Thank you all for your loveliness about yesterday’s exertions. I’m hoping that tomorrow I will haul myself out without throwing a strop first.

Tonight I decided to consult one of my yoga books for inspiration (Essential Yoga since you ask) (other book sellers are available, although it’s only showing up as available on Kindle) and found a whole session building up to the sun salutation. What I learned from this is that it’s a lot easier having someone give you verbal instructions than trying to figure it out from a book. There was a lot of flicking between the overall plan and the instructions for the individual postures, which did not make for flowing practice. There was also a lot of “oh, so that’s what that’s called” and some sighs of relief when I reached a pose that I’m familiar with. All in all, about half an hour.

And in the absence of some soothing music, I had the background noise of pouring rain with occasional thunder.

Apparently today was National Running Day.

I was supposed to do my first 20 minute run.

But…

After two brilliant nights sleep, Mini-Ginge decided to do a two-hourly wake up call from 1.30am until I gave up and we got up at half seven. Twelve hours later, after a very busy day, I fell asleep on the sofa. Running was definitely off the agenda.

Instead I started working on the component parts of my sun salutations and while it was tempting to practise lunges and downward-facing dog because I like them, I focused on plank. I still don’t like it.

Tuesday is yoga day in our house. In the morning, Mini-Ginge and I go to baby yoga, where we sing nursery rhymes and do some gentle stretches.

Mini-Ginge preparing for his yoga class

In the evening, it’s my turn. At the moment I’m doing the class that our teacher describes as Therapeutic Yoga (I used to do her Dynamic Yoga class, but that feels a million years ago now) which is still hard work because there’s more focus on precision.

Usually I skulk at the back corner of the class, but in our last session, our teacher shifted the entire back row to the middle of the room. This week I had no choice as the back two rows had chucked down their mats completely haphazardly so it was like crazy paving. This is where things get tricky. I have encountered un-neutered tom cats who are less territorial than the average yoga class. It’s a bit like being back at school where you pick your favourite desk and stay there forever. I think I actually nabbed someone else’s regular space, but there was retaliation so I think I got away with it. Next week I might even try another different spot.

Anyway, tonight’s class was perfect for me (I suspect that my teacher is a mind reader sometimes) as a lot of the postures were great for freeing up my back. We also did a lot of very tiny precise movements, things like lying on our backs and (theoretically) bringing our pelvis towards our heads. To do this, you need to engage your pelvic floor, lowering your groin to the floor, but without tightening your bum cheeks. It’s harder than it sounds.