So my sage words of wisdom today are this…if you are ever in a yoga class and they mention the pose crocodile, also called Chaturanga Dandasana, it’s not that big of a deal. No worries. If they start to mention moving or jumping in crocodile be afraid, be very afraid. Yoga is not supposed to be a contact sport. And by contact I’m referring to the contact of my face and the floor.
Well, it started out as a rather wonderful class. Then our teacher demonstrated this pose and the little voice popped into my head. Now maybe folks who are more advanced, or more well know, than I (like Erica Taxin Bleznak or Ira Riklis or Stephen Cope) can do this pose. But I can report that I, for now, cannot.
Getting into the basic crocodile is pretty easy. I’ve got above average arm strength, I thought. It was the moving forward in small jumps that was the tricky part. Then moving backward. I did it about two of three times then I noticed the lead feeling move in. Not one cell in my body had any semblance of levity left in it. But I pushed on ignoring that little voice that was saying “You need to stop NOW! ” The little voice as not really very little actually. It was not a whisper, it was a shout. Yet I still ignored it.
It wasn’t the pain (that set in later) it was the cracking sound that disturbed me the most. It’s rather surprising to realize your face has just smacked against the floor. I do not have a small flat nose and I have intentionally avoided contact sport all of my life for exactly this reason. That little pointed protrusion know as my nose took a real hit head on.
So the moral of the story–I will not be trying that again any time soon–at least not more than once. Perhaps Ira Riklis or Erika can give me some tips (like donning a full face mask before trying it) that might make for a better result next time. At least with a “face injury” you can still do yoga.