From Aug 29 to October 7th (i.e. for the next 6 weeks of classes at Katarina Yoga Online Studio), we're learning the fundamentals for an advanced posture called Pinchamayurasana a.k.a. Forearm Stand.
I know, I know.
I know how this looks.
I can sense you reading this email and cringing inside at the thought of this posture being thrown your way.
“This is way too hard, Kat.”
“I’ll never be able to do this, Kat.”
“What’s the point of even trying, Kat?”
There’s maybe even a bit of “WTF, Kat?”
Either that or you’ve just begun to leak tears of joy and glee that the day has finally come that we’re going to be practicing this posture on a regular basis.
I expect there are not so many of you crying with joy so let’s pause and address the fear in the room.
Let’s start with a little story.
When I was about 25, I had just decided to leave my job as the studio manager for Modo Uptown in Toronto and I was going to head out traveling for a few months. I was trying to pool together as much extra cashola as possible to extend the length of my trip. My friend, Connie, (yes, the Connie you all know and love who is regularly in classes online) asked me if I could do forearmstand in a photoshoot for an ad for candy brand she was working for at the time. It would pay $300+hst for about two hours of “work”. And by “work” they meant: getting my hair and makeup done, doing the posture for about 15 minutes and then leaving. My 25-year-old-heart was thrilled. I agreed on the spot.
The only problem was that I couldn’t do the posture.
Well, I couldn’t do the posture *yet*.
So I Youtubed a zillion different teachers instructing this shape and tried to learn it in about 3 days. I do not recommend this approach. My ability to do the Pinchamayurasana (forearm stand) steadily was mediocre at best. But I showed up anyway and after I was all ready to go, the photographer joked with me and asked, “I bet this is like… really easy for you, right?” Me, stressed, answered, “No, it’s like… really hard.”
My performance was shaky at best. A support person ended up having to hold one of my feet while I looked at the camera in a panic and tried to smile. They later had to photoshop a few different frames together to get the image they wanted.
This is not the approach I recommend taking to learning this shape, even if it does pay $300 in the end!
So, it’s ok if this shape never manifests itself in your body within the timeframe we’re practicing it in. Though I will say that with 6 weeks of focused practice, you may yield better results than I did in a 3-day crash course! We’ll also have a Pinchamayurasana Workshop in Sept which you can register for now.
Here’s how this is going to be any kind of fun (and less scary)
I am passionate about teaching tough postures like this in manageable, bite-sized and digestible ways. We follow the “bus stop method” where it’s assumed that everyone in class has a different threshold at which they’ll “get off the bus” when their stop comes and I map out several different stops along the route toward forearm stand. So what if you don’t ride the bus right to the very end?
It’s more about the journey, right?
See you on your mats, yogis!
Kat
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