I finally gave in to WSUS Program Director Steve Allan and agreed to try yoga last night. Steve has been telling me yoga has really helped him with his upper back and neck pain. My lower back pain has not gone away since I over exerted myself helping my daughter move 3 weeks ago. Here's what happened.
Steve sent me a You Tube video from "Yoga with Adriene." He texted it to my phone. This particular series of Yoga movements was designed for people with low back pain. I asked my daughter to take some pictures of me trying yoga for the first time. The video was about 20 minutes. I lasted about 15 minutes.
The first time anyone tries yoga they should not over do it. I could not get into all of the positions Adriene was getting into in the video but I tried my best. One of the first things the video said to do was grab your "booty" and move it around. My "booty" didn't want to move but my daughter thought my attempt was pretty funny.
I could definitely feel my back stretching out when I did the leg extensions and touched my toes. Several other positions caused a little pain so I was more careful with those. After 15 minutes I was tired and sweating. I think yoga would be more fun with someone who was really into it. I'm still not sure if I was doing it right either.
This morning my back feels a little better. After trying yoga I think it might help relieve some daily pain. Yoga might also make it less likely I will hurt myself again. However, I still have to be careful about the way I lift and how much I lift. At this point I'm not sure how many times a week I should do it.
As you can see from the pictures my cat Daisy was pretty amused by what I was doing.
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