August 29, 2008

Moments in Yoga and "Real Life"


[Special Guest Post by Little M]

Note: this is another great inspirational guest post from LittleM, enjoy!--Crabby

In principle, and when I’m in something resembling shape (Hey! Trapezoid is a shape), I love extreme yoga.

Sometimes it loves me back. Sometimes it doesn’t.

I remember the first time I tried one of Bryan Kest’s DVDs. Like being in class, only more ridiculous. I’m face down, in chaturanga (that’s something like a deformed pushup, for those of you not into the Sanskrit), nose about 5 inches from the mat, dripping from my forehead onto it, and Bryan’s droning authoritatively on about: “This … yoga … has a tendency to expose our weaknesses. So that … we have the opportunity … to make those weaknesses … strengths.”

You can imagine that the blood was rushing in my ears after Sentence One so much that I barely heard Sentence Two. I wavered between nodding – in the miniscule part of my mind that was still conscious – thinking, “Yup! Suuuuure does!” and calling him something unprintable.

(Not his fault that I had no tricep or transverse strength at the time. But I digress.)

Gradually, I got better. I got through the DVD and its variations. I went to workshop. I had focus. I could do crow pose (balance your knees on your triceps, use ab muscles for control – nifty) and wheel pose (push up using the whole back of the body, from triceps to hamstrings - also nifty).

And then life happened. (Again.) And I lost it all.

I know from comments here that so many here are much better at the discipline thing. Of remembering right then – before you do the dishes or finish the report or run across town for the meeting or text someone in your family with just one more thing – how much better you feel when you’ve done your regular fitness thing.

But it gets away from some of us. I mean waaaay the way away, until you start wondering if it’s true what they say about losing a pound of muscle per year after 21 or so, and whether that’s going to affect anything besides your pant size, like blood flow to the brain since the heart is a muscle – and whether that’s – eventually - going to affect your performance review at work.

So I rearranged the schedule yet again – whining the whole time – and paid the membership to a new gym (a 24-hour one this time!). And took my resistance bands. And did my HIIT. And did a different set of yoga DVDs to prep for strength, to see if there was any possible way I could get back to that place where wheel pose, (that bada** combination of flexibility and strength) while never a walk in the park, was a challenge I had the body confidence to meet.

But I was scared. I mean, it had been more than a minute. I didn’t know if I could get it back. I didn’t know if I’d ever get it back.

I also knew – gritting my teeth a bit – that I was never going to find out if I didn’t try.

I felt my strength in my arms. I planted my feet. I breathed in deep (like they always tell you to), looked at the world – upside down – and I thought (aping the guy on my HIIT CDs, who sounds much more convincing when he says it):

“Nothing to it.”

And up I went.


So now I have a whole different question: What am I going to do with that moment – the moment between “yes I really can do this” and actually doing THE THING, when you thought you’d NEVER be able to do The Thing, or never be able to do The Thing AGAIN – once I get off this mat??

What do you do? How do you use it? How do you carry your “moments” from “fitness” back into “real life”?

11 comments:

  1. I too have a tendency of calling my DVD instructors unmentionable names. I thought that was just me though.

    As for your question - I hope to have an answer for you someday. But I have to get to fitness first. Not there yet :D

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  2. I am also in that "needing to get back to it" spot. I can relate, however to getting frustrated with the DVD instructors that tell that same boring story every time we work out together. Sometimes I talk to them and say stupid things relating to the stupid stories that they tell.

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  3. Please have mercy on me and tell me what HIIT is? I've seen it on like three sites yesterday and today. Thanks!

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  4. Alexia, I generally call it High Intensity Interval Training. The other week, Crabby devoted a whole post to Somewhat High Intensity Interval Training, which is a lot more my style :)

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  5. I can sympathize with the needing to get back to it. I'm trying to, although my weakness has always been aerobic exercise.

    I had a moment like yours (when I got my leg behind my shoulder....still working on fully straightening my leg in that position), and I kind of bring them back to my real life by reminding myself how great I am when I'm stressed or feeling insecure.

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  6. The Bag Lady cringes at the thought of losing a pound of muscle per year after the age of 21.....she's just about to turn into a big puddle of fat, if that is the case!

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  7. I need to start taking yoga. It's hard to find time in my schedule, but I'm hoping to take some lunchtime classes.

    I think if I weren't an aerobics instructor, it would be so much easier to just let it slide if things got hectic. But since I rely on the income, it makes me stay pretty steady with my fitness. Bonus!

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  8. Brian Kest!!! I used to LOVE him. My sister and I had all his power yoga series. He had the hottest accent. And Michael Bolton hair:)

    Great post! WTG getting your strength back. I think the important thing for me is to remember that fitness is a journey, not a destination. I'm deep, I know.

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  9. well, this isn't that exciting but lately, I've been doing a lot of walking while my neck heals. For a long time, I didn't consider walking 'exercise." I have a whole new respect for it now - can keep you in shape, open your eyes to things you normally zoon by, etc. I've taken this lesson and carry it with me so when I encounter new things that I maybe considered a waste of time before (reading a magazine in a doctor's office that wasn't health-related, for instance, or driving while NOT making a call to save time), I remember the walking lesson. Just relax, try something new, and don't always be in such a hurry.

    Happy LD weekend!

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  10. Taking Yoga lessons is on my goals list! Hope I can get to it before too long. I can't do yoga without my right hand, which is supposed to have another operation next month.

    My own moment (my only) has just here lately when I've jumped into walking in a S.H.I.I.T. way after getting to be a total slug over the last couple of years (injuries...) I've never been so out of shape as I was. And what I realized is that as I've gotten even minimally stronger and lost 4 lbs.--suddenly my body feels like part of myself. I mean my brain/spirit/mental thing feels more connected to my physical body. I thinking I've been mentally disowning my body gradually over the last two years or so!

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  11. I'm not sure that made any sense! ??

    I think I mean that my body got so awfully weak and flabby-fat it didn't feel like "me."

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