A Turtley start to the New Year

Yoga was what I needed today. I went to Lunch Flow with Pat, and one of the things that caught my ear at the beginning of class was,

"Keep your practice honest, keep it real; I expect nothing from you."

Guided Ashtanga appeals to me for several reasons, not the least of which is the sense of taking one's own time to do it. At the same time, the challenge is present to push forward if one so desires - there's somewhere to go. One of the greatest challenges I've discovered is in fact simply letting things happen in their own time.

For instance, a downward-facing dog posture has the heels firmly planted on the floor. I have extremely short hamstrings which translates to elevated heels. The good news, and something to look forward to? The heels settle to the floor eventually and in their own time.

I've noticed this with my body in hip openings. If I fold my leg toward Lotus, my knee is often quite elevated, but if I sit there for a spell, the knee comes down toward the ground.

One of the weakest areas of my body is the core. For my physical size, you'd think I'd have less belly, but no.

For the last couple weeks I've put my body under some strain and stress. Today the span across my upper back and shoulders was stiff as a board. A massage therapy appointment followed yoga today. The most painful area Allison worked on today was where my Deltoid muscle meets my Pec-minor.

OOOOOOWWWWWWWWCCCCCHHH!!!!

(to say the least)

I have muscles that are standing in for other muscles simply by my posture and various weak points in my body. I learned a little bit about what other muscles do to compensate for the ones that are not pulling their own weight, and it's not pretty. In fact, it sounds expensive.

I still have to work out a plan, but I think with increased yoga, I can keep the massage therapy bills at bay.

Think I'll go do some upward and downward dogs.

Namaste.