We were in twisting chair. I was hating it.
To be clear, I wasn’t hating it for any of the standard reasons. I mean, yes, my quads were trembling and my butt was burning — but hey, that is chair. What I hated was that my right breast was wedged under my right arm, making it both difficult for me to twist as far as my spine wanted to and making it difficult for me to breathe.
For folks unfamiliar with chair twist, perhaps this picture can help illustrate the issue:
[By lululemon athletica (Flickr: Cindy on the Roof) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons]
As you can see, the upper arms, thighs, and torso — including the breasts — are in close proximity to one another. The space in between them is limited and finite, and as any one of those body parts becomes thicker, rounder, or bulkier, it can start to impinge on the other two body parts seeking to occupy that same area. Well, guess what? My boobs are big; my upper arms are big; my thighs are big.
As of the three, my breasts are the only ones who aren’t actively contributing to the pose, they’re the part I think of as being “in the way” here.
When I was first learning this posture, I was taught to move into the twist by stretching long through the arm and side body that would be on the outside of the twist. For example, if I was twisting to place my left arm on my right thigh, I’d stretch up long through the left arm and side of my torso first. This naturally and discreetly moves a fair amount of my belly fat out of the way, but unfortunately, it does not move the boob.
I’ve also seen this video from Amber at Body Positive Yoga, where one of the suggested options for making room in twists is to lift, tuck, or otherwise move one’s belly flesh out of the way. Though I don’t always need it for my belly, I do need it — and have found, in the privacy of my own home — for moving boobs.
It works. It works really, really well. I cannot overstate this. Boob shuffling = so much more room in twists it’s not even funny.
But I’ve been hesitant to try it in class. Because boob groping — even big girl boob groping, and maybe especially big boob girl groping — is far more sexualized than is belly touching, and maybe especially big girl belly touching. I’m afraid this is some king of big yoga etiquette faux pas. I’m afraid of the weird, judgy looks.
But we’re also about to do the other side, which is The Side of the Bigger Boob. (For folks who were previously unaware, breast asymmetry is a Thing. The More You Know.) If I was hating twisting chair on the first side, I will be hating it a cup volume more on the second.
I glance around.
I’m overthinking, of course. No one is paying attention.
I raise my right arm, stretching out the side. It is a large motion.
On the other side, a small motion, I cup my left breast, guide it up and back, out of the line of my elbow.
I guide my elbow across my torso, across my thigh, this time comfortably. No one notices.
I exhale into the twist.
I’ve tried it again, in other classes, in other twists. Mostly, folks continue not to notice — or at least, not to react. Maybe other people have been doing this the whole time I’ve been practicing, and I’m the one who hasn’t been noticing.
Only, every once in a while, someone will see. And I’ll see them seeing. And there will be a flicker of surprise and an appreciative smile, like, “Why haven’t I thought of that before?”
