On Thursday, I went to my Yoga class expecting another day of philosophical discussion and a good yoga practice. What I got was a yoga butt-kicking in the 3rd degree. There were only about seven of us in the class, which meant that we all got to name some specific parts of the body and types of poses that we wanted to focus on. For my back soreness, acquired after my long and uninterrupted hours of scholarly work (hahaha), Dr. Schultz suggested that we get a chair.
These chairs, like those supplied in Morrison 100, are not truly chairs, but some non-Platonic deviation from what a chair is supposed to be. In essence, these chairs are torture tools.
Working with the chair gave me a yoga experience I'd never had before. Using the chair allowed me to focus more specifically on perfecting my poses. The chair practice left me exhausted physically, as well as mentally from trying to remember how to do the poses for my home practice. I had worked up quite a sweat from trying to twist and bend my body with the chair, and my muscles would shake when I had to hold a pose for a bit. After performing numerous twists, bends, inversions, and of course, downward facing dogs, I was feeling great. My yoga felt better than even and I saw that the practice gave me a sense of calmness that I don't often get to feel.
The chair work was hard, and I certainly didn't enjoy every minute of it, but the chair helped me to perform better, and Dr. Schultz careful instruction allowed me to fix poses that I had been doing wrong. Although it was hard work, Thursday's yoga practice was probably my favorite one yet.
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