After an erratic December yoga schedule and a long provincial vacation, I returned to yoga class for the first time in the new year by attending an intermediate class with Pio.

The days following my return to Manila were not good health-wise. Due to the preparations for my in-laws’ diamond wedding anniversary, I had been sleeping late in the province, sometimes till wee hours of the morning. I even almost collapsed the night of the celebration. Since last Saturday, my anemia was affecting me. I would be trying to work in the office but feeling the room reeling from time to time. It was such a bad feeling.

Chona rang me up early this afternoon checking if we were going to attend Pio’s class or Teresa Herrera’s vinyasa yoga with trance dance. I wanted to go to both. But at that time, I thought it was best not to push it and just go home early.

But as it turned out, several things made me change my mind. First, the car and driver were freed up as our girls were hitching home with friends. Then hubby said he was coming home very late due to work (and I did not feel like waiting up late for him). So at the spur of the moment, I decided to take the plunge and go do yoga, dizzy or not.

And I had no regrets!

The class was filled with good friends from our “yoga addict” days (Trin, Minna, Chona, Claudine, and lately, Lomen). Energies were up!

So was Pio’s. And sure enough, it was quite an intermediate class.

The whole class was conducted in true vinyasa form (in short, no stops to rest, no child’s pose). We went from one asana to another in quick transitions. Whatever rest I needed, I got doing downward dogs, seated forward bends and twists. Other than those, we had quite a workout.

Pio has slowly and surely been pushing harder and harder during intermediate classes. Funny thing is…that is what this bunch of yoginis and I appreciate… wait, should I say this? I just might bite my tongue at the next intermediate class! 🙂

One intriguing vinyasa transition pose we did was to go from a shoulderstand to the bridge. With both legs straight up in shoulderstand, we bent one leg and brought it down for the bridge while still keeping the other leg up. As the bent leg came down, our hands remained behind our hips as support. The second leg was then bent and brought down to complete the bridge pose. Whew! This was the first time I did this and it initially sounded daunting. But surprisingly, that was okay.

Pio made us do some other poses that are deeper variations of the asanas we used to do:

(variation of Matsyasana, the Fish Pose, with both feet on the floor)

(Boat Pose – a transition from a wide angle pose where you clutch your toes and spread your legs apart in V-form while balancing on your sit bones)

(Marichyasana Pose – the arm goes under one thigh and the hand is clasped by the other hand from behind….a big challenge!)

(Urdhva Dhanurasana, Wheel Pose: aaargh! My waterloo backbend, which Pio had to help me with)

All in all, it was one heck of a workout. Funny how my dizzy spells eased up in the end (though in the beginning I could see I was not grounded or balanced as I could not even manage a simple Tree Pose and kept losing my balance!). I also had a good night’s rest.

As for my waterloo Wheel pose (as well as the Camel and all things to do with backbends), I guess I just need to continue working on them. Pio used to speak to us about the asanas we most dread and fear as usually being the ones we most need. This is what keeps me working at them.

And I can just hope that my backbend difficulties will be like my dreaded Monkey Pose. As Pio continues to make us do this asana in class, I can feel myself going lower and lower into the floor. Maybe one day, I will surprise myself and do the full split. Till then, practice, practice….

(photos courtesy of http://yoga.about.com & http://yoga.net.au)