Yoga

I’ve been a hurt runner for a long time. Growing up, I was constantly dealing with some type of tendonitis, pulled muscles, you name it. In the summer of 2019, I set out to run the Monumental half marathon in Indianapolis. About a month into training I started getting some tendonitis in my achilles which affected my training so I knocked it down to the 5K race. The following month I ran a 5K turkey trot and that was my last organized race. Not too long after the turkey trot, my achilles and patellar tendonitis flared up. The world paused as COVID took over. Over some time, I saw a doctor, did some PT, and started feeling better. I was pretty healthy through the summer of 2021. When we moved to the Pacific northwest and I started running on hills, all of these injuries came back. I started PT again. 

Something that every doctor and every PT I’ve ever seen has said goes something to the effect of “wow you’re not very flexible are you?”. They’re right, I’m not. In January when I started PT again, the therapist had the same comment but said “have you tried yoga?”. I’ve kicked the tires on yoga a few times in the privacy of my own home and hated it. I felt like movements and positions were impossible to get into. The meditative Youtube videos felt condescending to me. “Listening to my breath” felt stupid when I couldn’t get my leg to move in the direction it needed to go. “I’ve tried it and I hate it” I told the PT. She said “It would really help you. If you can find a way to do it, you should.” So I did the one thing I haven’t tried yet and signed up for a class. 

There are many ways to learn how to do things. You can learn to do something from watching YouTube videos. Just struggling on your own until you learn. You can have someone teach you individually. You can read books/documentation on how to do it. Most things I’ve ever learned how to do, I’ve read about them and then committed to figuring it out until…I figured it out. Well it turns out I needed to be in a yoga class all along. I had this fear that I would look like I really don’t belong. Perhaps I do but you quickly learn that by leaning into the basic practices of yoga, you learn it’s like any other sport. Yeah in theory you could compare your performance to someone else’s but that’s not the point. It’s about giving it your best effort each time and the result is what it is. 

I am certain that I haven’t unlocked all the benefits of yoga but I don’t miss a class anymore. If you’re like me and have tried at home and just felt like a failure, I’d suggest trying a class. Typically the cost is low, if not free, and maybe you feel what I felt, that having an expert guide you let’s you feel that being a novice is ok. After all, we were all new to do it at one point.