Category: yoga

When I started doing yoga, it looked simple. Twist yourself into a little pretzel, sit there for a little while, then choose a different pretzel shape and repeat. It turns out that things aren't quite so simple. You have to engage muscles to remain in these twisty positions and even to pull yourself further into the postures.

Knowing which muscles to engage and where to focus your attention in each posture is something that a good teacher would help with, of course, but I'm a bit teacherless. There is some advice available online, much of it expressed in terms of analogies ("embrace your thigh", and so on). That's OK, but it's not a substitute for a precise anatomical description of what's going on.

When we lived in Canada, we exercised a lot: mountain and road biking, running, sea kayaking, CrossFit. That dropped off in France, but I managed to do some gymnastics and basic conditioning, which continued for the first summer here in Austria (lots of gymnastics: I even managed to do a few muscle-ups on my rings!).

Over the winter in Igls, I've not been doing a whole lot, partially for lack of time (I keep telling myself that three hours of dog-walking a day has to be worth something), partially for lack of inclination, and partially because the pull-up bar is too cold to hold onto in the mornings when it's -10°C outside (that sounds like a better excuse than "lack of inclination"!). I'd been thinking for a while that I needed to start doing something again, and Rita had a yoga book lying around, so I thought I'd give that a go, if only for a while.