Last February's one-week snow storm wore me out so badly that I've been dreading the coming winter. Now the weather has changed so suddenly that even though I've been bargain-hunting for cold-and-rain-gear for weeks, I still feel unprepared. Sunday night cold winds coming down from the Canadian Rockies met up with rain clouds blowing north over Bellingham Bay over Whatcom County and we had an early snow and hail storm. When I biked to work at mid-day there were still wet piles of snow in the gutters and lumps of slush along the road. Monday was cold and drier, with snow still on the hilltops around town.
Along with shopping, I resolved to prepare my body for winter. Last winter, after a very hard week of commuting in icy, snowy weather, I tried a drop-in yoga session at a place in Bellingham. During one movement that involved lying on my back with knees raised, twisting at the waist to roll the legs from side to side, I had such hard, painful muscle spasms in my inner thighs that I almost yelled out loud. Feeling it was unfair to the teacher and other students to continue when I was in such bad shape, I decided to rest and take it easy for a few months.
Later in the spring a new yoga studio opened in Ferndale, only about a mile from where I live, and last month I signed up for a four-week, twice-a-week beginner series. Now I'm attending one night a week, and have even been practicing at home, in a somewhat hit-and-miss irregular way, meaning I do some warm-up stretches and exercises while drinking my morning coffee, and a few more stretches and relaxation exercises at the end of the day. It's helping already, which is encouraging me to get up early enough in the morning for a longer, more disciplined practice.
When I first took up bicycling several years ago, at forty-five years old, I read that because of the repetitive and narrow range of movement while pedaling, bicyclists often become stiff and rigid in the shoulders and hips, weak in the feet and ankles, and develop slack muscles in the front of the body compared to the back. I knew I should be doing some sort of cross-training or stretching exercises, but being disorganized and undisciplined, I procrastinated until my laziness started to hurt.
Actually I remember trying tree pose after I'd been riding frequently for a few months, and being proud of myself because I could actually do it - I'd finally developed enough muscle in my thighs to hold my leg up without wedging my foot hard against the inner thigh of my other leg. Not anymore - I have tendinitis in my left ankle, and both my feet are too weak and wobbly to balance on one foot for long. So I've been working on my feet at home, standing on tiptoe, balancing on one foot, doing a lot of mountain poses, especially when my back starts to hurt at work. In class we work mostly on sun salute and warrior poses, after warming up with cat-cow and downward dog, loosening up my legs and back so I can move on to more challenging moves without hurting myself. Doing warrior poses usually makes my spine pop in a few places, which might be alarming to some people, but has done huge good for my back.
I'm beginning to feel calmer and more confident about facing the winter.
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