Ever wonder what I have to do, in order to have as few aches & pains possible.
This has come up a few times in the past month, where people seem to think that I have a body, which is magically sprinkled in fairy dust from the yoga gods and I have no issues and no aches & pains in my body. They think I do not need to do the work I suggest that they do? This is so confusing and yes funny, because I do more than you can imagine keeping my body feeling good. To me feeling good in my body, means little to no aches & pains, free from injury, and able to do the things I want to do with my body. The more active I am, the more I need to do to counter balance. For example, I walk a few miles a day and sometimes 6-7 miles in a day, I do strength training 2-3 times a week, I work with a dozen private yoga clients a week and teach group classes, where I do some of the yoga and do adjustments in which I use my body. I travel all over NYC, up and down subway stairs, back and forth to different people’s homes, studios, etc. All these things and a few other things I am using my body for, are things that need, what I call “counter-balancing” and I don’t mean balancing on one foot. I mean for every physical activity there is a counter balance, like stretching, massage, foam rollers, self-massage balls. I do lots and lots of counter balancing. Alternatively, if you were stretching all the time and not doing any cardio vascular activity or strength training, I would say that would be the counter balance. If I did not do these things, I would be limping around, saying ouch a lot, wincing in certain movements and so on. I would probably be more injury prone, but I will never know that because of all the work I put in. It doesn’t seem like a good idea for a yoga teacher to limp in the classroom.
There are times I get home from a long day of working with several different clients, have walked 5 miles and my body is achy. I lie down on the floor and spend 15 minutes stretching and releasing, all my over worked muscles, ligaments, tendons, fascia and bones. It always feels so good as I continue to work on my achy, tired, overworked body and I always do the moves 2 or 3 times in a row to continue to feel if things are progressing in the direction I want it to. Some people say first thing in the morning is when they feel lots of aches & pains and for them and I would suggest the same things I do at the end of the day. These things are a must for me and learning how to do these things the right way cannot be over stressed. I would also add that I let my body guide the movement, meaning if my back is feeling stuff the most, I stay with that.
Of course while writing this, I woke up one morning and my back was a bit achier than usual. I tried to stretch, did some self-massage techniques and I realized I needed to leave it alone. I worked that day, did not do any yoga, came home, iced, took some ibuprophen and went to sleep. The next morning I woke up and it was feeling better. I still felt a small amount, so I started slowly to reintroduce things.