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.<\/p>\n
Ever since then, I’ve taken it easy in yoga, just doing the things I can do without strain and pain.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
That made me pause. Alexander Technique is all about freeing the neck.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
They were doing some pretty funny things in yoga class tonight. I just sat back and sipped tea and watched everyone.<\/p>\n
Celibate pose<\/a> is definitely not for me. Too hard on my knees. And, frankly, I don’t want celibacy in my life.<\/p>\n (Celibacy means to never marry. Chastity means to abstain from sex. I will stay chaste until the day I marry, as the Torah commands.)<\/p>\n Then the teacher had people get on to their elbows and knees and crawl around the room.<\/p>\n “Stop videotaping, Luke!” the teacher yelled at me.<\/p>\n “But I want to put it on my blog,” I said.<\/p>\n One bloke turned around. “Are you kidding?” he said.<\/p>\n “Yes, we’re kidding,” I said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 … Continue reading