Yoga in the Moutaintops

I closed out my final week of freedom (last week) with a full moon Yoga hike. It was the perfect end to the week given I started the final week of freedom with yoga on the water. From the sea to the mountaintops!

A friend and I headed up to Mt. Laguna, about 45 miles east of SD, in the late afternoon. We drove round and round thru the mountains before the land flattened out and we felt like we were driving through Ohio! We met the group from my yoga studio (Yoga Six) and hiked through a somewhat rugged trail before coming upon a giant meadow. The meadow even had cows way up there in the mountaintops! We unrolled our mats which was somewhat difficult with the meadow grass and uneven ground and started an even paced vinyasa flow. At one point a bug crawled onto my mat and I gave out a scream but other than that the class was serene. Afterwards one of the hikers brought some delish snacks and we chilled atop the mountain meadow before a short hike out of the woods. As we drove back through the moutains headed back to the city we were surrounded by the sunset.

Mount Laguna 

The meadow 

Doing a headstand in the meadow was harder than on the board! 

Dancers pose on a rock

namaste

Melissa 

Taco Tuesday!

I know that doesn't sound very yoga related but I thought it was just a cute way to name today's post. I will get to the workout portion of the post momentarily... 

I have been going at the workouts pretty hard the past week or so. The thought of wearing a strapless dress in my bro's wedding has slightly spurred this but well it's also to further my career! I have been scooting my booty all around town trying to hit up every Yoga Studio possible. I started practicing at a studio, Yoga Six, that offers six free classes within the first two weeks of joining so I have been taking advantage of this as well. There are several Yoga6 locations in SD as well as in St. Louis. After talking to the Manger I also learned they just leased space in Chicago. I am loving this studio so I am happy to get the word out on the Windy City streets early... be on the lookout fellow Chi Yogis! I wanted to check out the Yoga Sculpt class and today was the only day it fit in my very busy social calendar so I woke up bright and early to get my sculpt on. I knew it was going to be a tough day since I also teach Zumba tonight. If you aren't familiar with the Yoga Sculpt format, it's basically Yoga bootcamp. Yep. If either one of those weren't enough. And it's in a hot room. It's an amazing workout especially at this studio. I am obsessed! But my body not so much. After teaching again tonight, I remember why athletes start their careers so early. It's not that bad but I am a little out of practice on the two a days and need to use tomorrow for some restorative yoga to recover. Midway through YogaSculpt as I did my jumping jacks I started to feel nervous about the day's activities when I realized, wait this is awesome! I am lucky enough that I am alive and that my body can do two workouts a day! I started smiling ear to ear as I finished my horse pose lunges. The teacher caught my grin and smiled back but also probably thought I was slightly delirious. I finished my Zumba class sweaty with a smile so now I am headed out for Taco Tuesday and I damn well deserve it!  

namaste

Melissa