Day 20: Full Locust Pose (Poorna-Salabhasana)

The hot room is a shared experience, like riding the bus. You see many of the same people there each day, and you suffer through the circumstances, be it high humidity or a traffic snarl at the BU bridge. And, like a crowded bus, when the hot room is full, there are little negotiations of space that need to happen from time to time.


Full locust is the most pronounced of these negotiations, because the pose calls for you to initially spread your arms out straight from the shoulder across the floor. That's not possible when it's a full room and there's a student within six inches on either side of you. The teachers tell you, "Hey, it's a chance to get to know your neighbor," but the truth is, most of us don't want to touch strangers, much less extremely sweaty strangers.


As I've gotten further into the 30 Day Challenge, I've taken a more casual attitude. Yes, I'll try to give my neighbors a respectful space, but you know what? I've been doing this for nearly three weeks straight. I don't have cooties, and neither do you. So if my arm touches your arm, I'm not going to freak out about it.


The funniest case of this was earlier this year, when Margo and I were visiting friends in New York. I went to a studio in Harlem, and when we did this pose, our teacher basically ordered us to get our arms out straight, despite the three inch gaps between students. "Pretend you're flying, like Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing," he said. My arms were at my fellow students' throats. I felt more like Swayze in Road House.