It’s a wild sensation to feel your body sliding back into place. To feel the jutted and stacked posture and have your whole body go, “oh no, darling, let’s just tidy you back up.” And then you realign your spine and joints, and it feels so good!
Because you CAN realign yourself!
I’ve gone back to the basics and am working on my form. Remembering how my body moves and learning where I’m at right now.
I’m focusing on hip mobility and stability.
I’m building strength in my shoulders, chest, and back to help those muscles lift me up and support my neck better.
I’m retraining my legs to remember how to be a strong and steady support base for all of me.
It’s been feeling great!
I’ve also established reasonable goals with a few lofty ones mixed in. I want to do three ‘workouts’ a day. Simple yoga or Tai Chi in the morning, workout in the afternoon, and deep yoga in the evening. If I get at least one of those done, I did enough to feel good. It’s more than I have been doing.
I’ve also kept my workouts short so I can accomplish three sets. Three is the magic number.
I do all 3-5 moves straight through and then do some focused dynamic stretching as a rest between sets. It’s my whole momentum thing. Once I get moving, I keep moving. It’s also a lot easier to get myself to do the last set knowing I only have to do 4-8 repetitions.
After, I always stretch to cool down. I really love this part and can get really caught up. The harder the workout, the more I want to stretch because I am not dealing with being sore later. Or stiff.
Each session I focus on everything I just used and whatever I used during the last workout.
Strength training stresses the muscles, which is how we build them. However, if we don’t help our body process that stress, it will stick around and constrict our muscles. We lose mobility and therefore our strength. Our power. So I only do stretches or yoga postures that help my mind and body connect and heal.
I have no set time frame. Just five routines with different focuses. I get through them at my own pace and then repeat once more, at my own pace. I try not to have more than two days of rest between workouts because my momentum begins to wane if I do.
But if I need rest, I need rest. So I take it. I’m getting older and I’m trying to follow the example of the many thriving elders that I’ve known over the years. Rest is good.
So that’s some of what’s working for me at the moment. I’m feeling much more grounded and free. I’m definitely holding better form at work. And driving. And while doing yard work.
Bring on Spring!