Off the Court

This week's Question is from someone exploring beginning a yoga practice:

Hi Ronny,

 I am a 67-year-old healthy woman who is about 50 pounds overweight.

I've never done YOGA, my deal was racquetball.  

Those days are gone.  

What is a timeframe of when to expect some changes in my body if I committed to yoga?  

Thanks,

Off The Court 

Dear Off The Court, 

The question I hear is “when will it change?” However, I can really only answer “What will change?” And technically, it’s what could change. 

Now, let's manage some expectations. Structural changes like posture and body composition take time! If you are looking for an exercise routine, you would have to practice yoga very vigorously many times a week. Yoga is classified as low impact exercise, even the hard stuff. The benefit is regulation. Yoga helps us to feel less pain, sleep better and gives us a nervous system that can respond to the moment. I know that's probably not what you pictured when you thought about starting yoga. Social media tends to show yoga as sweaty rooms of people balancing on their arms or standing on their heads. I don’t want to say that isn’t Yoga, that's just not all there is. There are so many reasons that people begin a yoga practice, to recover from something, to transition in some way, to help their mobility, to find balance- and yes, that may be on their arms. All of these are 100 percent valid. I will say that it has been my experience that whatever brings you to the mat usually is not what will keep you coming to the mat. 

Yoga often shifts things we feel before things we see. We hope to move from a performance of skill to a conversation with our body. We may notice an improved range of motion or less of the pain that stopped us from playing Racquet ball. The true gift of yoga is not happening somewhere in the future where some metric is achieved. It is the gathering of awareness in this present moment. With this gentle reframe, the timeline for change could only be now. 

I understand what you lost when you had to hang up the racket — the challenge, the community, maybe the identity of being someone who competes. Yoga may be a bridge back to some of that, even if it's not the racket itself. 

Come try it out, we will rally with you. 

Your Yoga Therapist, Ronny