I began yoga in January 2009. I went all-out. And within two months, I’d done a lot of damage to myself, some of it permanent and irreparable. Once you stretch ligaments, they don’t unstretch. Some of the damage was repaired with about $1800 worth of physical therapy.
Ever since then, I’ve taken it easy in yoga, just doing the things I can do without strain and pain.
In the summer of 2009, I met a woman who said she could no longer do yoga because she’d had neck surgery and she found that yoga strained her neck.
That made me pause. Alexander Technique is all about freeing the neck.
So I stopped doing things that caused me to tense my neck. I stopped doing breath manipulation. I stopped doing about half of the class.
They were doing some pretty funny things in yoga class tonight. I just sat back and sipped tea and watched everyone.
Celibate pose is definitely not for me. Too hard on my knees. And, frankly, I don’t want celibacy in my life.
(Celibacy means to never marry. Chastity means to abstain from sex. I will stay chaste until the day I marry, as the Torah commands.)
Then the teacher had people get on to their elbows and knees and crawl around the room.
“Stop videotaping, Luke!” the teacher yelled at me.
“But I want to put it on my blog,” I said.
One bloke turned around. “Are you kidding?” he said.
“Yes, we’re kidding,” I said.
