Yoga.

[junkyddog11]

Anyone else ever try this?

After a back injury that has sidelined me (severe sciatica with some permanent nerve damage) I thought I was pretty much done. It took a year of focus and 20k to even get back working again. No surgical relief possible. Plenty of drugs. Got to the point where even morphine drip in the ER didn't work unless I was unconscious.

Then came Yoga. I'll admit I was dragged in with an attitude, and had pretty much given up. I'm glad I didn't. I'm not into it in a religious sense (and that bit is a tad weird) but the other benefits are incredible. As a 55yr old I was struggling with many things along with the back injury.......just plain old guy life things.......fatigue, balance, focus, weight.

So, after two years of once a week, No more. I've dropped 25lb's. I can work a 12hr shift without pain. I am without pain. I can look back over my shoulder, something I hadn't been able to do for years. More specifically though, my endurance is has improved tremendously, and balance has improved sooooo much. I don't feel at all like a wobbly old man any more.

Highly recommended. Honestly in an incredibly f'ed up and cruel world where the unimaginable had occurred and I had to choose between dirt bikes and Yoga, I'd take the yoga..........well, no I wouldn't, because living in that world would suck horribly.....but I'm convinced that I'm a yoga lifer for a better life.

Thankfully my hair isn't growing back and I don't have to go all "yoga man bun" .

[Tony]

Yoga is awesome. Should not be dismissed by the "tough guy" mentality. I used to do it regularly. Less so now, but I still use some of the stretches every day.

[junkyddog11]

It's funny but to be very proficient at some of the moves you do indeed have to be a tough guy. A very tough guy. Last nights one hr practice left me feeling great but like I had just done a major gym session. The practice is held at a crossfit gym and some of the crossfitters hang around and join the Yoga crew. Some seriously fit people struggle with even simple stuff at first. Consensus is that it can be much harder than you expect, if you want it to be.

I'm not sure my regular yoga crew quite understand the "peace, love and rippin' knarly single track" chant, but they keep insisting you get what you put into it, and I'm eternally optimistic. I feel like a couple hrs of yoga and a couple hrs cycling or rowing for cardio every week and I'll be stomping on it next year.