Workout
it's frustrating to be so flexible in some ways and not in others
I can do any triangle pose, no problem, and without props or modifications. From day one, my heels went to the mat in downward facing dog. In any forward bend, my hands are all the way to the floor or extended way beyond the soles of my feet. Then an instructor says to relax sitting in a cross leg position and I just laugh, HA! No way Jose! There is no relaxing for me, only pain. Sit back on your heels she says, you've got to be kidding with this torture I say! Lotus? Get real!
I cannot do any sitting posture except with my legs straight out in front of me, but I am working on it. I am going to plan for some days where do an aerobics workout and then follow up with some hip opening yoga. But is it my hips or is it my knees? And apparently my elbows are too flexible and I hyperextend them, so I am being careful about that. At least that does not seem to be as much of a problem as my other flexibility issues.
Today I did 40 minutes of aerobics followed by a 30 minute hip opening yoga practice. I hope that by just keeping at it I will achieve some greater flexibility where I am lacking it.
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I know what you mean - I can easily do some poses that leave others scratching their heads, but other poses...well...not so much. Sometimes the flexibility I need to work on most is that in my head, where I learn to be gentle with myself and my lack of flexibility!
Submitted by zuzupetals on 07.09.10 at 10:38.
You have a point there about it being, at least partly, in my head. I noticed this morning that the pain was making me tense and preventing me from going down into the pose, so I concentrated on relaxing and it helped. I did not get much farther, but it helped. Baby steps.
Submitted by vajardin on 07.09.10 at 11:08.
Be careful! Sometimes I think instructors overlook real injury, age-related wear-and-tear, as well as just-your-basic limited flexibility. These can honestly hinder one from going into poses. There's good exercise-related pain and not-so-good pain that's related to something else. I try to be careful about who I trust in gauging how far I should push myself and try to err on the side of going too easy rather than too hard. (One of my mantras: "the last thing I need is an exercise-related injury.")
Submitted by spindig on 07.09.10 at 06:07.