Yoga for old ladies

For 616 days I have started each day with at least 20 minutes of yoga. I haven’t missed one day. I’m not telling you this to show off. It’s not really interesting how much exercise people do or don’t do. It’s just that I wanted to tell you about a surprising benefit/embarrassment. 

Yoga is something I like to do. Slow stretching and breathing are the kind of exercises that I can cope with. I had a fairly regular practice and would often do Yoga with Adrienne 30 day courses on YouTube. After mum died I was so broken that I couldn’t do any for 5 months. Breathing was tricky. However, when I went back to work I committed to daily practice. Somehow, it was easier to convince myself to get up to breathe and stretch than to go and be with people and work. Now it’s a habit like cleaning my teeth.

You often see articles with beautiful, young, pretty women entitled, “Look what happened when I did yoga every day for a week/month/year.” All of a sudden these beautiful women are more beautiful with abs and biceps. This hasn’t happened to me. I’ve continued to age and sag.

However, as an older woman, the benefit is that falling over is a very different experience.

The rain that came after such a long time made some parts of the ground slippery. The Long Suffering Husband and I had evening plans. Our friends were coming round to sit in the garden and eat cheese. The weather wasn’t looking too promising but I told him that the forecast showed that it was set to brighten up so we walked to town in the rain to buy cheese. In the middle of the High Street I stepped on a manhole cover and my foot slipped. My left leg flew backwards and I started to fall. Instead of landing flat on my face the yoga training kicked in.

The LSH was a few a few steps ahead but I made a noise and he looked round along with a girl who had briefly considered helping up this old lady from her fall. The girl’s face was a confused picture of bemused puzzlement.

“What are you doing?” the LSH asked.

It turns out that instead of properly falling I did a perfect 3-legged downward dog in the middle of a rain soaked high street. This fall only caused a slightly pulled thigh muscle and a small bruise on the right edge of my right hand. On balance I think the embarrassment of performing random yoga poses is something I can live with if it stops painful falls.