through is this: she is good at Yoga and I am not. Nevertheless, it should be fun.

After class today, we went out for our usual run/walk (she runs and walk while I racewalk). A huge thunderstorm came rolling in, so we hoofed it back rather quickly (for us); she did her best running of the year!

Afterward, she hung out at our house as it was still stroming quite heavily and we went through some stuff. She recommended that I focus on the "spinal balance" pose to assist me in my racewalking; one of the faults of my walking is that I lean forward from the waist in an effort to extend my leg behind my body (in the way that a good walker does)

She teaches it slightly differently; she has us with the outstretched palm facing downward.
What I was doing was being lazy with the back leg and not keeping the knee straight.

Back to the partner yoga: the book we are using is the Joy of Partner Yoga by Mishabe.
The are tons of excellent photos; some are intimidating to me, and some are, uh, kind of sensual. But most of the poses are ones that I think I can do, even if I won't look nearly as good as the people illustating them. But yoga isn't about looking good; for me it is about surrendering to the pose. For example, when I do "dancer" on my own, I don't look like this:

But I am a bit more balanced each time I try it. Right now, I have to focus on keeping my foot straight; that is, allowing my toes to point toward my head and not toward a 45 degree angle to the long axis of my body.

So, here is some of what is in store for us: (ok, maybe we won't be able to do all of these!)

http://www.burrenyoga.com/sh518x4519.html

http://www.yogaoasis.org/doubleyoga.html

http://www.birdrockyoga.com/

http://www.mobiusproductsandservices.com/schedule.html

http://www.surya.ch/yoga-neu.html