When I first started working on my handstands, Wayne offered a lot of (well-meaning) advice to me involving bent elbows and pressing up. Alas, when I bent my elbows, they never straightened back up again.
After I met the lovely Grace Yu, I learned a lot more tips that benefited me because she was more able to relate to the struggles I was having with handstands. I was excited and I decided to share with my friends (including Wayne) what I learned. The tips did not resonate with Wayne (who does not have my open hamstrings.)
The lesson in all this is that we all have very different bodies. Despite being much taller than me (sorry Wayne, I forgot how tall you are, but I know you’re taller than me), I have a longer torso than he does. He has broader shoulders and a narrow waist. I have skinny arms and a very low center of gravity. All of these physical characteristics means that we have found very different methods to approach the same thing.
Thus, Wayne and I have banded together to create an arm balance and inversion workshop to cater to all body types. We will start with a brief anatomy discussion, a warm up class and then we’ll work our way through foundational arm balances (such as bakasana/crow), and foundational inversions (namely sirsasana/headstand.)
Wayne is excellent at breaking down the most complex of poses (except for that handstand fail) in such a way that they are a lot less intimidating. Hopefully I can help bring some inspiration to those who worry that they aren’t strong enough (yet) to get to where they hope to me. It’s all about attitude and patience. 🙂
There will be a foundations workshop “Get Your Wings” on 10/18/2014 from 12:30PM-3:30PM at Y@C’s El Camino location.
Advanced workshop “Let’s Soar” will be the following week 10/25/2014 from 12:30PM-3:30PM at Y@C’s El Camino location.
To sign up for the arm balance workshop [click here]!