Tony Advanced: Day 2

This morning, as expected, we were quite sore. 4 1/2 hours of posture practice yesterday, and we'll do it everyday for the next 5 days. At 6am we walked down to the beach to get our bodies moving and loosen up our muscles.

Each day Tony is teaching us the Mudras (specific postures with breath control) and Bandhas (muscular control with held breath) from the Ghosh tradition. This morning we worked on Uddiyana Bandha, an important exercise that is a precursor to Nauli, which we will get to later in the week. I'm excited for that. I've learned Nauli on my own over the course of the past year. I am eager to study it with a master teacher.

This morning's 'short series' was essentially the Master's Core System. A nice round system that is intermediate in difficulty. No really advanced postures, so it felt comfortable. Nothing that required incredible exertion or caution.

The afternoon session was the Complete Series. Tony seems intent on destroying me. I am working on dropping back into Wheel. Once I am in Wheel he urges me into One Legged Wheel on both sides, then tells me to drop to my elbows (I am beyond toast at this point). He helps me a bit to get down to the elbows, then says "Tiger!" and lifts my legs up into the arm balance. I gave as much as I could to lift up into a respectable Tiger, but I don't think it was anything to write home about. When I finally came down, I was excited, grinning and completely spent.

It is great to be here practicing under the watch and guidance of such a great yogi.