Pose of the Day: Pigeon

Today I ventured out into our neighborhood (well, within our zip code) to a local yoga studio:

http://www.lotusyoga.biz/

I've known from the beginning that as I studied daily practices, I wanted to incorporate the practice of yoga. I've been familiar with it for less than a year (other than my two post-marathon stints), but I love the feelings that it brings about: strength, steadiness and peace all at once. Plus I can always use the encouragement to stay present with my breath, my one true constant. You'd think that since I'm always breathing I could try that out whenever I want, but I don't, because I sort of forget. Red flag raised, must do yoga.

Here is the pose we finished with today. Lot's of people hate it apparently, but I don't get it, because it's one of my favorites. Maybe that's because it hit's a runner in all the right places. Give it a try and we can see which category you fall under. I've also copied some handy dandy instructions from the Huffington Post for those readers out there:

Pigeon

How To:

On hands and knees, bring your right knee behind your right wrist. Walk your back leg straight out as far as it will go behind you. Moe your right foot forward a little till it's under your left hip joint or farther forward. Don't grab it with your hands, just move where your body can go by itself.

Bring your hands in front of you or forearms down to a couple of phone books or, eventually, the floor. Keep your hips centered in space and press your legs lightly into the floor to help protect your muscles as you stay and breathe into this deep stretch for 2 minutes.

Return to hands and knees, repeat on the other side. When your hips almost touch the floor, you will have transformed your lower body and low back.

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In Progress,

Lacy