Yoga and Fitness

So I’ve been cleansing with my Neti Pot for a few weeks now and everything’s been going well.

Until now…

The other night I was really tired. It had been a long day filled with frustration, so all I wanted to do was go to bed and have a good night’s rest. I went through my usual nightly ritual and then all but fell into bed, exhausted.

That’s when I remembered my Neti Pot. Oh, so much for my “nightly ritual” – I’d forgotten a very important part of it. I lay there for the next five minutes, debating whether it was worth getting up and doing the cleansing or just forgetting about it and going to sleep.

Of course, after debating on that for a while (I can always give myself a great argument), I realized I couldn’t sleep anyway, so I thought I might as well get up and commune with Neti.

I went through my now usual routine – I measured out the usual dose, poured in the warm water, lent over the sink, tilted my head, poured the liquid into one nostril… and made a complete mess, somehow managing to pour the liquid up my nose, resulting in an intense pain shooting through my head, which in turn caused me to gag and choke. “Not pleasant” would be a major understatement! I then proceeded to blow my nose for the next 20 minutes until my head exploded… or at least it felt like it had exploded.

Once I was through blowing my head off, I sulkily cleaned up the mess and changed into another sleep shirt before getting into bed, all the while grumbling to myself and cursing my Neti Pot.

At least I’ve learned one very important lesson – the next time I’m tired and just want an early night, I should just go to bed and not worry about missing one night with Neti!

I read a newspaper article today. This alone is surprising as I have an acute aversion to current events – I find their reality disruptive to mine. But this morning, as I sat waiting for my coffee to percolate, the newspaper was the only thing within reach. With careful ambivalence, I paged lazily through it (looking mostly at the ads).

An article with the word “yoga” in it soon caught my eye, however, and recklessly I began reading.

It turns out that yoga is starting to be used rather extensively as a form of psychological therapy. The article outlined a new, unorthodox, and potentially ill-conceived plan by the US Army to include yoga training for their soldiers on the front lines in an effort to combat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

This radical movement was inspired by Posing Warriors, a particularly successful yoga program originally intended to help Vietnam veterans suffering from PTSD. Since its inception, the program has grown to include veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan as well.

So, with the increasing incidence of soldier suicides, the army has turned to yoga. And already arrangements are being made with a yoga instructor in Iraq.

Now I get to editorialize.

As good an idea as this may seem to be, it sounds downright silly to me. Whomever is in charge has missed the point of yoga. One of its first and most important tenets is a principle of no harm. It seems to me that, as a practice, yoga is conceptually and psychologically at odds with the soldier mentality – so much so as to make the two mutually exclusive. Simply put, the violence required of the military profession does not accommodate the successful practice of yoga. Practiced this way, it will become a meaningless waste of time and serve only to confuse rather than enlighten.

Well, that’s my two cents. And I’ve since remembered why I rabidly avoid the newspaper.

This is very very important. When doing poses where your hands and wrists are supporting much of your weight, spread your fingers as wide as you can. Activate every single fingertip, pressing them firmly into the ground, as if you were gripping it. Taking some of the weight out of your wrists by distributing the weight to your fingers is a good practice to get into since many yoga poses support a lot of weight on your wrists. Once you get the hang of it, you will notice a huge difference.



You might also consider wrist supports. Either way is fine, just remember that unless you want to risk injury, safety is important!

I have a pain in the neck. No, no, you didn’t read that right – I said I have a pain in the neck, not I am a pain in the neck!

I’m pretty sure it stems from my bad posture when I’m sitting at my desk. Oh sure, when I first sit down, I make an effort to keep my spine straight and my shoulders back. However, once I dig in and start focusing on my work, I forget about everything else. I slouch in my chair with my shoulders hunched while I type away, oblivious to everything except getting my work done.

Sound familiar?

Well, recently my neck has really been bothering me – what used to be a temporary crick has become a permanent one. At first, I thought it was my pillow, so I tried using another one…and another…and another…. Nope, not the pillow.

So at my last yoga class, I decided to mention my problem to my instructor – and I was surprised when many of my fellow participants said they had a similar problem. Sure enough, my yoga instructor said it was probably due to poor posture, although there could also be many other underlying factors that were causing the pain. And – of course – she said there were some asanas that would help to alleviate the pressure and stress on the neck area to relieve the pain.

She proceeded to take us through these asanas, as well as some breathing exercises. I was a little wary about trying them because my neck was so sore, but my instructor reminded me to do only what was comfortable and not push it, as I could injure my neck even more. Since I’d mentioned that I spend most of my time at my desk working on the computer, she also took us through pain-relieving asanas for the neck that we could do while sitting in a chair.

I have to say I didn’t notice much of a difference when I got home – the crick was still there. But that night I slept wonderfully and woke up feeling refreshed. I went about my usual business and didn’t even notice that the crick in my neck had gone until I sat down at my desk. That’s when I noticed that the pain was gone – yes!

I’d love to say that my posture has improved but I find that I’m still slouching and hunching my shoulders. The difference now, though, is that I take a few minutes every couple of hours to go through the yoga poses and breathing exercises.

Now if I could only remember not to slouch….

Keeping your back safe from injury is important. Maintaining a healthy spine is paramount not only for proper yoga poses but also for overall general health! Check out this video on proper spinal health.