25/08/2022
“Yoga is a martial art you do against yourself”.
This pose is “flawed”. I’m not a yoga expert but I can see all kinds of things that I want to improve. I’m a competitive type, so I can’t help it.
But it doesn’t matter. Yoga isn’t competitive. What matters is self improvement. What matters is that 18 months or so ago when I first started practising yoga, what you see here would have been impossible.
My body had handed me notice that I better start taking better care of it. I’d been beating myself up with judo, running and jiu-jitsu for years, and paying little or no attention to flexibility or general maintenance.
Plus, my workouts were all HARD, as I was operating under the mistaken belief that that’s what I needed to do to make progress. I’d tried yoga so many times before but I found it unbelievably painful and excruciatingly boring.
An Achilles injury during lockdown had me out of action.
A doctor told me the injury was chronic. I decided to take that with a pinch of salt, so in addition to my physio, I decided to try yoga again, and stick to it this time.
It was awful. I hated every second of it. I could only do a few minutes. But I decided that was enough. A few minutes each day.
Slowly, it got less awful. My body and mind started to open, like a rusty old treasure chest. I found things in there I had no idea existed.
Yoga strengthens my body and my mind. It calms me down. It gives me a practice I can do anywhere. And it’s opened up possibilities in my jiu-jitsu practice through the extra body awareness, presence of mind, and calmness under pressure. The added flexibility means I get injured less, and it’s improved my “guard game” (defensive offence) no end.
And that “chronic” Achilles problem? Gone.
I dedicate this post to my wonderful teachers at . Thank you 🙏
📸
