This morning's class was pretty good. The instructor was amazing to keep checking in on my mom as she is floundering and to help her modify the stretches in ways that she can actually do them. I hadn't really factored in the fact that her movement is so limited that getting down onto the floor is not really something she can do. I don't remember ever seeing her sit on the floor. The things we take for granted.
Yoga involves a lot of "sit on the ground for this stretch", possibly with a couple of variations, followed by "now up on your feet for this stretch", again with a few variations. It's typically a lot of up and down and up and down, which is really challenging for my mom (but also something she should probably learn to do again).
I can't imagine being unable to move about in that way. But for many of us, at some point in our lives it is going to be a reality. It makes me think back to this instructor's class from two weeks ago where he had us practice different ways to get up off the floor. They activity kind of doubled as doing a lot of burpees, but essentially we would lie flat on the floor on our stomachs and then get up onto our feet as fast as we could. Except with each new round he would tell us a body part didn't work. So round two your left leg didn't work and you had to get up. Round three your right leg didn't work (but your left leg is now functional again). And then your arm, and then the other one. I think the final round involved nothing working (only one person could get into something semi-upright). His ending comment was that while this seems like pointless torture, this is a life-skill; if something ever happens and we're alone, it gives us the ability to remain mobile (and possibly get to a phone). It's a pretty valid point. You don't want to be the turtle stuck on its' back, you want to be able to get up and get help.
We did a lot of leg and hip flexion stretches, and a lot of massage with the Yoga balls. It was good. I felt slightly less sore than the last session. The one I really noticed was in my feet. During my August 1st class when this all started, one of the first exercises we did was to take a Yoga ball and roll it under the sole of your feet, finding sore spots and "working" them out. It was SO painful. Waves of pain radiating through my feet and up my legs. I was afraid to do that exercise again because it hurt so much and I didn't feel like there was any benefit after the fact. So we did that same exercise today and the sore spots were all or nearly all gone, and none of them felt anywhere near what they did that first time. It was really nice, and encouraging.
You know what else I've noticed? I've had one headache in the past month. Mind you, it was a TERRIBLE headache that lasted from the middle of the night until midday; but I've only had the one. I'm not sure if that's from going to the gym, working out tension, less stress because I'm on summer break, or simply the fact that I'm not staring at a computer screen for multiple hours a day. My headaches used to be numerous and debilitating. If I accomplish nothing else, getting rid of headaches would make my time at the gym 100% worth it. 110% 110,000%
Have I mentioned my headaches are terrible?
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