Hikes and Yoga

I have always believed in doing more than just Yoga to stay in shape.   I walk the walking paths my park often but my favorite activity is to go hiking in the woods.   Getting out into the woods is great exercise for both the body and the soul.   You get your heart rate up and your mind focuses just on the few feet in front of your face and not so much on the trials and travails of life.   It is a wonderful and very healthy activity that costs nothing but time. 

I belong to some meet up groups here where I live and I try to go every week or so to a longish (5 - 10 mile  or 8 to 16 km) hike with a group.     There are always new and not so new people to hike with.    I even go on 8 mile hikes with a group in the park 5 minutes from my house.  

Now that Winter is here,  hiking takes on a new dimension.   You have to  prepare for the cold but then you do not need to worry about insects making your day miserable.      Any hike where the temperature is higher than 20 degress F (-7 C) can be comfortably done as long as you wear layers and prepare both for the cold and the fact that you will warm up pretty quickly as you go up and down hills.    When the weather gets to say 40 degrees F (5 C) ,  I really only need to wear a few light layers and usually remove one layer, my hat and my gloves. 

Long hikes are physically demanding,  and I generally do a half hour stretching focused Yoga routine soon afterwards.   This routine works the lower and middle back,  quadriceps , hamstrings and shoulders.   It is great to release your muscles from the work that they did that day.     Combining the two activities of hiking and yoga are (for me)  one of the best ways to stay in shape.   I  get a ton of cardiovascular exercise and I  get the streteching I need to keep my muscles flexible.

I was on a 9.1  (15km) mile moderate difficulty hike  (some small hills to  climb) recently   At the end of the hike,  one person commented that her calculator said she consumed 1200 calories.   What a great and fun way to stay in shape.  

Namaste..

Rewards of Fitness.

A few weeks ago, a friend and I made  a day hike in the mountains of Central Maine.   It was a middle distance hike of about 11 miles (18km) with an ascent and descent of about 2500 feet (800 meters).  There was a lot of rock scrambling, a few iron rings to use to climb and lots of up and down and then up again as the mountain had two summits.     Physically it was somewhat of a challenge but neither of us felt over exerted nor out of our element.   It was really great to be in the middle of nowhere with no one around for miles.

This ability to scamper up a mountain without being overly taxed is the reward for taking care of myself.    Hiking is one of my favorite activities,  and the fact that I can put on my hiking boots , grab my poles,  fill a backpack with snacks and water and then hit the woods brings me great joy.      Keeping in good enough physical shape to be able to do long hard hikes today and in the future is a driving factor in my daily exercise.   My Yoga practice keeps me flexible enough  and releases the muscle tightness after hikes.  My daily walks and weekend non-mountain hikes ensure that I have the aerobic capabilities needed to stand at the bottom of a mountain and start walking up it.  

I am not saying that things are  easy.   My knees hurt after long downhill walks,  my feet get sore after hours in hiking boots and my heart rate sure moves up while climbing inclines.   It is a challenge but a rewarding one.  I know it will get harder as I get older, but it will not be impossible.   If I live a long life, I plan to be the 80+ year old you encounter on the mountain.

I think back to when I started my health journey.  Taking a  hike like the one I took would have been much more difficult and my recovery would have been more harder.   When I got home,  I hit my Yoga mat to work out the kinks .   I was happy.  The world was good.

Namaste

Struggling in a Yoga class

I took three straight days of Vinyasa flow classes the past Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.   Taking that many classes of that type in a row is not something that I do very often lately. Many evenings, I take a four to five mile walk and then do a half hour light  stretch flow instead of doing a full flow practice.   Now that the evenings are getting darker here in the North,  I am back to taking classes more in the evening as the park I use does not have lights where I walk.

The third (Monday)  class was very hot  (at least 95f / 35c)  and there were very few moments of rest during the class.    It was a very physical flow with a long balancing series in the middle.   The instructor had us stand  on one leg transitioning between three separate balances  (Eagle to Warrior 3 and finally to Standing Split).   I had a tough time with this little series on both legs.    With the heat of the class and constant need to keep my standing leg strong and myself balanced,  it was not my best Yoga moment.    

