Welcome to my online yoga home, with frequent forays into aviation. And allow me to explain the title. When I was a kid at summer camp we sang lots of songs, some around the campfire, some in the dining hall, some while just sitting around somewhere. One of my favorites was “Up in the Air, Junior Birdmen.” As a pilot and a new yogi—a junior yogi—it just struck me as the perfect merger.
I began my yoga practice in January 2020, in my early 60s, inspired by two long-time friends, Elaine and Ken. I learned that Elaine and Ken were teaching a yoga class dubbed “Gentle Yoga” using something called the “Adaptive Series” at a studio called Yoga is Youthfulness. It was exactly the kind of class I was looking for: appropriate for beginning and intermediate-level practitioners, using gentle stretches and strengthening to provide gradual improvement in range-of-motion, flexibility, and strength. The location (on my way to work!) and time of day (7 am) were absolutely perfect.
I started with just the class, twice a week. (I took a two-week break after only about two weeks of class because of a planned vacation with one of my sons.) Elaine would call an asana, she and Ken would move into it, and I would laugh: you want me to do what? This wasn’t with something complicated or an advanced asana like Bird of Paradise (Svarga Dvijasana) or Firefly (Tittibhasana) or Lord of the Dance (Natarajasana), this was with Cow Face (Gomukasana) without any binding, just hands on knees. Nope: my legs just didn’t bend that way. Cat-Cow (Marjayasana-Bitilasana), sure. But even a Sun Salutation A (Surya Namaskara A) wasn’t trivial, since my back was kinda stiff. Reverse prayer hands? Hah! And you should have seen the comedic attempt at a headstand (Sirsasana).
That was then.
There’s been one small benefit to me from the COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders of our county and state: I’ve taken more time for my yoga practice. At first, I used a video recording of an early version of our practice. Unfortunately, the sound quality was poor enough, even after I tried some audio processing, that it was difficult to follow some of the time. I went looking for something to allow me to practice more often and to experience something new. I checked around for various online recorded sources and didn’t find quite what I wanted. I then found Pocket Yoga and started practicing using their app as a guide (there are iOS, macOS, watchOS, and Android versions). Though I had no teacher to help me by suggesting or making adjustments, it allowed me to continue to learn. Pocket Yoga comes with twenty-seven full practices (three basic varieties, three difficulty levels each, three durations each), and that got me to try some new things and learn more—not to mention come to the mat more frequently. I decided, after a short while, also to get Pocket Yoga Teacher so I could craft my own practices, since I wanted to modify what Pocket Yoga provided.
Seven months into my practice, I’m still not just dropping into Bird of Paradise or Firefly. I can get some semblance of Dancer, though, and I don’t usually fall out of Tree (Vrksasana). With some work, I can get my hands into reverse prayer position. Using a headstand bench, I can hold a headstand for several minutes, giving me time to play with different leg positions (with thanks to @LeighYogiPilot for inspiration—not for the handstands, but for the balance work that different leg positions in headstand provide) and work on refining my balance (thanks, also, @StelaSulzdorf, and @TyLandrumYoga). Progress continues!
The journey will be long, and the journey has been enjoyable.