Inversions and arm balances

I went for a vinyasa class today, turned out to be an inversion and arm balance mania class, which I nevertheless enjoyed. Lets see, we did everything from headstand, forearm balance, handstands, wall squares, one leg up wall squares, bakasana, koundinyasana I and II and side crow. Then kapotasana and wheel, with our chests pressed all the way to the wall.

Wow, I haven't had such a tough class since...forever! D really surpassed himself today. Hahaha..am really glad I went though. I really need to be pushed to do things like inversions and arm balances. They are not my forte..I'm more of a forward bend, backbend, twisty type who has a a pretty decent amount of flexibility, but not a lot of strength. So I was pretty pleased with myself for doing the poses pretty well, I must say.

I've recently been able to balance much better in the handstands/forearm balance department. I think the key being muscle memory attained by sneaking in a few seconds balancing here and there. After that, my body seems to adjust and know better what to do in those upside down situations. I DO however collapse into my lower back a bit, which I also used to do in headstands. Bandha issue I think..my bandhas are sucky.

I also got my feet in kapotasana, but felt too stiff to move my hands to the heels. I think I need a tremendous amount of warm up to do that. I wonder if I would be able to do it when I finally work up to kapotasana in intermediate..? As in without all the research poses before hand. I've figured out that my backbends work much better with some quad stretches before hand and also shoulder opening. Without those warm ups, I tend to take all the bend into my lower back, which I reckon is pretty unhealthy.

I failed to get up in koundinyasana II again though. I can't lift the back leg off the mat. Seems like there's no improvement from the last time I did this in C's class. Nevermind..there's always next time I guess.

Ooohh..and guess wut, I'm going to get my passes for the conference coming up in November. I'm going to all of John Scott's classes. I'm so excited, I just can't wait! He's got a workshop on flight dynamics...gosh I'm really looking forward to that!

I'm also going to attend a workshop by an Australian teacher on the 22nd of this month. Its about anatomy and how it relates to asanas. I hope its good.

Well...ok..I've not been doing much of my practice these last few days, mostly because I am having a cold again...I did do some hip stretches and worked it up to kurmasana, supta k and baddha konasana though. I can't afford not to practice those poses as I'm afraid I'll regress at them since I worked pretty hard to get to the point I'm at now..I hope to sneak in a quick practice after I teach my corporate class tomorrow nite.