Arm balances and inversions - Saturday, August 27

Hurricane Irene didn't keep anyone away from yoga yesterday! We had wind, a little rain, and a huge turnout for our arm balances and inversions workshop. We warmed up with some stretching and sun salutations, and then jumped right into our arm balances. We began with bakasana (crow pose). Those who were new to crow used a bolster (for their face) and those who wanted a challenge practiced one-legged crow, which is much harder than regular crow! Then we worked our way through another 5-6 arm balances, becoming stronger and more centered with each one. There were some happy shouts when someone made it into a difficult arm balance for the first time. There were also some grunts of frustration.

After our arm balances, we took a 15-minute restorative break - child's pose, reclining baddhakonasana with a 3-part breath. We then moved everyone to the wall for our last restorative pose - legs up the wall, always a crowd-pleaser! Our first inversion was headstand. This is the only time that Sara remembered to take pictures, so all the photos are of people in headstand!

Two newcomers to Blue Point and to yoga did beautiful headstands!

Preparing for headstand...

And they're up!

Gorgeous!

Anne-Marie is a headstand pro!

And Phyllis does her first unassisted headstand ever! Go Phyllis!

The spectators are impressed..

Then came handstand. We learned about escape strategies for middle-of-the-room handstands - falling into wheel or walking on your hands. Lots of people practiced L-shaped handstand. And Sara demonstrated one-armed handstand, although everyone was too tired at that point to try it! Brooks did a beautiful forearm stand into scorpion. We finished with some long stretching and twists.

It was such a fun and beautiful afternoon and a great way to spend a blustery, hurricaney type of day.

Om Shanti!