Popping Hips

One of my New Year's resolutions was to exercise more and one of the ways I plan to accomplish this goal is to practice yoga at least twice a week. My favorite class is on Tuesday afternoons because I love the instructor, Monique. She's not one of those twiggy women who I'd love to snap like, well, a twig. She's got curves, and she's very understanding that sometimes our bodies just don't pretzel twist. Yesterday, however, was not Tuesday, so I went to a later class with another woman, Linda, who while somewhat twiggy, is also a bit older and somewhat understanding as well.

Last week I had struggled with my right hip flexor, and I was very frustrated that I had to do modifications of many positions. I know that this is part of the territory, but I'm a competitor and a perfectionist, so I hate to be "less" than what is being asked of me. Like last week, Linda started with core exercises: basically versions of sit-ups. This hurt because my core is not very strong and I had to rest every once in a while. She asked if the exercise hurt my hip (I'm always impressed when yogis remember (1) their students, and (2) their problems from week to week), and I responded that it hurt my weak core. Everyone got a chuckle out of that, even me, so on we went.

My hip felt ok for most of the practice, and I was sweating up a storm. Whoever thinks that yoga is a nice easy way to exercise needs to attend my studio. This made me feel good, though, because right at the end of my work day I started to come up with excuses to keep myself from going. I overcame my own excuses, and I was glad that I was getting my @ss kicked with hard moves. One of the very last things we did was leg moves with a strap. During this sequence, both of my hips popped. It was incredibly loud and then I groaned (because it felt great) so everyone in the class thought something serious had happened. Of course, I was fine, and I finshed the practice.

Walking home in downpour, I was very thankful that I had convinced myself to attend and that tired as I was, I could walk home. I think it's going to be very hard for me to keep self-motivating to work out, but I know it will do me good, even if the scale doesn't say so.