The Architecture of the Body

Reenactment of Side Plank Variation

There was pre-practice talk between Gloria and another fitness instructor who recently tried hot yoga and said that, for her, yoga was about gentleness and stretching. Don't know if girlfriend planted a seed in Gloria's head or if Gloria already wanted to give us the gift of heat since it's so cold but...

Gloria talked about using the architecture of the body during downward facing dog. She wanted to make sure that we were using the arches of our palms and not just putting all the pressure on our pinkies and thumbs.

After doing prayer frog (deep squat with Namaste hands) with a twist and downward facing dog with a twist, things got heated and this guy in my vicinity basically grunted the equivalent of Oh my God! My equivalent = Holy Crap! I started laughing and so did others including Gloria who told us to go into frontal corpse and, while we were at it, to make our breathing smooth and even. My breaths were definitely rapid and out of control at that point.

We also did a side plank with a variation which made me quiver.  We are building concentration, poise and strength in this pose, Gloria said. No doubt...