Yoga

You can't choose your family, but you can certainly choose which family members to disown for eternity. I hadn't planned on going to the gym after sleeping through all of Tripp's spin classes, but after trimming my family tree, I needed to do something to get me to relax.

I went to Raj Shtrom's yoga class at Woodbury at 4:30pm. If you remember the last time I ended up in one of Raj's classes, this was fortunately a class for all levels, and not intended for L2/3 "I can lick my own shoulder blade" yogis.

The class is heavy on the downward dog standing split. Some people don't like this move, but I'm for anything that breaks up the monotony of downward facing dog. This supposed "resting pose" is the most painful thing in the world for me. I have tight hip flexors, tight shoulders, overdeveloped thighs, and stress fractures in my feet - I imagine downward facing dog is comparable to being strung up on a medieval torture rack.

We made it through the sun salutations, and then got on to what I can actually do: awkward balancing poses. I'm all about eagle, tree, airplane, and anything else that requires standing very still on one foot. I practice while standing in line and waiting for my students to settle down. It's amazing what 8 hours of daily practice can do...

Raj has a few classes in Woodbury, Roslyn, and Great Neck, including a Saturday class. I highly recommend her. After 75 minutes, I wasn't so keen to exact revenge on my former family members, so maybe there's something to this yoga business.