Yoga Q&A Quickie. What to do when your down dog ‘kills your wrists’.
I asked: “Where do you feel the weakest? Would it help if certain muscles were stronger?”
You said: “Arms. Downward dog kills my arms and wrists.
Anyone relate to this? Can I hear a hell yes!”Before I dive in with some solutions I want to ask you to consider that building strength isn’t necessarily just about having more/bigger muscles or isolating one particularly muscle over another. Nope my yogi friend, building strength is also about using all the muscles you have more efficiently, especially those that have not joined the party for some time. I call that union, which, as is happens, means Yoga…very cool right?
PRIORITISE THIS: A SUMMER STRATEGY FOR YOGIS-IN-TRAINING
PRIORITISE THIS:
Here it is. The one thing you can do to maximise your summer sports performance. ADJUST.
Yes, you can boost your efforts in the gym and in training by simply taking on habits, routines and dietary choices that are in harmony with arrival of the new season and the cycles of nature.
This, my athletic friend, is the science behind what’s called Ayurveda, (pronounced ‘I-Your-Veda’) a 5,000-year-old conscious-based way of maximising your health and fitness. It’s intuitive and makes sense.
Jump on in for 3 ways to adjust your summer training plans.
Feast on a Q&A Quickie: How can sports yoga help sports performance?
Roll out the gingham, it’s time for a quickie. 😉
So I get asked this a lot. How can sports yoga help sports performance?
In fact, it was THE NUMBER ONE question asked by my yogi’s in training who get my Yoga Local newsletter. So cop a yoga squat (or not) while I answer it.
Rather than reel off the big shout-outs to flexibility, strength, balance, which I’ve talked about before, I’ll answer this question from a different angle.
Think of the common traits that equal sporting success. I did, and came up with a SUPER SIX PICNIC to feast on.
5 Yogi Answers To Your Pre 26.2 Problems
Yogi-In-Training Q&A
Q: I’m on London Marathon Countdown. How can yoga help me prepare for my best 26.2?
First of all awesome work. It takes big-ass discipline and determination to get this close to your 26.2 and I know it’s not easy. I earned my medal (that’s mine opposite) four years ago. I was a super fledging yogi-in-training (BC – Before Chopra) and using yoga asana (poses) purely for the physical benefits, as a lot of us do.
Truth is I didn’t really get that there was much more to it. I may even have shrugged it off as not for me. Big mistake.
I didn’t know just how much yoga could offer a massive edge to my training, performance and overall wellbeing. I’m here today (AC – After Chopra) to show you how it can and if you’re open, to share some yoga inspired pre-marathon preparations to send you on your way to your best 26.2. Feel free to share them with your athletic friends and family.
3 Ways Yoga Can Help You Taper
Yogi-In-Training Q&A
Q: I’m in training for a spring marathon. How can yoga help me taper?
A: Taper, peak, fade – whatever you call it, it’s that period when you’re supposed to be training less than you have before. You’ve logged the super long miles or sessions and the plan says it’s time to pull back, let the body catch up, recover. Sounds great, you can do that right?
Not so straight-forward. Why? Because it’s way, way too easy to fall into the human trap of thinking more is more. (You know you think that way – you’re a competitor. It goes with the territory.)
So you stop trusting the plan and maybe add on a few hours. Or you pull back and your mind starts flipping you out, the confidence you’ve worked hard to accumulate takes a dive and before you know it, your anxiety is through the roof and you don’t even have your old faithful sport to distract you.
The solution: Drop a few key yoga tools into your taper plan.
3 Yogi-in-Training Ways to…
Overcome your open water fears
Hang on… before you ditch this blog. Before you say ‘no way Josie’, I’m no triathlete, nope, not a chance…why would I want to do that? Hear me out.
Ask yourself first my yogi friends, do you love to exercise and stay active? Great, me too. It makes me feel better physically and mentally. Simple. But did you know the setting you exercise in can add on extra benefits?
Water and “blue” space helps us relax and can potentially give us more of a mental boost than slogging it out in the gym, or at home where we’re dodging distractions and sensory stimuli. You know – your phone, TV, music, apps etc.
When we’re near the water, under the water, we get a cognitive rest. We find a sense of calm and clarity. We know intuitively and instinctively that being in and around the blue stuff makes us feel great and it’s also a very real thing scientifically.
Check out your latest Yogi-In-Training blog to learn more and maybe I can tempt you to dig into these 3 top yogi tools to get you over any first-time open water fears.
Go on, dive in…it might be cold, but it’s also totally exhilarating.
Yoga-In-Training: Introducing the journal
A list of the small stuff
Start where you are and keep going. It’s a great mantra for us all. Just get going and keep going.
So, that’s what this yogi-in-training is doing. Taking small steps, easy steps that feel good right away to move me a tad closer, any amount, to where I’m headed – a wildly successful yogi and business entrepreneur. (We can move small but there’s no reason to think small.)
Now, it’s hard to see how those little things add up, so I’m tracking them. I want to see how this all unfolds. What will be the long-term results of doing the work, showing up…?
Introducing the journal…. log it, blog it, just get it down on paper/screen and watch life change…
A list of the small stuff. Some of it, so far…
YOGI IN TRAINING BLOG: The entrepreneurial adventures of a Yogi in Training.
A never-ending story.
Does anybody have it all figured out? Got it together? Sealed the deal, nailed it down, have it locked and loaded? Really? Does anybody know what they are supposed to be doing? Do you?
Well I don’t. And you know what? I think it’s ok not to have the answers – all the whys. No one does.
What I do know for sure is that I like to ask questions, experience everything I can, explore and learn and that’s always a good place to start.
If you’re out of answers, lost sight of a goal, don’t know what your next step is, come with me as I explain how I’m pushing past a sticky spot and why that means Yogi In Training the Blog is making a comeback.
What happens when you get home from a Chopra Center Perfect Health yoga and meditation retreat?
First you realise you didn’t travel home alone. True, you may have done some work on silencing your ego – but now you know it was only to make room for a whole new conversation – this time with your deeper self. In Chopra world you got real comfy with its nurturing voice. It…
The Grander Plan
How do you make God laugh? Tell him your plans. Libby Carstensen When you’re going through a rough time, you don’t see the blessing in that – it’s disguised right? You don’t know that your world going up in flames, could be the start of something amazing. When I sowed my first seeds of intention…
