January 2, 2024 - Recovery Yoga

One of the things I plan to be more deliberate about during these coming years of the High Five By 55 project is recovery. Nah, that's not a fair statement. I've practically avoided anything "recovery" for the past several years, anything other than not stacking hard workouts on back to back days. So let me restate that. One of the things I plan to be is accepting of and focused on during these coming years of the High Five By 55 project is recovery.

One of the recovery practices I'm working on making habit is a three times per week recovery yoga session. I ran into this recovery program through Uphill Athlete and have been trying it out kind of irregularly the past couple weeks. It has been a wonderful change for me. An opportunity to slow down, to breath, to lightly stretch some things. At least in Level 1, which is all I've tried so far, there's really not much to it. Breathing, some light movement, long holds of just a few poses. And yet, it is tremendously uncomfortable for me. Just staying there unmoving in a pose with just the tiniest bit of tension so quickly feels like pain to me. And yet, once I'm finished with the 30 minutes, I feel...better. A bit quieter. A bit more at ease.

I followed this program this morning. I was impatient this morning and didn't really want to participate. I looked at my watch often. And even in this impatient unfocused state, I felt more at ease by the end.

I think this will be a good recovery practice for me. I will do my best to make it a regular practice.

Sidenote: the instructor goes out of her way to make it clear this is not a yoga practice, but does use some yoga poses as a path to encouraging the body to find a recovery state. So I thought I should be clear about this as well. 

Comments

  1. ShaeJanuary 3, 2024 at 9:37 AM

    I also have a tendency to look at my watch a lot during yoga. It boggles my mind how I can run for hours and the time just goes by, but yoga sometimes goes on foreverrrrr even if it's only 25 mins.

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