Life would be great if we could do everything well but obviously that is not the case.   In my Yoga practice,  I will always have struggles in difficult poses as well as easy ones some days.    I have even lost my balance in a standing Mountain Pose.   The benefit of a Yoga practice is that you learn to accept the challenges and difficulties that poses give you and work toward bettering yourself in them.    Monday on the mat was a hard one,  but maybe the next time it will be easier as I will be a little stronger and a little more balanced.   

Yoga is about incremental improvements.    It takes work and dedication on the mat to make significant progress in your practice.    You suffer challenges and you work to overcome them.   I have never said   "I cannot do that pose ever" but rather I have always worked to break down poses to their component parts to make progress in them.    It is not easy, but that is why I practice.   



Namaste.

Eagle

 

 

Warrior 3

Standing Split

The Amazing Twisty Spine

I love doing spinal twists.  The benefits from doing spinal twists have been one the best things that Yoga has given me.    The release that I get from lying, seated and standing twists feels wonderful.   If my lower back is sore , a twist is just the right medicine.  Lying on my back, crossing one knee over the other and then twisting is a great release.    My range of motion is so much greater then when I started practicing Yoga, and my posture is more upright.   Twisting has been a great boon to my life.

Such a great release!!

What a great creation the human spine is.  It has three separate sections  (cervical, thorasic, lumbar plus the sacrum)  that combined allow human beings to stand erect, to walk, to swim, and to bend.   It allows us to  have a huge range of motion:  a flexible spine can bend 35 degrees laterally (sideways) , 30 degrees backwards (extension)  and 75 degrees forwards (flexion).  The spine can twist and bend to allow us to do the normal and sometimes abnormal activities that life demands from us.   It can, however, also be a source of great discomfort if we do not take care of it.    Many older and even younger adults live with chronic back pain either from spinal or muscular issues in their backs.    One of the reasons I started practicing was to prevent the periodic injuries and the continual pain that I had in my back.  

I follow the mantra of "Good Spine,  Good Life", because if you have spinal or back issues,  your life can be miserable.     While I sometimes have soreness in my lower back, I generally feel good with my range of motion and my ability to comfortably turn and bend.     Most days I do a 15 minute series of spinal and back muscle exercises that works on all different directions using  bends and twists.    I have built this routine up over time and always start my yoga practice with the series.   If I am busy,  have done a long walk, or I am just too unmotivated to do a full hour of practice,  I sometimes just do this routine.     It works well of me and I continually add new poses when I find something new that works well. 



There are many twists out there for us to use.   It is great for our backs and for our lives.  



Namaste...

Good Spine, Good Life...

Swimming in Junk Food

About a 5 minute drive from my house is a large park that as the benefit of having an almost 6 mile walk around a lake.   I go there as often as I can as it is a good distance to walk, the scenery is pleasant, and it is always good exercise.   If it is not too hot,  then I can bring my dog as well.  I look forward to after work walks in the spring, summer,  and fall when it is light enough to do so and weekend walks all year round.

A few weeks ago, I passed an large couple walking together around the lake.   Both of them were at least 100 pounds (45kg) overweight.    Maybe this walk was a one off activity for them, maybe they decided to bring some fitness back into their lives and this was one of the first steps, or  maybe they were once 200 pounds (90kg)  overweight and they have been walking around the park for a long time.   Overall,  the fact that they were walking in a park and not sitting at home was a good thing.

While I contemplated seeing the couple walking,  I thought about the other half of a healthy lifestyle.  That other half is our diet and what we put into our bodies.   In my opinion,  exercise alone and diet alone are not enough.   If we want to control our weight and achieve the health benefits that go with it,  we must focus on both diet and exercise.    If you run 10 miles and then go home to eat potato chips, ice cream, and pizza, you are not doing yourself much good.

Go into your freezer, pantry and  cupboards and see what is sitting there.   Are their soft chocolate chip cookies? Potato and tortilla Chips?  Sweet snacks?   Miss Debbie Cakes , Yodels,  Twinkies, Twizzlers?  Sweetened cereals  (pink hearts and green clovers) ?   Instant maple syrup flavored oatmeal?  Granola bars?    Are their 5 different flavors of ice cream in the freezer?   Is there a ton of frozen or prepared foods? The list is endless and all nicely packaged in attractive boxes and bags backed up with copious amounts of advertising.  All of these foods do nothing for us except take days away from our lives. They are unhealthiness in a box and a bag.  If we are serious about our bodies and health,  then these types of foods need to be seriously reduced if not eliminated in our diet.   It is not an easy process, but it can be done.

