Good physical health can be assessed through three factors: strength, balance, and flexibility.
Most of us have some but not all aspects. We get into a track where we focus on just a few of these aspects. Myself, it was strength and balance – rarely did I ever stretch to warm up or cool down.
Recently, I watched a video on hip flexibility and gauging it by getting up off the floor without using your hands. The most difficult one is to squat on your legs like in a Japanese bow and then pop up into a ready fighting stance. Some flexibility but fairly heavy on muscle and tendon strength. I thought it was a lot of fun to do but haven’t done that for 30 years.
A couple of months ago in March, the community centre hosted a ‘Yoga and Body Talk’ series on five consecutive Sundays from 1:00 to 2:00 pm. The bad news is that you all missed it (unless you attended). The good news is that they might do it again in the fall as it was quite successful. The introductory offer was very affordable, informative, and certainly presented an alternative point of view.
The first 10 minutes was on ‘body talk,’ put on by Valerie Debicki. This is based on Dr. Ryke Geerd Hamer’s theory of a clear correlation between types of conflict shocks or trauma manifesting on the organ level, disease, or pain. He theorized the brain is a mediator between the psyche and the physical body.
The second part of the presentation is on yoga – something that is familiar to many of us if not in name only. This part of the seminar is participatory and is lead by Chelsea So. Don’t worry, there is always someone in the class that has issues with flexibility and ends up falling over, grunting, or breathing heavy. Why is everyone looking at me?
Don’t be too concerned if you are a novice; there are numerous alternatives and variations to accommodate everyone. It can be made easier or more difficult. Can’t get on the floor? There are variations for the chair. Chelsea also teaches classes on chair yoga as well. For my first class, she said that I needed to bring a belt. I thought it was for tying me to the chair so I wouldn’t fall over – wrong.
For the purpose of the classes, the body was divided into four parts:
• Head and neck
• Arms and thorax
• Hips
• Legs and feet
The last class is all yoga and a review of what we have learned. The one thing I learned is that breathing in lengthens the muscle and as you breath out, you can move more deeper into a stretch or pose.
After trying out a few yoga classes, I find this was certainly a really good speed for me. I learnt lots of stretches and poses that will be helpful in increasing functional flexibility. I have enjoyed it so much; I will be signing up for the fall seminar series.
Looking forward to seeing everyone there.
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