Yoga X Man

dbower18

Lowery's Law:
If it jams force it. If it breaks, it needed replacing anyway

After several weeks of toe poking the P90X waters, I finally decided to squeeze my eyes shut and just dive in.

Which I did, last Friday. Everything was going well or at least as well as could be expected until today when I hit the wall with Yoga X. First a word about the raw materials we are dealing with: Pushing 60, natural born stiff as a two by four, with more than one old injury flaring up, I am not exactly modeling clay, more like brittle concrete.

The worst of my old traumas is probably the result of a fall I took in Cozumel several years ago, when a third floor landing collapsed taking the rest of the stairs with it and leaving me to take the express route down to the ground below. Broke both wrists, one rather badly, suffered some internal bleeding and apparently a back injury (some superior something or other got cracked or fractured or some such,) the whole experience gave the phrase “dive trip” a whole new meaning.

So with chronic back pain and dire warnings to avoid impact activities like say walking, Plyometrics was already off the table, but easily replaced by my reliable Octane Elliptical. No loss in intensity, Octane’s can push you as hard as you can handle, they are nasty by disposition and rarely take prisoners.

So today: Yoga X. I spent the best part of twenty minutes standing around looking up at the TV then down at me and thinking “not a chance”. I can’t put my hands down flat on the ground, wrists won’t go that away, and my arms and legs never did do any of that. What’s more, they wouldn’t even consider trying. Unwilling to negotiate, all four limbs stormed off to write angry letters to the editor, leaving me thrashing about wondering just what about this was healthy or even calming. The background music was irritating and what little patience I have for that sort of mind expanding magical mystery tour tomfoolery can be lightly balanced on the back of a gnat.

So I quit. Just climbed back on my trusty Octane and beat myself into submission with the HR Interval Program. Got my old heart rate up, burned some serious calories and felt good about it too. I am completely justified in my decision. No question I did the right thing.

All of which all begs the question:
Why am I feeling so guilty?

DeBlue

Don't know anything about this particular program, but you might try something a bit more gentle as a starter. Everyone benefits from increasing their flexibility, but you are right to not jump in expecting to do all the pretzel moves from the get go. No one can and there are easy modifications for each position that suit beginners. You'll be very surprised how much flexibility you can gain from just some regular gentle stretching.

The biggest benefit you may notice is that you are less likely to injure yourself doing other pursuits. Isn't that wonderful? Less injuries doing all that other stuff you like just because your body will no longer be so "brittle". Win, win, win.

veggeslady

Yoga keeps you young and even Tony says how important it is. It took a while but now I love the yoga do a little bit at a time before you decide no.
Watch tony on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4opvart2Hjo
Kayla