Human beings have evolved to crave sweet foods.  When we were hunter gatherers, finding a trove of honey was a bonanza of calories that helped us survive.   We had the lifestyle to work off those calories and finding sweet foods was not a daily occurrence.   We now live in a society where it is possible to have a sedentary lifestyle with a cornucopia of  sweet foods at hand at all times.  These three things,  the human craving for sweet foods ,  a sedentary life style,  and the full time availability of sweetened foods combine to conspire against our health.  

Paired with this craving for sweetness is a evolved affinity for salty snacks like potato chips or tortilla chips.   Finding salt when we were hunter gatherers was not a common occurrence and salt is essential to our lives.   The problem here is that we can easily consume too much sodium and the delivery mechanism of high fat, high calorie chips is a horrible way to get the sodium we need.    This combination of sweet and salty snacks is a terrible addition to one's diet.

For me the key  is to keep the consumption of sweetened foods,  salted chips and high fat prepared foods to a bare minimum.   Elimination is unrealistic, but making the eating of a chip or a cookie a rare occurrence is obtainable.   Moderation (and on the low spectrum of moderation) is what one should strive for.   It means passing on the pile of donuts in the break room at work and taking a small piece of cake at a birthday party.  It means going to the vending machine and deciding to walk away from it.   It means realizing what you are putting into your body every time you eat something sweet or crunchy.

I have evolved a strategy to reduce as much processed sugars and salty snacks out of my diet.   I always have several types of fresh fruit available to me at all times and I always bring several clementine oranges to work with me.  Additionally,  I have learned that even a single small piece of dark chocolate or a small amount raisins can eliminate a sugar craving if there is no fruit around.    I also have a variety of nuts to snack on at all time.     My home has no ice cream in the freezer, and my pantry has only sugarless cereals, has no cakes or cookies, one 100 gram bar of 70% dark chocolate that lasts over a month, and zero chips.   The best result of my limited consumption of sugared products is that I have built up a dislike for overly sweet foods  (give up sugar for a month and then taste a store made birthday cake and you will understand ).  When I eat potato chips or nachos,  it is a rare treat.

Going through your pantry, freezer and refrigerator to throw out  those products that do nothing for you but add empty calories  (via sweeteners  or unneeded fats) is necessary to remove the temptation of having them around. Making these products a rare treat instead of a common occurrence is one of the best things one can do for one's health.  It is not easy,  but the rewards are worth it.

Namaste.

Hike that Mountain, Take those Stairs, Go for a Walk

For two years I lived just outside of Zurich, Switzerland in a small town nestled in the "Zürcher Oberland" .   The scenery was amazing, the air was clean,   the trains ran on time and I never saw an obese person. The  whole country is crisscrossed by marked hiking trails called Wanderwegs and the nearest one to me was just at my corner.    If I wanted,  I could have taken marked trails all over the country.    Many times on the train in the morning, groups of elderly people with back packs and hiking poles would get on the train to ride someplace for a day of hiking.    The concept of walking for exercise is ingrained in  society.

On one summer day in 2006,  I took a hike up the Schnebelhorn mountain, which at 4,239 feet (1,292 meters) is the highest point in Canton Zürich.    I probably started at 3000 feet or so the rise was not too great, however, the path was had a very quick ascent  and it was a somewhat strenuous walk.   I fell into talking to a gentleman on the trip for pretty much the whole way.   He was keeping up with my 45 year old self with no problems despite the fact that he was 73 years old.   I remember his age because my father was that same age at the time.    At that age,  my father was barely able to walk 100 feet while here I was sweating my way up a mountain side with someone my his own age.   I have always thought about that day and how, when I am 73,  I want to be able to do what what this gentleman was doing.

