New Yoga Practice – Abandoning Preconceived Notions and Just Getting It Done

As I am setting up to do King Pidgeon Pose, I think to myself “God, I hate this pose.” And that is great, since that is really the essence of my new yoga routine. I have thought for several years that I need to supplement my twice weekly yoga classes with daily practice throughout the rest of the week. In particular, for some time, I felt that if I wanted to make progress in yoga, instead of just treading water (at best), then I need to practice consistently those poses which do not come naturally to me. Then, I began to notice a decline in my flexibility, at least in certain movements. This was annoying. It was becoming increasing clear that some of my strength training in Crossfit and my emphasis on certain movements in Kung Fu were making me less flexible in certain yoga poses than I had been previously (to be fair, other yoga poses were being enhanced by Crossfit and Kung Fu both in terms of strength and flexibility, so it was a mixed-bag).

So what kept me from developing a daily yoga practice before? Essentially, my preconceived notions of what a yoga practice needed to be. My thinking was that an effective daily practice would require at least an hour and probably 90 minutes since this is the kind of routine I have been accustomed to in classes and believed necessary in order to loosen up sufficiently for more challenging poses. My bias in this regard was so strong that when I would see reference to 20-30 minute yoga routines, I would scoff at the very notion, thinking that such a small dose of yoga could not possibly be truly beneficial. Of course, “I don’t have the time” is the most common excuse in the entire exercise realm. But honestly, I don’t have the time or, perhaps more honestly, I don’t have the inclination to practice yoga every day for 60-90 minutes. So, I was stuck because of my belief that any meaningful yoga practice required a time commitment that I was not willing to make.

Then came my conceptual break-through – “maybe I don’t need to practice yoga for 60-90 minutes every day in order to benefit, maybe a 20-30 minute practice would get me to where I want to be.” Having released my thinking of its prior constraints, I began to imagine a short daily yoga practice focusing on my particular problem areas.

And then it all began to fall into place. I decided that “short” meant 10 poses in each session, and no more. Then I began to conceive of a five-day cycle of poses, primarily focused on those poses that I normally don’t like (generally involving quad stretching, like virasana and the dreaded camel pose). Secondarily, I would focus on those poses where I felt my flexibility to be slipping (such as bound angle pose, forward bend, and janusirasana). Lastly, I would include some aspirational poses, i.e. poses that I had wanted to be able to do for a long time, but which elude me (for example, the splits and Lord of the Dance pose).

With the concept in mind, I turned to my personal, all-time favorite tool for getting things done: making a chart. As an aside, I can’t say enough good things about the power of making a chart for yourself. Many years ago, I made a chart which gave a framework for how I would get out from under all of our household debts, including mortgage. I adhered to the chart for five years, plotting my monthly progress, and voilà – no more debt. Also, my charts are really simple, nothing fancy, just the standard table of rows and columns found in Word. Anyway, here is my yoga practice chart. Note, however, that this is an entirely personal sequence, targeted solely on what I need/want to do. I have specific reasons why each pose is included, and its placement in the sequence, but that is a level of detail that would likely interest no one.

Now, with my concept and my chart, there was one last essential piece – use of a timer. I recognized that in order for me to actually do this routine, then 20-30 minutes needed to really be 20-30 minutes. Therefore, I decided to time my poses. I am an old-school yogini, so 1-2 minutes in poses is de rigueur for me (no vinyasa yoga, please). Thus, with a few exceptions, I spend 2 minutes in each pose, meaning one minute per side for those poses done on both right and left. Even if I am inclined to stay in a pose longer, I stop when the timer goes off, basically because the beep is really irritating. And, if I am inclined to noodle about doing more stuff after the 10 poses are done, I make myself stop and roll my mat up. Better to leave myself wanting more, than to let the practice expand in time such that it eventually seems burdensome.

So far, so good. This is not a fun, yummy, connect-with-my inner-self-and-the-universe yoga practice. I don’t rest in child’s pose between poses, and there is no shavasana at the end. Basically, I just bang out the poses, let the chips fall where they may without do-overs when I fail, and get the work done. Besides, I get to do all of that other pleasurable stuff when I go to yoga class each week – and then I can say “namaste.”