Asana Practice Week Twelve

Recently, one of my friends from church decided to open up a Montessori Pre-K school in Woodway and bought a gutted building to house it in. The building had nothing but the frame and thus needed a lot of renovation to make it ready for school in January. As the deadline approaches, the work gets a little more stressful: on the emotions and the body! 

Today was one of those more difficult days when we spent the morning on our knees, scraping and smoothing the cement floor to prepare for installation of wood floors. I was really feeling the cramping coming on in my hands and back after just a half hour. Luckily, I have recently acquired a yoga toolbox thanks to this class and remembered to pull a few tools out to help me. 

I started doing hand stretches every few minutes. First, I did the stretch where you hook your thumbs together and stretch your arms outward. Then, I would do the pose where you stick your arm out, with fingers pointing upward and you use the other hand to pull your fingers backward. I eventually incorporated a few twists while I was sitting down.

After a little while, everyone took a water break and they seemed sore, so I asked my friend if she wanted to stretch out with some yoga poses. She did! We executed standing, sitting, twisting, and shoulder-opening poses. It was so fun! I really felt a lot better after a few minutes. 

After a solid four hours, I came to the realization that I am not cut out for construction. Other than that, I also thought about how cool it would be if construction workers, plumbers, etc., had some knowledge of yoga and could prevent the inevitable injuries that come when you put that much stress on your body. It would be quite entertaining to see all those workers outside East Village doing a few rounds of sunrise yoga before starting work but who knows, it might be really helpful!