Day 37: My Back is Made of Concrete

As this challenge goes on, I'm continually surprised by how my flexibility seems to fluctuate from day to day. Yesterday, I did lizard pose and had both forearms on the ground.

Just like a real lizard!

But today, I got the outer elbow on the ground but the inner wasn't even close. What's more is while I was maneuvering into the pose, nearly every joint I had popped like bubble wrap.

I'm not sure what to make of that.

Aside from that, my practice went pretty smoothly today. I did a lot of my usual suspects and I spent some extra time in pigeon working on my transition to king pigeon. I really think I'm getting closer to getting my back up to where it needs to be but I think I might need to work on flexing my upper back a little more before I can really push myself to do king pigeon.

I feel a little frustrated because it seems like nothing I do loosens up my upper back. Eagle arms and downward facing dog help but I keep feeling like I'm hitting a wall. I suppose I shouldn't be too hard on myself, especially since I've been focusing primarily on hip openers.

"Why aren't I automatically good at this?"

It seems I have a new mission for tomorrow: shoulder and back-centric poses. That also might be good for my Edelman shoulder--you know, that body part I hurt a month ago that I've been meaning to rehab but haven't done with any consistency.

This is somehow your fault.
I can't even look at you.