When I stopped doing Yoga / Yoga Challenge

I enjoy working out and training, getting my heart going and really taking advantage of that “me-time”. One of the exercises I enjoyed quite a lot was yoga, I used to do it three to four times a week in the morning. It was the routine that allowed me to stretch out my muscles and wake me up before taking on my day. At the time that I started doing yoga regularly, I wasn’t amazingly flexible, but I considered myself somewhat flexible.

A few months into my intense weight training, I had hurt myself at the beginning of the summer and I wasn’t able to do any weight training or intense cardio. So for those three months I did yoga regularly; as the summer went by I was noticing a difference in my body shape, my flexibility levels and my digestion (I frequently have indigestion with almost anything that I eat). Honestly, at the time I was surprised that yoga had made such an impact on my body, I enjoyed yoga for its meditative influence, but I didn’t realize it would have such have other benefits (shame on me).

Sadly, when my back injury healed and I was able to workout again, I started hitting the gym pretty hard, cardio, cardio, cardio and weight training, weight training, weight training. I had missed the training and I jumped back in and almost entirely forgot about yoga, I did it every once in a while, but my schedule was starting to get so full that I was only choosing one type of workout.

After a while of not doing yoga, I was noticing some differences in the way my body could and could not move. My flexibility was completely out the window, not only did I go back to how I was before I did yoga, it got worse! Because I was only doing weight training and cardio my muscles were tight, my joints were sore, I could barely bend down without all the muscles in my body clenching up and I know it is not age, because I am far too young for that to be happening! Who knew that yoga and stretching would make such the difference (well my partner kept telling me it would, but I didn’t really believe him). I remember going to the spa to get a massage and the masseuse couldn’t believe how tight my muscles were. She asked me what I did for exercise and when I told her, she told me to start stretching more, that if I kept the same routine, I would have early arthritis because of how intensely tight my muscles were.

Thinking back at all the wonderful things that yoga did do for my body, I don’t know why I stopped. I still want to maintain my working out, but I want to get back into yoga, it was such a mental health moment in my day, to relax and think, without getting anxious or stressed. So, I have decided to create a 30 day yoga challenge that will get us moving, starting Monday, January 21! Download the Keep Yoga app, follow the chart and join me! I wonder how we will feel after those 30 days are up?