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Went to the shala this morning. You know, for some punishment. LOL! Not really. (Um, okay, kind of.)

On Saturday, I brought a friend (let’s call her “The Amazing Extravert”) from work to led class with Muscle Man. I had a suspicion she might have Ashtanga karma. She’s been trying out different kinds of yoga (I went to an Anusara class with her), but given her personality (driven, nerdy, a tad hyperactive in the mind) I figured her for an Ashtangi.

The Amazing Extravert (“amazing” because she manages to be an extravert and to not annoy me — in fact, she is delightful and quite endearing) was game for the whole class. Sure, she laughed and rolled her eyes at me a few times. But all in all, she seemed to have a really good time.

All of this was helped along, of course, by the fact that The British Director was there, and The Big Guy. And Muscle Man was teaching. So there was a little group of Ashtanga regulars, and they were really friendly and good-humored.

I brought Freeman’s primary DVD in to work this morning for her. She feels like she’d like to know more and perhaps even come to Mysore practice. I am amused and impressed by AE’s fearlessness! I also feel like a drug pusher or cult promoter.

***

Mysore this morning. Nice and warm in the shala. Just three other people there. Muscle Man helped out with some nice assists in the usual places: UHP, for one. How can UHP be so incredibly solid at home, when I’m alone in the yoga room, and so shockingly shaky when there’s a teacher around?

My left side stinks because of a torn arch from running. Yeah, yeah, it was years ago and I should ditch the excuse…

Also got the usual supta kurmasana adjustment. I suppose I should be more worked about getting my feet crossed behind my head, but quite honestly, I figure that if I get to eka and dwi pada sirsasana one day, those’ll finally solve for getting supta kurmasana all set up on my own. Until then, I don’t mind having a teacher cross my feet behind my head. I don’t even mind just skipping it and keeping my feet on the floor. I guess I am lacking in ambition for supta k.

I went through to baddha konasana, then switched over to intermediate and went to ustrasana. Needed to be on a con call early, so had to cobble together a hybrid practice.

Asked Muscle Man if he thought it wise for me to keep including baddha konasana, what with the piriformis problem. He figures it’s okay, provided the injury seems to be improving (which it does, though slowly). I knocked off baddha k for a few weeks, but don’t want to ditch it entirely forever… I had to laugh when we were talking about it. I told him that baddha konasana was SO hard for me, and that when I finally could reliably put my head on the floor *ping!* — there goes the piriformis.

“Just go easy,” he said.

“Hard to do,” I pointed out. “All I want is to put my head on the floor.”

Even as I said it, I had to laugh. Rough life, I have. Tragic.

Not.