All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, as I explain in my latest Active Yogi post.
As athletes and as yogis, we spend a lot of time building comfort with discomfort. This is the purpose of training: We stress the body so that it can grow stronger. Without the stress of this discomfort, we miss out on adaptation, and thus the opportunity for growth. Similarly, yoga asana teaches us to grow comfortable with discomfort, whether it’s burning quads in Chair Pose or the challenge of trying our first Handstand. Our adaptation to these stimuli makes us stronger and more flexible, and the tools for staying present we develop in uncomfortable situations help prepare us for all life’s challenges.
Some events make you sore. Some training weeks make you fatigued. Some days do both. In my latest Active Yogi post, I consider the effect soreness and fatigue have on your yoga practice (and give a little postview of the FU40 event in Memphis).
A week ago, I visited my best friend, Francesca, in Memphis, where she was running 40 miles to celebrate her imminent fortieth birthday. Struck by one of those ideas that seem to pop into the mind fully formed during a long run, she planned her own do-it-yourself event in a park outside town and invited some friends to join her for a lap or two around the lake. Several of us did one, two, or three of the 10-mile laps, while Francesca gamely did all four and felt good enough to drive when we went out for pizza and beer that evening.
Three tips for coping when you feel destabilized, in my latest Active Yogi post.
Last week’s events in Boston had my eyes glued to my computer, feeling anxious and heartsick. It’s destabilizing to see an injured colleague in an news photo, and to hear from students and friends who were at or less than a minute away from the marathon finish line when the bombs exploded. Many of my Facebook and Twitter contacts are endurance athletes with some direct connection to Boston, and it’s been tough to pull myself away from the refresh button to recenter. Here are three steps that helped me; they can help you not just now but whenever you feel emotionally vulnerable.
As I’ve chronicled on Facebook, our house was laid siege by a self-destructive robin for almost two weeks. Yesterday’s application of newspaper to the windows—where, apparently, its reflection taunted it—has helped. I’ve seen only one divebomb of the window and no more droppings on the front porch. The robin may be gone, but it’s not forgotten:
For the last few days, a robin has been attacking its reflection in the window to my home office. Over and over again, it flings itself at the window in a show of aggression. I’ll shoo it away, and a few hours later it returns. One of my students suggested I Google “robin totem”—it seems the robin, harbinger of spring, is a symbol of change. That’s ironic, as this bird is not changing its behavior. Its now-habitual action is causing it harm.
Today’s blog post at Active Yogi concerns an action we’ve been playing with in class, and it includes a video demo of how to use blocks as you work your way toward this transition.
It seems simple: rising to standing from the ground. It’s a motion we do often in some variation over the course of a day. But with a few simple rules, it transforms into an exercise that challenges our strength, balance, and sense of humor, building new awareness of where our bodies are in space and how to move them.
Aligning your physical pursuits in inverse proportion will keep you balanced, as I explain in my latest Active Yogi post.
I ran a tough trail marathon last weekend, complete with a full-on Superman-style wipeout. (Thank you, Locust Pose, for giving me the back strength to keep my nose from breaking as I went down!) As the week went on, I was still too sore for my regular asana practice, so I enjoyed mellow poses at home instead of taking classes at my studio. I even had a colleague demo when I taught Monday night, two days postrace, as I was too stiff to get up and down easily. In no state for a physical yoga practice, I listened to my body and gave it time to heal.
In my latest Active Yogi post, a complement to the overview of hip stretches, I describe ways to build strength in the hips to cultivate balance.
All sports injuries are the result of some kind of imbalance. Sometimes you literally lose your balance and fall, causing an acute injury like a sprained ankle or torn ACL. More insidiously, training itself can develop an imbalance between strength and flexibility that leads to an overuse injury like patellar tendonitis or piriformis syndrome. To correct such muscular imbalance in your body, you need to open any constricted areas—those where you don’t have enough flexibility to move easily—and to strengthen the relatively weak areas.
As I continue to unpack my inbox and to-do list after spending a fantastic week teaching at Kripalu, here’s a piece on why retreats, like training camps, help us focus on moving forward.
I’m at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, teaching yoga for athletes all week. It strikes me that a yoga retreat is a lot like training camp for athletes. It gets us out of our mundane routine and puts us in a space—both physically and, just as importantly, mentally—where we can focus our full attention on the subject at hand.
The irony of the situation was not lost on me. Mindlessly browsing Facebook, I saw my picture pop up on the feed with today’s Active Yogi post. The piece is on my resolution to sit up straighter, and as I looked at it, I realized my current posture was horrible.
My 2013 resolution: Stand up straight. It feels hypocritical to be a yoga teacher and have such poor posture. Happily, as a yoga teacher, I have the tools to fix it. These same steps can work for you if you’d like to use your home practice to address an imbalance, whether it’s physical or emotional.
Wondering what poses will help you find a personal balance between the strength you cultivate in your sport and the flexibility you need for fluid range of motion? My latest post for Active Yogi can help.
The amount of flexibility you need in your hips depends greatly on your activities. Individual anatomy, both structural (in the shape of your bones) and functional (in the way you’ve used your body over time) affects your abilities as well. Some yogis may have a lot of flexibility that they don’t need; others may have a lot of strength but not enough flexibility for their athletic pursuits; many in both camps have a mixture, being loose in some muscle groups and tight in others. In the face of these variations, we can agree on the importance of balance—we need balance between the muscles in the front and back and inner and outer lines of the hips. This balance keeps the pelvis properly situated and reduces both acute injuries and overuse issues.
Since you're probably wondering, yes! Sage Rountree is my real name. I got Sage from my parents and Rountree (spelled with no d, tricky!) from my husband.
I’m at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, teaching yoga for athletes all week. It strikes me that a yoga retreat is a lot like training camp for athletes. It gets us out of our mundane routine and puts us in a space—both physically and, just as importantly, mentally—where we can focus our full attention on the subject at hand.
