death by boob

[lilamp]

since brittany couldn't climb this evening, i decided to try the ashtanga yoga class at the gym in a fit of insanity. in my ignorance, i didn't realize that they would just go through the primary series without stopping to teach anything, but when i freaked out during the beginning sun salutations because i couldn't keep up and didn't know all of the poses, the teacher reassured me that after that was done they would be holding the poses for five breaths so i would have time to figure it out. i guess i did reasonably well, but in anything particularly folding, i felt like my MASSIVE CHEST was in the way, which was somewhat disconcerting. i understand now what some friends have said about the challenges of yoga when overweight. i tried to go into the plow thing, which i used to be able to do no problem, and i couldn't do it because my boobs were suffocating me and crushing my lungs. suffocating and crushing! i couldn't help but notice that no one else in the room had over a B cup. anyway, it was an interesting experience, and it got me motivated to try to go to a more reasonable beginning yoga class.

p.s. there are some poses in the ashtanga series that i just cannot wrap my head around; even when i see people doing them, they just do NOT seem physically possible. wtf?!

Comments

[alanablue.livejournal.com]

I do vinyasa which I love. I don't think I could do an Ashtanga class right now, but I'd like to try. I prob won't till way after I get back...

[chasbrown.livejournal.com]

I have chubby hips. They give me all kinds of trouble in poses like pigeon pose, etc etc. I don't think I could deal with big boobs. There are a good variety of body shapes in my yoga class. I think it's mostly grad students and postdocs.

Hope it gets better! Strap those big girls down!

[thatgirljj.livejournal.com]

One thing that can help you breathe during poses where your boobs get all up in your face like that is to take your tongue and curl it upwards so the back of the tip of your tongue is resting against your upper front teeth. This opens up some room at the back of your throat and can help a lot.

Also, I just don't like yoga that's all wrapped up in "series" and where everything is a vinyasa. It's so authoritarian to me. I do Anusara which is more casual and playful, but also Anusara instructors are really well trained in alignment, so you get better help than just "hey, follow along".

[lilamp]

mostly i just wanted to see what ashtanga was like, since i know some people who really love it. all that vinyasaing does make it a good workout, but it's definitely not the kind of yoga for me at the moment, especially with my joint issues. i need a class where the instructor can help me figure out modifications that will work for me.

[poodah.livejournal.com]

I don't know much about yoga, but I know I have a belly problem the way you have a boob problem. I just started a beginner yoga series, a Jivamukti-style Basic’s class in SF. It felt super easy, but I think it was meant to. We'll see if I like it and continue.

[misuba.livejournal.com]

>there are some poses in the ashtanga series that i just cannot wrap my head around; even when i see people doing them, they just do NOT seem physically possible. wtf?!

Oh man. Your instructor gets a fail. (Or it just really isn't advertised at the right level, in which case your instructor plus probly some other people get a fail.)

[lilamp]

eh, it's a relatively new class at the gym, and it's not on the class descriptions page yet. it does say under the list of what each instructor teaches that it's a primary series class, but not on the schedule of classes...