Yoga, tuned for time --

[danmoran]

For a couple months now I've been working my way into a sort-of regular yoga. I started off with a session at a Bikram Yoga studio -- didn't go back after the first session. Either too much Buddha babble, or too big a gap on my end to whatever valid point teacher was trying to make. (The stuff about Atlantis was unfortunate in either case.)

I started going once a week to the yoga class at my local 24 hour fitness instead. The teachers (multiple different at this point) have been young and shallow but do know the poses. Twice a week I've been doing the poses myself at home -- I have a roughly 8'x6' square area in my office with nothing on the rug, and I work there. I won't say it's a pretty sight, and god it makes me aware of how much weight I need to lose, some poses, but I have kept at it.

So far if there's been any improvement in joint problems, I haven't noticed it. Not necessarily a prob with the yoga -- I've been playing more basketball than usual lately, because my sons have abruptly (in the last 2-3 months themselves, really) gotten the bug bad. We've lately been playing every day after school, and for a couple hours on the weekends. My sons are 6, 9, and 12 -- the 9 year old makes me run and the 12 year old is 140 pounds and makes me work hard, banging and running around. So the strain on my joints has been worse than previously.

I've been consulting the last 10 months -- controlled my hours. I just took a position with a major internet company -- and won't control my own hours. Whatever progress I've made with the yoga, I don't want to lose, but I'm going to have a hard time finding 2 hours during the week to devote. Shortcuts, quicker/faster ways to get the same results, would be much appreciated ....

BTW ... that stop-and-breath thing five times a day, every 3 hours? I had a brutal time with that. A few days ago I programmed it into my cell phone, and now I'm remembering to do it, but without the cell phone alarm, I just couldn't. It's been a couple decades since I studied zen seriously, but I've apparently lost the ability to push myself toward mindfulness without external aid....

[Steven Barnes]

Dan-

There are lots of good short yoga sessions (my favorite currently is the 15-minute Ashtanga reduction: five "A" sun salutations, 3 "B" salutations, seated forward stretch, spinal twist left and right, boat pose (abs), backbend, forward stretch, lotus pose, corpse pose.
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But to get deeply enough into yoga to relax and rebalance the body requires entrance into flow. Moving into the extreme of a position, and then relaxing. I know the Bikram does that, and Ashtanga, and a good Iyengar-style class, and many others. The first point is to pull into your body--and learn to move to the edge of intensity without going over. The pose corrections have to be precise, because you are learning to move your body more efficiently. When a joint isn't functioning optimally, at the least you can learn to "sense" when you are stressing it further, and be more careful and aware. You might want to get a copy of Iyengar's wonderful "Light on Yoga" and take a look at the poses considered to be healthy for joints and skeleton. Then work on them gradually. An interesting thing about yoga is that, when you improve, you may not understand how much you gained unless you STOP for a couple of months, and then try to get back into those poses. It will hit you how much flexibility and basic health we sacrifice as we age. Yoga isn't "fitness" in the way most of us think about it. It is "health", a factor underlying fitness, and emotional balance, which underlies health. It might be interesting to collect short yoga routines, practice them, and see which ones affect which aspects of your physicality. Mindfulness is the most important thing: to be aware of being aware.

[danmoran]

I'll give the Ashtanga reduction a try today -- I've got a basketball game this morning, I couldn't do a full yoga session, but I'll try the short one and see if it helps warming down from the game. I'll try to keep mindful and get into flow, though it probably won't happen any time soon -- hasn't happened yet in the dozen or so hour long sessions I've been working through, hasn't even come close. Partially because I have to keep reminding myself how the poses go; I don't have but about half of them in my head in this point.

I'm pretty good at being aware while doing the dishes. It was one of the earliest zen exercises I as given 20+ years ago, and it's stuck; I can still get into a mindful state while washing dishes. I expect I'll get there with yoga, but so far no luck.

[danmoran]

That was OK. A little harder to do, after basketball.

[Steven Barnes]

Dan--
If you like that routine, go to Amazon and buy a used copy of David Swenson's "Yoga Short Forms" DVD. Practice along with it until you can hear the teacher's voice in your head. The devil is in the details--especially breathing and muscle locks. And remember to take at least two minutes of quiet at the very end. An excellent routine!

[danmoran]

They were new from $26, and used from $35. I bought it new.

[Steven Barnes]

Good going, Dan. And when you've had a chance to look at it, we should talk on the phone. I'd be happy to help you with this.