For the last 10 weeks I have been working on the 8th floor and for the most part I have been taking the stairs both up and down when I come in the morning and go in and out for lunch and leave .     This is one of the little things that I try to do to keep up my personal fitness.    You would think that 8 floors is pretty easy but when I started just taking the stairs,   I had to stop on the 5th floor the first day to take a breath before I continued.    I blame this on my computer and accessory filled back pack  (and I'm sticking to it) but in reality,  I did not generally take 200 stairs at one time.    I now sometimes go up to the top (10th) and come down just to make it a bit harder.  It has gotten easier but it is still good for me.

It is so easy to just get on the elevator and take it up to your floor instead of walking even a few flights.   In the US,  so many people get out of  their  warm beds,  maybe go downstairs to eat a pre-made breakfast item filled with sugar and fat,  get in their cars,  drive to the office,  bitch about how far they are parked from the building , eat a big lunch,  go back to their cars,  eat dinner,  then sit down for a few hours of television just to start it all again.  Their might even be time for an afternoon cookie or some cake in the break room.

When I compare our general health lifestyle versus the one I encountered in Switzerland,   I cannot believe the difference.  One one hand, we have people who as a rule walk when they can,  and on the other hand,  we have a society that is getting unhealthier and more obese every year.  Our exercise habits are generally non-existent, our diets are unhealthy and our lifestyles themselves lead to diseases of plenty.    

Studies have shown that 30 minutes of brisk walking each day will decrease the chance of illnesses such as heart disease, will reduce weight (as long as diet is adjusted) and increases general well being.  We can all find the time to take these 30 minutes as long as we make it a priority.  I myself, try to walk at least five miles each day and if I have the time,  I will sometimes walk  or hike 10 to 15 miles on the weekend.    Yoga really helps post-walk for those longer walks as your legs and hips tighten up after such a long distance.

Somewhere,  there is  a hiking trail, park or a nice neighborhood just waiting for you to walk through it. 

Namaste

Third Anniversary Post

Three years and 115 blog posts later.   

The era of big advances in my Yoga practice is gone.    What I have settled down to is a consistent  practice where my body limitations, my age, and my activity are balancing each other out.   Even though I try,  I know that I will most likely never do a split or a peacock or firefly pose.  My body is just not built that way.  

I have read that after a few years of practice,  your skeleton defines your limitations.  Individual bodies are not built to do all the possible movements that humans on the whole can do.  This means that not every body can do every pose in yoga.   I know that there are many poses that I cannot do because of my age or physical limitations,  but I understand these limitations and work around it.   I do not dwell on my limits.

Yoga (and my diet guidelines) has brought to me an enormous amount of benefits both physical and psychological.    Physically I am stronger,  more flexible, have better balance and more endurance.   I no longer fear sneezing or bending down to pick something up.   Any superfluous body fat is pretty much gone. I feel as though my whole body is in line with itself as I have the core strength and flexibility that I did not have before I started my practice.    The hours spent on the mat concentrating on breathing or holding long poses has given me a level of tranquility and patience  that I did not have before I began my practice.     I can now sit quietly for 20 minutes  where before I could barely sit still for one.     My practice has changed me immensely.

Yoga is integrated in my life.   I cannot conceive of going for more than one day without practicing.  Some days it may only be for 30 minutes but I still practice.   There are times where I go for weeks practicing every day.   I have practiced in hotel rooms,  parks, basements,  my mother's living room,  anywhere I can find a spot to put my mat. I have done thousands of Sun Salutations and will continue to do them until I cannot do them anymore.   When that day comes,  I will find another pose to replace it.

I started this blog so that maybe one person who reads it will decide to follow a similar path.   It is not an easy one.   It takes effort and patience.  It takes determination.     There really is no quick way to good health.   No pill or new invention can replace diet and exercise.    The rewards for this effort  is great, however,  and thus worth every second you exercise and every piece of bad food you decide not to eat.


Namaste.

Was ist los hier! My First Class in German..

I am working in Germany for about 12 weeks and while I love my home practice and there is plenty of of room in my apartment here to practice,   I also need the community of fellow Yogis from time to time.     Therefore,  I took the plunge and went to a class at a studio about 10 minutes from where I am staying.   I was a bit nervous as I did not know what the class would consist of and how I would do following instructions with my less than optimal knowledge of German.  

