As part of my #teacher5aday plan, I’ve decided to follow Adriene’s 31 days of yoga. I’ve been trying my best, but since all my fitness resolutions usually collapse under the weight of work, stress, and laziness, my expectations were quite low.
I am now past day 12, and I couldn’t feel better.
I know you mush think day 12 is not much, it’s not even half way through. And 31 days aren’t much anyway. However, this is a great achievement for me.You have to consider I’m a real couch potato, I could never last doing any kind of sport or workout more than 2-3 months. I would invariably get tired of it and would eventually drop it altogether. From this perspective, 12 days in a row are a lot.
What I’m really happy about though is that so far my daily yoga practice hasn’t been a burden at all. It’s actually the part of my day I’m most looking forward to, a moment with and for myself that makes my day so much better.
The physical benefits
I’ve been suffering of back pains since I can remember, and when I knit for too long without taking a break my neck and shoulders hurt — typically the next day. These pains are slowly disappearing as my morning yoga helps me stretch and strengthen my muscles. It physically feels good to stretch the back, the hips, the neck. The first few days I couldn’t believe how well I was feeling.
The psychological benefits
I think these are mainly due to how Adriene makes you feel while she teaches you the movements, but I could be wrong, it could be yoga itself. Whatever the reason, the crankiness I had in the morning is slowly disappearing too. After my yoga practice I always feel positive, energetic and ready to start a new day of hard work. I could clearly see the difference on the only day I didn’t do my practice. I was actually more moody and felt very sleepy all through the day.
I’ll definitely write something if and when I get to the 31st day of yoga, to see if I still feel this way and if or what has changed.