Camel with Natasha

This is my second time taking a camel-oriented class with Natasha, and I don't think I'll ever forget the points: engage your legs, allow the lower spine to remain, bend only in the upper spine. Like bending over a beach ball.

I've been shadowing her Tuesday class, and I love it so much. The classes are slow, mindful, and yet intense. Incredibly intense in the way I suppose only an ex-ballet dancer could create. For example, the half-warrior with the arms reaching forward. The sequencing, although a vinyasa flow, has the work ethic of an Iyengar class, with everything working up to a pose at the end, often a backbend.

I also notice the classes having a profound change in my practice: my tadasana arms- which I will make sure to carry with my in my warriors, in my down dog- have a more significant outward rotation, accomplished by engaging the outer arms. There are so many points of alignment that she gives, I wish I could keep track of them all. I hope my body remembers, even if my mind forgets.

The last class I took, we had incredibly intense virabhadrasana & ardha chandrasana sequence that brought us to the wall. But, Natasha would smile, the wall just makes things harder, right? We stood with our back leg against the wall at a 45 degree angle, and our front foot facing forward, a low lunge. The intention was that we learned to push our back hip forward and engage our back tight. And let me tell you- the engagement and pressing back of my back thigh has made EVERY warrior 2 since considerably easier.

The next class, I commit to taking some notes right away. Next tuesday!