But can I blog while upside down?

It turns out my coworkers will know when I'm blogging from work, because a lot of us are subscribed to each other's blogs now. They probably won't mind much, though, as long as I can claim I was familiarizing myself with the product while waiting for a build script or something. ("I'm not slacking off -- my code's compiling!")

So here's your upside-down picture du jour: my uttana salabhasana. The literal translation of this Sanskrit term is "yogi face pain pose", or according to some people "yogi chin smash pose". Ideally I think there's not much weight on the chin -- most of the weight is over the hands, with the chin being used as a balance point only. However, this is not an ideal world; so my advice to you is to definitely have a yoga mat under your face when you try this, assuming you don't want rugburn in hard-to-explain areas.



My new year's resolution avoids the chin smash: it's to do at least one handstand every day in 2008. So far that's been fun, and it's amazing how fast my balance improves when I do this. Handstands require some strength, but not that much -- the really challenging part for me is the body awareness it takes to balance, and that's all neuromuscular stuff that takes time and regular repetition to develop.