Hold on

Pre-workout eats: Strawberry-banana oatmeal
Workout: ~60 minutes Yin Yoga

"Hold on/ Hold on to yourself/ For this is gonna hurt like hell/ Hold on/ Hold onto yourself/ You know that only time will tell"

Ordinarily, I would have been intimidated. It was just me and one other student in the Yin Yoga class. A student who, at least it seemed to me, wasn’t new to the studio or the Yin Yoga class. But I wasn’t. The class design just didn’t allow for it. It was me, and my practice. Her, and her practice.

Yin Yoga is a practice designed to “gently lengthen and strengthen connective tissue by exercising with Yin poses that apply a slow, steady load to the vital tissues (that are connected to the joints).” We were told before beginning that we would be holding poses for 5 minutes, each designed to open the hips.

Confession: I might not have been intimidated by being with just one other student, who may or may not judge me, but I was intimidated that I might be asked to hold downward-facing dog or chaturanga for 5 minutes.

We began on our left side, working our way through baby pose, lying twist, supine tree and a shoulder opener. The poses were repeated on our right side, and we finished with a seated forward fold.

It seemed like we were in the poses forever and yet, when the instructor rang the bell to release, it felt just like 10 seconds. Things hurt, in a good sort of way, and I could feel the tension again in my hips. I closed my eyes and tried to focus on the discomfort, hoping that I really could breathe into the connective tissues and help to release them.

When I stood up at the end of class, which blew by, I fully expected a “snap, crackle and pop” as I walked but nothing. Well, nothing more than an awareness that I had spent some serious time with my hips – something I sorely needed.