Snow Bunny

The deepest forward bend of the series

Rabbit pose. Not known for being beautiful or acrobatic or anything you should wish to accomplish. BUT incredibly powerful and one of the most difficult to master. I am constantly amazed at postures that seem to be difficult for me, odd now that I think about it. I'm pretty flexible in backward bends but not so much in forward bends.

My worst postures:

• Standing Separate Leg Head to Knee
• Locust (more because of the back strength needed)
• Rabbit

I have read that often the postures that are most difficult physically for you tend to be the ones you need the most, due to their benefits. After spending some time on OhMyBikram, it is no wonder I need to work on this posture.

Benefits:

• Helps with depression
• Helps with insomnia
• Releases issues with taking on responsibility for the happiness of others
• Helps improve conditions of the sinus, common cold and chronic tonsillitis

Holy eff... I struggle with all of those things. A few weeks ago, ended up sitting out both sets of this posture. And not because I wanted to, my lungs were acting up the second I entered the posture and I could not stop coughing, the compression I suspect, as it can be difficult to breathe in this. I struggle with depression when I feel scared about myself or life. I struggle with insomnia when I'm stressed. I've been known to take on too much of the happiness of others, in my younger years I was called a "people pleaser" more times than I can count (I was very shy and didn't know how to make friends), and I had my tonsils removed because I would get a sinus infection almost monthly.

At any rate, I really believe that continuing my yoga practice is going to help throughout my contest prep. Keep me mentally stable and flushing through my organs and glands to keep my metabolism going strong along with the water weight off. And not only that, but continuing to work on my postures will ground me. Yoga is what I love. I also love weight training. But yoga was and is my first love. I adore the meditation during yoga and the true mental fortitude it takes to battle through a difficult class and come out on the other side sweating out of your BRAIN! Kinda like the mental strength it takes to prepare for a figure comp! Word.

I seriously challenge any of my weight lifting friends to take one of these classes in your area and prepare to get your world rocked! You will DEFINITELY notice a huge workout in your back. You can count it as your back day! ;)

In other news: My diet has been hard. Believe it or not, going from eating about 1200 calories a day to 1700 is rough. I feel bloated and over-full. But its all clean! No workouts yet. Will do 20 mins of am cardio tomorrow. And that's it. I know it seems weird to prep in this way but it really does help clear your metabolism, gets it all ready and used to being high so once you begin the cut your body responds phenomenally. :)