Quest for Locust Pose

Today was a truly unexpected yoga milestone for me. I rolled into the bank holiday class at my local studio this morning feeling sleepy and with a bit of a headache. As a result wasn't anticipating anything stellar pose wise and was a bit worried it might be one of those 'just get through it' classes..

Once the class started  I began to feel better and most of standing series poses felt strong and focused. My backbend was smooth and one of the deepest ever. I also had a great second set of standing bow. I was still feeling strong as we went into the floor series and then magically, I finally managed to do the full expression of locust pose unassisted :) (see picture above (not me though!))

I have been working very hard to try and do the the full expression of locust since January and it has been a bit of team effort with a couple of teachers at the studio! When I started I could get my legs to about 65 degrees which is still high compared to most people (yay for circus shoulder strength!) but was really struggling to get any higher. A couple of the teachers noticed this is class and decided I had the potential to get all the way if I had some help :)

Since then in quiet classes (most regularly the 6.30 am class) one of the teachers had been giving me a push is the second set of the pose so I could get an idea what it felt like to get my legs to 90 degrees. At first he had to push and hold but gradually I was able to balance by myself once I had the push to get up. At the same time I was able to get my legs up higher by myself. Eventually to about 80-85 degrees, tantalisingly close, but I just couldn't seem to get the extra lift. Occasionally I would be able to kick to get up to 90 but then not quite be able to hold it there.

Today something just seemed to click. My legs went up in a single strong fluid movement and then I was just up there! I was so surprised I almost started laughing (thankfully managed not too =  bad idea with that much compression in my neck). I held the pose for the full first set came back down and then immediately worried that it might have been a fluke.. But it wasn't, same thing happened in the second set :) I floated down and the rest of the class passed by in a rather happy blur. I'm now my keeping fingers crossed that it will be repeatable in future classes :) I hugely grateful to the teachers who helped my get there!

I'm not really sure why I was suddenly able to do it today but I guess that's yoga for you... endless surprising. A great way to end a particularly wonderful Easter Weekend.