I am good at many poses, but I squat like a hippo. I will never be successful at "getting low" as the great Flo Rida would say. I can get into a hovering position, but my body can't commit fully because I have tight hips. I tragically have come to terms that I will never be a sumo wrestler. The pose reminds me of a sumo pose because you stand with legs squatted to each side and arms turned up like balancing the scales of justice.
Self-Reflection: In all seriousness, I'm now going to talk about what I learned in doing the pose. I've learned a lot about myself. One of the tenants of yoga is not to compare what you're doing to what anyone else is doing. I firmly believe that. I also know that my hips are extremely tight and a little observation (of my fellow yogis) helps me greatly. I am a visual learner and adapt well to and something about modeling my movement after someone else's is very helpful. This comes from my background in theater. Any actor worth their movement class has learned from sitting on a bench and watched others.
In the Pose: What have I learned from squatting? I learned first that my calves are pretty strong. For someone with 5 feet of total length, my calves take up decent real estate on my body. They also get easily knotted up. My solution for this has become to foam roll my entire legs after class. The foam roller helps to break up little cranky muscles. In essence, the more I squat, the more my muscles will build strength.
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