Strength yoga today, and there are SO many improvements I’m kind of shocked:

• downward-facing dog? I can do it, and hold it. My heels are much closer to the floor, and my hips and legs don’t have trouble holding the pose. As the sequences went on, my heels millimetered closer to the floor. I don’t think it’ll be too much longer until they’re flat. This feels like such a good thing, since I used to do these with absolutely no problem.

• last time? crapping out during Sequence 3. This time? Middle of Sequence 4 before the crapping-out started, and it was really due to my lower back starting to get in trouble. I learned I needed to modify a pose because it was the problem movement, but not in time.

• holding form, oh yeah. I can hold it so much better. I can breathe, and hold the poses, and think about what I’m doing rather than just kind of freaking out hoping I can make it to the end.

What’s extremely notable to me is the weakness on my left side. I struggled but held triangle pose as long as the instructor did (which was about 1,000 minutes), but I did it without losing form. When it was time to do it on the other side, I kept almost falling over. I look forward to improvement on that side.