Where to go next, and my own gaps I'm still working on
Okay. This is the last lesson in this module, and I want to do two things with it. First, tell you where to point yourself once this course ends. Second, tell you what I'm still bad at, because I think that's more useful to you than pretending I've got it all figured out.
Where to go next
You've got the pieces now. Standing poses, balance, backbends done the sensible way, a full 45-minute flow, a short home version you'll actually repeat. That's genuinely a full practice. Most people never build all of that.
Here's what actually works for moving forward from here:
Keep the short home flow as your daily floor. Fifteen, twenty minutes most mornings. Don't let the fancy 45-minute version become the only one that counts, or you'll do it twice a month and call that consistent. It isn't. Consistency beats intensity, same as a garden. You show up steady or you don't get the harvest.
Add one new pose a month, not ten. Pick something that scares you a little. Half-decent options from here: side plank, a real bind in a twist, wheel pose if your lower back is genuinely happy that week. Learn it slow, against a wall or with a cushion under you if it makes sense, before you try it inside a fast flow. Slow first, then speed. Always in that order.
Find a class or a teacher who pushes you somewhere I can't. I'm honest about my ceiling. If you want real inversion work, arm balances, hot yoga, find someone who specializes in that. I teach a solid, grounded intermediate flow. I don't teach everything.
Notice what your body's telling you and adjust the routine, not just the pose. If your knees are cranky that week, camel and pigeon get gentler, not skipped entirely. If you're worn out, do the short flow and skip the fast transitions. Own the day you're actually having.
My own gaps
I'll go in order of how much they bug me.
Inversions. I can do a headstand against the wall, no problem, I've told you that story with the pantry shelving already. A free-standing handstand, no wall, no help? Still isn't happening for me. I've tried. I fall over sideways like a felled tree every single time. I still can't get a handstand to behave, so don't feel bad if yours doesn't either. 🙈
Anatomy vocabulary. I know what a movement should feel like in my own body way better than I know what to call the parts doing the work. I'll say "the meaty part behind your knee" before I'll say the actual muscle name, every time. If you want the Latin terms and the textbook explanation of why a pose works, you'll want a teacher with more formal training than me. I can tell you what it should feel like. I can't always tell you why in anatomical terms.
Improvising mid-class. I plan my flows out ahead of time and I get genuinely thrown if someone asks for something that wasn't on the plan. I'd rather tell you "let's work that in next week" than fumble a sequence I haven't thought through. Some teachers can build a flow off the top of their head on the spot. That's not my strength and I'm not going to pretend it is.
Kai actually put his finger on something true about all this, even though he didn't mean to. He came to one of my classes when he was ten, lasted about eleven minutes, and announced it was "just slow push-ups." I didn't argue with him. He wasn't entirely wrong. A lot of what I teach really is just slow, controlled, deliberate versions of things your body already knows how to do. I'm not selling you anything mystical. I'm teaching you to do ordinary movements well, on purpose, with your breath lined up underneath them. That's most of it. That's most of what I've got.
If that's the kind of practice you want more of, keep going with the short flow, add one thing a month, and be honest with yourself about the days your back needs the gentle version instead of the ambitious one. If you want the handstands and the deep backbends and the real anatomy lecture, go find that teacher. I'll be genuinely glad for you.
Before next time
No new pose to learn this time. Just do your short home flow once before we're done here, and notice one thing your body does now that it couldn't do eight lessons ago. That's the whole assignment. 🙌