Intermediate Yoga…and Some Good Laughs!

Well, as promised, I moved on to bigger (not so sure better) things this week!  It’s week 7, and I decided it was time to move from beginner yoga poses to intermediate yoga poses.  I decided to check out Pinterest for some intermediate yoga poses, as I figured something along the lines of a poster would be easier to practice alongside with, rather than a video, since I am just beginning with intermediate poses.  I am glad I did so, because I found a good picture that had some intermediate poses that intrigued me.  Here is the photo that I found:

Now, if I am being truthful, these poses looked rather easy to me, but let me tell you, I was definitely wrong about some of them!  The first pose, which in my opinion is a beginner pose, was easy because  I have had practice doing it.  This pose is called the child’s pose, which I have practiced over the past several weeks.  Well, as the pictures go on, the moves get relatively harder.  After the child’s pose, was the malasana pose, the pose itself wasn’t hard, until I realized that the picture was telling me to hold the pose for 5 minutes.  After those 5 minutes, my thighs were on fire!  The next pose was the downward facing dog, which again is easy until you have to hold it for 5 minutes and you feel as though all of your blood has rushed to your head; I found holding this pose for 5 minutes to be rather uncomfortable.  I then moved on to the chaturanga pose.  Although this pose was difficult, I actually enjoyed it.  I could feel the muscles in my arms working, which felt good.  The photo explained to hold the pose for 1 minute, or for 10 seconds, 3 times.  I held it for 1 minute, and I was able to do so quite easily.  The knee to nose pose was next.  This pose required me to use my arm strength, which again I enjoyed.  I held the pose for 10 seconds, 3 times, just as the photo stated, and I felt that was rather feasible.  The next pose, called hands down, really allowed me to stretch out my hamstrings, which felt really good.  I found this pose to be very feasible.  The next pose, on the other hand, was barely feasible.  This pose was called the navasana, and the photo stated to hold the pose for 1 minute.  I did it, but after that one minute, I felt like I should have had a 6-pack because let me tell you, my stomach was burning!  The next pose is what I like to think of as setting me up for failure.  It was called the knees to arms.  I found it easy, and had confidence that the last pose would be easy as well, but man was I wrong.  Going from knees to arms, the picture then shows to lift your feet off of the ground.  I actually laugh thinking back on me trying to attempt this pose.  I fell multiple times, and some of the photos I took while doing the pose are so blurry, which represents how unstable I was during this pose.  I had some good laughs at myself trying to master this pose, which made the experience enjoyable.  I was able to hold my legs on my arms and lift my feet up for a split second, which was just enough time for my phone to snap a quick picture!

I decided to use a new app to showcase my pictures.  I decided to give Canva a try.  I chose to use Canva because I was inspired by some of my classmates.  I have seen others use Canva to showcase things from their learning projects, and have seen some beautiful creations, and so I decided to give it a go!  I found Canva rather easy to use.  The number of templates on it can be quite overwhelming, but also very useful at the same time because there are so many options!  I knew I had 9 photos to showcase, and so I looked for a template with 9 slots to add photos to.  It didn’t take me long to find a template that I liked.  I then played around with the text boxes and edited and added my own text.  This part was easy as well.  You could choose different fonts, colors, placements, etc.  Overall, I am happy with my Canva creation, and I would definitely use Canva again.  I am excited to explore around on the app some more because as I said, there are TONNES of options and templates to use!  One thing I will say though, is I thought my poster was great until I downloaded it and realized that the squares do not line up perfectly where my pictures are showcased.  I am not sure why this is, because I just clicked on each square to add my photo to the template.  I must have accidentally drug the photos, which made them uneven in size, and not line up properly.  With that being said, if anyone has any tips or tricks, or favorite templates on Canva, I’d love to hear suggestions!  Anyways, aside from the uneven photos, I love my creation!  Here it is:

Anyways, that’s all for this week!  I think next week I will try to follow alongside an intermediate video!