Yoga - health benefits
I'd never really gotten into yoga in my youth. I had been to about 3 classes in my life. Apart from Ashtanga it was all too slow and meaningless.
But then last year I went on a yoga retreat, just as a totally on a whim as I was feeling very run down and out of shape and was looking for a healthy holiday. So I booked in for a week of veggie vegan detox food, no alcohol and life with a small group of complete strangers in a luxury villa with a pool on a remote island in the med.
It was really difficult to get into the yoga. The class was advanced and the schedule gruelling. But I felt really fabulous for months after. I planned to keep it up as I felt super fit, relaxedand twenty years younger at the end of the week.
So, after all that I hadn't done any for months, the yoga mat was lying there forlorn in a corner. I then decided to go on you tube yesterday. I'd twisted my ankle two weeks ago so hadn't been able to do much of my usual longer dog-walking and also had a really painful shoulder for no good reason. I just did a really basic introductory class online for half an hour, simple stretches and a few downward dogs, cat curls.
This morning it was amazing - just those few simple exercises have hugely improved my ankle which is no longer throbbing or painful to walk on, and my shoulder pain is gone. My neck and shoulders feel much stronger and I could see the tummy & legs are starting to tone. Obviously I still have some benefits from the more intense exercise I did last year, but just super-impressed that it can be switched back on just like that when I felt steamrolled by inactivity.
Unbelievable what a short bout of stretching can do. I just hope I can keep it up. The you tube clip is a 30 day challenge which gets harder each day but I was thinking of making it a 30 week challenge and go up a day each week.
Has anyone else really benefited from yoga? Or maybe you've practised for years and are super bendy in a way that I'd love to be if only I had the self-discipline to get up at 6am and do cartwheels out of bed.