2011 - the year of the hamstring

So, first things first, a VERY belated happy new year to all my friends! (Well, all 9 of you who actually read this anyways...)



I'm almost embarassed that this post is so belated, but, uh, you see I was out of town last week, with not a second to spare for posting. And, I, uh, had a case of blogger's block.

Ok, ok. The REAL reason for the delay is that I hadn't really come up with any blog-worthy New Year's Resolutions to post.

I know, I know. I don't HAVE to post a resolution. And I have plenty of smaller and more personal resolutions that I'm not sharing. But, I really did want to have SOMETHING to be held accountable to this year.

Well, this morning, I finally figured it out.

Friends - welcome to the year of the hamstring.

I went back to yoga this morning. For the first time in nearly a month. And you know what? It Sucked (with a capital-S). It was hard. I couldn't even touch the floor in forward fold. I needed a block. I felt like a January Joiner. (Not that there's ANYTHING wrong with that, go JJ'S!! But when you've been practicing yoga for 8 years, you'd kind of like to get some street cred for that, you know?)

And that led me to think, "WTF is going ON with my hamstrings!? When did they get so TIGHT!"

And THAT led me to think, "I should be practicing yoga more often".

When I got home, I sat and thought on this one for awhile. And friends, I have a confession to make.

(I don't really like yoga.)

Yoga is my spinach. It's that thing you do because everyone tells you how good it is for you, and you know you're supposed to do it. But, if I'm really honest, yoga just doesn't do it for me. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I dislike it, I just don't get excited for it the way I do other activities.

Take running. LOVE. LOOOOOOOOOOVE. Not enough "o's" in the world to express the looove. Spinning? Adore it. Everytime a great song comes on the radio, my first thought is, "This would be SO FUN to Spin to." Seriously. Not dance to. Spin to. Pilates? Love it so much I wish I could afford to go every day. Alas, the Super Lotto has not come through for us just yet...

But seriously, back to the topic at hand. I just don't GET that blissed-out, zen, bendy, clean, amazing feel that I think I am SUPPOSED to get from yoga. And I think I know why. I think...it's my attitude towards it.

You see, I'm not good at yoga. And, as a general rule, I don't like things I'm not good at. (Yes, I too have character flaws.) In the spirit of full disclosure though, it's kind of my own damn fault that I'm no good at yoga. Since I don't like it, I don't TRY that hard to improve.

And that brings me back to the title of the post. My goal is to IMPROVE at yoga this year. I plan to measure it by how much flexibility I can gain, and how I feel towards my practice. Here's how I plan to accomplish my goal. By:

1. Going to classes consistently. Like it or not, I just have to accept that flexibility is clearly something my body needs more of, and yoga is the path to get there.
2. Pushing myself a little harder. Feeling comfortable in that child's pose? I don't think so. I make too many excuses for myself during class (ahem, who's that sneaking out to the bathroom whenever an inversion is coming up? Yeah, that's me. Oh, the shame.)
3. Being more fearless. (Goes hand in hand with #2 - there is a good reason I sneak out during inversions, I'm afraid of falling over!)
4. Doing the poses that are hard for ME daily. This would include all manner of hamstring stretches, Pigeon, Squats, that god-awful foot stretching one, and chest openers. Sadly, I tend to back away from doing the hard stuff when I practice on my own.
5. Practice somewhere relaxing. I love the studio in my gym. But for those short practices at home, I'm thinking I might head out here:

(weather permitting, of course)

I really hope this works. There was a point in my past where at least I used to LIKE yoga. And even if I don't ever fall in LOVE, hopefully I can at least get back to liking it.

If I can learn to love spinach, I'm pretty sure I can learn to love yoga too.