Day 2 w/ Swenson

Kalani B&W, originally uploaded by lmpicard.

I began my day with a stroll down 4th Street in Vancouver. Nice overcast morning, chill of the air on my flesh. I then went for a 2 hour ride around stanley park then over to west vancouver and cypress park. I was getting tired and knew I had a full day ahead of me with nearly 8 hours with David Swenson at the yoga studio.

Lunch a typical whole food grab and go, but you gotta love Vancouverites... because this whole foods actually has a raw food bar and some of the yummiest salads without onions.

Now about my yoga day. We started at 1pm doing the FULL ashtanga primary series. There were about 50 people in the class so I was a bit smoked and dripped so much sweat my hair was completely wet and my body drenched. Lucky for me I had my cotton mat to soak it up.

The second session was about flight, balance and learning to use less effort in our practice. I learned that I must balance on my fingers like my toes perform when I walk. I tested the concept and it gave me new body awareness to test in my landing forward and pushing back (its all a handstand and I know that has been my nemesis for sometime). I also discovered new positioning for my legs (like getting them the hell out of the way, crossing at the shins and flexing the feet). This second session was probably one of the most helpful. I will say that David is a bit goofy and I think his style is technically very good yet his exploration of pranayama was a bit lacking. I basically think he is a vata constitution that just needs to move a lot.

Well...
tomorrow we learn some of the intermediate series and a special session on inversions (my favorite). Namaste!