The classic 84

I love Fridays. Naturally, most people love Fridays because it's the end of the work week and they can indulge in happy hour fodder. I love my Fridays for a different reason. My Friday usually consists of hours spent in the hot room practicing the classic 84 postures, otherwise known as "Advanced". The advanced postures were assembled by Bishnu Ghosh many years ago. They are the base from where Bikram derived his 26 postures. On Fridays I get to attempt to do all 84 with my fellow yoga teachers and advanced yogis.

The classic 84 is a difficult series. It tests one's limits of strength and flexibility. One could practice it for years and not get very far at all. It is humbling and beautiful.

Recently, I have experienced a breakthrough in my practice of this series. I got the shoulder rotation on the right side for full dancer pose. It looks a little like this:

The shoulder must fully rotate in its socket in order to grab the foot as pictured in pictures 2 and 3. The final expression of the posture looks like this (with both legs locked out):

Pretty awesome, right? And this is just one posture. The concentration and determination that it takes to continue to practice these postures for years and years in order to merely move one inch forward here and there is one of the most frustrating and motivating things about this practice. That's why I love it!