Are you wondering if I am talking about my bank account? No, I’m not quite in that bad of shape!
No, I am talking about my complete lack of balance in my body!!
Shortly after I started losing weight and trying to get fit, I started doing yoga. Although I’ve always been reasonably flexible, obviously when I started I was very out of shape. So stretching and doing simple yoga poses was very difficult!
So my yoga “practice” started with these cards I got in a kit that I bought on clearance somewhere and also included a stretching strap.
What I did starting out really was more a stretching routine than a yoga routine. But I liked it and felt it was helping me.
Marc initally shunned yoga – thinking of it as most people uneducated in yoga do – as a “hippy dippy” meditation type thing and not very physically challenging.
But as I got more into it, he also gave it a try – especially after he got the P90X series which had the 90 minute intense yoga routine. And he liked it as much as I did.
So we incorporated yoga into our fitness lives and have really loved it. I’m not sure that I am great at the “Zen” part of yoga and getting in touch with my body and the earth.
But I have gotten much stronger and more flexible and find that yoga both physically and mentally compliments the rest of my physical fitness activities.
Except the balance part. The FUCKING balance part of yoga is my NEMESIS!
I suck so bad at anything that has to do with balancing – especially on one leg.
As we were doing a yoga yesterday (Baron Baptiste’s Power Vinyasa Yoga) and there was a whole balancing sequence – of which I FELL out of EVERY SINGLE POSE I got so frustrated! I feel like in this area I haven’t improved one little bit since I started trying yoga.
And when Baron Baptiste kindly informed everyone listening that it’s okay to fall, because “falling is learning”? Well, I became very UN-ZEN and wanted to crawl in the television and punch his face!
I have tried everything that is suggested for helping people improve their balance in yoga.
Things like focusing on one spot in balance postures and moving into positions slowly and tightening my core.
And guess what? It doesn’t work! I fall out of even the simplest standing poses, like tree pose!
So if any of you are into yoga and have any suggestions to help – PLEASE let me know!!
I certainly won’t give up trying, but it would be nice not to completely suck!!
Hi Jen... I found this on PBS last winter and found it quite interesting to listen to. I ordered her DVD and bought her book as well. The book is very educational. There is an exercise for balance that goes like this. Stand on one leg while writing each letter of the alphabet with other leg... try it. You'll be amazed at how difficult this is to do.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.essentrics.com/agingbackwards.html
You can also follow her on Facebook. Her name is Miranda Esmonde-White. Check her out. She is awesome and full of knowledge. I love her DVD (Classical Stretch) as she explains everything during the DVD. Good luck!
Lisa