Because I travel a good amount for work,  I have had the opportunity to go to a number of studios in the US but this was the first class that I took outside of the country.   One thing you learn from going to different studios is that each place has a set of customs that can be unique to that studio.   In this studio,  this was no exception.    There were two side by side dressing areas with curtains where many people changed in and  most people work socks even on the practice floor (the instructor never took his off).   The studio provided mats, small pillows and thin blankets that many people used both before class and during Savasana.    I was one of the few people who brought his/her mat.   No one brought in a water bottle. Conversation was very limited.    There was a small altar in front of the class with candles, incense and photos of a few gurus.     My overall impression is that this studio was really into the spiritual side of Yoga and is in fact,  the most spiritual one I had ever gone to.

As for the class  (which lasted about 1.5 hours) ,  we said a few Oms and then some songs were sung  (this happened before and after class) that were in Sanskrit and related to Vishnu  and everyone but myself knew the words.  It was actually quite nice.    We then did the longest session of Pranayama (breath exercises) that I had ever done as we did two types for a number of rounds.     The actual Asana part of the class was somewhat strenuous  (it was listed as intermediate/advanced) and was generally in line with what I would have expected from a good Yoga class.    We even got to do a nice long headstand.    As for the language challenge,   I was pretty much able to follow along (though I did not get much of what he was saying) and I did pick up a few new words and phrases  (and looked up a few after class that he used often and that I did not know).   I did not encounter any new Asanas.

When I was walking to the class, I kept reminding myself that it was Yoga and that I should not be nervous about going.    After I left,  I was able to believe it.  I have decided to spend  €80 (about $88) for 10 classes which is less than the compatible in most US Yoga studios.  What was nice was that the first class  (Probestunde) was free. 

Namaste

It is a Personal Practice

My home studio offers a free two hour beginner Yoga workshop once a month.    It is a nice gesture on their part and I am sure there is a hope that some of the attendees will sign up for a regular membership.      I myself have been telling people to come to this one class to see if they like Yoga.  I think that this would be a good start for them.

Starting a Yoga practice can be  easy or quite difficult  depending on one's approach.   I have been told by many people that they are too "inflexible" to practice Yoga or they do not have the time to start a practice.  My response to that is that it is your body and it will be more inflexible tomorrow if you not do anything today.  Other people have told me that they do not want to look "bad" in a class of bendy people.   This disinclination to "|look bad" on their part may be the biggest impediment to beginning a practice.   If you learn to work within your limits and understand that any practice is personal and for the practitioner alone,  much of the fear  of looking "bad' can be eliminated.   In Yoga,  it really is all about you.

From the day we have entered Kindergarten,  most of us have been judged and evaluated.   We get graded in school and then when we begin our life's work, we get annual reviews and get graded there.   As a result of this lifetime of being evaluated, we establish a mindset of constantly being under the judgement of others.     With my Yoga practice,  I found it difficult to pull one away from that judgmental mindset.   When I first started practicing,  I would think about how the instructor was evaluating my posture in an pose.   I looked at is a grade and wondered how I was doing compared to everyone else.  In reality,  it should have been about me and  my practice and nothing else.   My  practice is what I  make of  it, and it should not be subject to perceptions of judgement.

When we take the judgement of others into our Yoga practice,  we can either do one of two things. We either push ourselves beyond our boundaries and risk getting injured or we hold back in fear of failing.    The correct thing to do is to live your practice within the confines of your mat and to put blinders on to both what others are doing and what you think others are thinking of  you.   You are on the mat for your own needs.

I think back to how I was basically crushed during my first class.   It was hot,  I was not prepared and I was out of shape.    Five years later I still  have classes and home practices where I struggle.   It is a continual practice of learning about myself and living within my physical limitations. One has to remember that it is your practice and it becomes what you make of it.

Namaste.

Five Years a Vegetarian

The choice to become a vegetarian is a difficult one in some aspects,  but quite easy in others.   As a choice of renunciation,  the decision to stop eating animals is not an easy one.   You face questions from friends and family,  difficulties in social situations,  and the removal of the core of where you build your meal around.   On the other hand,  you feel cleaner and healthier.   If done properly,  a vegetarian diet is a key part of good health and , hopefully, longevity.    It has been a surprisingly easy path of me and I cannot believe I will ever revert to being an omnivore again.

Namaste..