On the Mat

I completely fell off my yoga mat in September. As in falling off the wagon kind of falling.  I started a new job with a commute long enough for two travel mugs and a thermos, consequently somehow over 20 years of practicing nearly every day just vaporized. 

I have to tell you it hurts in ways I never imagined.  It hurts in my hips, the sides of my legs, my neck and my back.  Its as though I aged 10 years in three months.  I swear.  I have come to believe all people over 40 should do some sort of yoga every day, and so today is my first day back.

Coincidentally, I had two different conversations with two different people today about beating themselves up over falling off of the exercise wagon.  I am here to tell you it happens, and its no big deal, you just get back on. Life is not over.  You are still a good person and people will still love you.  Just stop the berating voice in your head, you know the one (and if you asking yourself which one, that would be the one) and get back at it.  Channel the energy you want to use to beat yourself up into building yourself up.

On that note, I am about to go unroll my mat…

For many years I believed  yoga practice required my full attention for at least an hour or more.  But then, as often happens, life got busy, and yoga fell by the wayside.  Unhappy with the consequences, I sought to bring it back in whatever ways I could manage.  I’m sure some yoga devotees would claim it’s not enough, but even the small snippets of stretching I fit in have a significant impact on how I feel,  particularly on this, the other side of 40.  In terms of investment on time spent, the benefits I notice instantly make this top of my list.  Without yoga, my body seems to birth new aches and pains, leaving me instantly feeling years older.

So, I wanted to offer up a little about how I make room in my life for yoga.  You’ll be amazed how, when it comes to yoga, a little goes a long way.

Here are my top five tips for fitting yoga into a busy life:

1. I love music for helping me focus and stay with a pose or practice. Shiva Rea’s Yoga Rhythms disk is my all time favorite for an invigorating flow.
2. No time is too short for a little yoga.  I can fit a sun salutation in while waiting for the kindling to ignite in the morning, or even waiting for pancake batches to cook on a Sunday morning.
3. Start with one pose and just see where it takes you…. Inevitably it just grows all by itself.
4. I leave my Yoga Mat permanently set up in my bedroom because every time my feet touch it my body feels the irresistible urge to strike a pose.
5. If by the time I go to bed if I haven’t done any yoga I’ll do even one pose before I climb into bed.

Why do I do all this? Because of all the fitness things I do, this is the one that makes my body feel its absolute best, and this is increasingly true with each passing year.  Any tips from any of you?

In my twenty some years as a Personal Trainer and Fitness/Yoga/Pilates Instructor, I have assisted thousands of clients set, and achieve, personal fitness and lifestyle goals.  In my own life, I have used the SMART (Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Realistic, Time frame) goal setting framework to help me complete marathons, triathlons, increase my yoga practice and more, but in all honesty I am not wholly convinced on its own, this is always the best way to build holistic health of mind, body and spirit.

There is immense satisfaction gained when successfully completing something like a marathon.  I know I couldn’t have done it without a carefully constructed training plan, based on the SMART premise and followed to the tee.   Like so many physical endeavours requiring work and training, this boost in confidence ripples far beyond the marathon course.   When the rubber hits the road in other areas of my life, I often find myself at the 30 K mark of the Victoria Marathon - so tired, yet so far to go.   The strength built plodding one foot in front of the other on race day continually carries me through so many of my life’s other challenges.

However,  there are also the goals I didn’t meet. You know the ones…, like Lotus Pose.   I spent years twisting and contorting my short, solid legs into a pretzel, only to have my goal foiled the day I jumped off my surf board, tearing my Anterior Cruciate Ligament, the primary stabilizer of the knee joint.  I won’t ever do Lotus again, at least not if I want to continue surfing, hiking and running.

There are others: the marathon I tried training for while I was in the middle of a Masters degree, (what was I thinking?) the lower body fat percentage I can’t seem to stop dreaming about, the elusive sub 45 minute 10 K.  I could go on, but my point is, often by setting goals we miss celebrating the success of our achievements, regardless of the initial target.  It’s wonderful to run a marathon, regardless of whether or not your final time qualifies you for Boston.  Practicing yoga is fantastic, even without Lotus.

We have so many goals in so many areas of our lives.  Fitness and physical activity should elicit great joy and satisfaction (admittedly not in the first ten minutes), releasing us momentarily for the rest of the cyclone that is our lives.  Focus on creating all the right habits daily, but let go of what you think it should look like.  Just make a commitment to engage in fitness activities everday because they make you feel good and improve your health.  Goals are great, but sometimes we need to set ourselves free from the pressure of achievement in order to enjoy the inherent pleasure of moving our bodies.

Engage in cardiovascular exercise, elevating your heart rate and breathing on most days.  Strength train all your body muscles three times per week, and this needn’t take more than 15 minutes per session.  Stretch.  Breathe.  Eat reasonably.  Revel in occasional indulgences.  Sleep.  Most of all have fun, celebrating every time you move your body.

I would like to acknowledge that while a marathon is officially considered running 42.2 KM, a personal marathon can come in many different forms.  I often think of my clients with spinal cord injuries, whose marathon goal of building enough strength to independently transfer in and out of their wheelchairs, inspires me every day.

What is your personal marathon?  And how have you celebrated where you have come?  Care to share?

That’s my word for New Year’s Fitness gimmicks and fads, and it best expresses my feelings about said gimmicks and fads when the vowels are drawn out making it sound a lot like giiiiiiifaaaaaaw. 

I go crazy at this time of year when even my closest friends, who have been subject to my endless rants about how to achieve true lifelong health and fitness, still feel irresistibly compelled to purchase some trendy piece of fitness equipment destined to become a very expensive clothes rack, or worse yet start some ‘special’ three month fast guaranteed to take off pounds fast.

So I ask myself why, and maybe you can help me, but I think like pretty much every thing in our society we want the quick fix now, especially if we can buy it.  Peter Senge, writes about sustainable change in his recent book The Necessary Revolution.   He talks about how our addiction to short term easy fast fixes often keeps us from dealing with the deeper cause of a problem or issue, but that truly sustainable change only comes from dealing with the fundamental root issue which usually requires more initial effort, hence, we avoid it.

Yes… every year on January 1st, millions of us embark on countless new diets.  We purchase reams of useless and bizarre exercise devices (for lack of a better word), and we allow ourselves to be talked into gym memberships, signing contracts in our moment of weakness, binding us to monthly dues for years to come.  Yes, we spend billions and billions on quick fixes, which ultimately don’t work.

There really is another way, but it means we need to look at how we live our lives each day and commit to making healthy change.  The good news is this method endures.  Its effects are viral, touching all aspects of our lives and those around us positively, and it costs far less than all those listed above. 

This year I am dedicating this blog to providing you with information, gleaned from my twenty year career as a fitness professional, and hopefully inspiration, to assist you in creating long term effective, sustainable health and fitness changes in your own life.  Remember though, you won’t find any giiiiifaaaw here.

Here’s to real change in 2010!