Category: stretch

yoga !=supposed2b %%#1weakness #realYoga

Posted on by tiger40490

k_X_focusing_illusion

Each person, me included, has some flexible areas and some stiff/tight areas. My overall flexibility is (possibly above) average among men of my age. Most of the men I see are Chinese, Indian or Caucasian, with slight differences in average stiffness.

Even when compared to women regardless of age, I am probably average. I can recall my observations in Bayonne and the ClassPass yoga. Many women praised my flexibility in various poses. Many yoga instructors told me (quite honestly) that I’m not so extremely tight compared to many, but I tend to forget or brush them off.

Only in RealYoga do I feel a consistent and visible weakness. I feel like a weakling, a handicapped person. Unknown to me, RealYoga members are mostly advanced practitioners. RealYoga is possibly the wrong place to start for a self-conscious beginner.

Primarily based on RealYoga experience, I tell people my flexibility is my biggest weakness. It has become a body image problem.

Q: why did I care that much about my “handicap” in flexibility but not my handicap in .. stutter, slow handwriting, yellowish skin?
A: focusing illusion. RealYoga sessions always focuses my attention on the relative weakness and limitation. The focusing illusion exaggerates the importance of flexibility, and exaggerates my Relative weakness.

That weakness is also obvious when I compare myself to a published instruction on any yoga pose.

Q: what’s the published vs experienced difficulties (or dangers) due to inflexibility?

— Q: what’s the published vs experienced benefits of stretch, breathing or meditation?

The published studies are from different sources. Together they prove beyond a reasonable doubt that yoga has no major side effects. As to the benefits, studies often say “can improve …”. It reminds me of my myopic treatments in Beijing [laser, massage] and my Indian colleagues’ experience of ginseng.

Experienced benefits are more obvious (will not elaborate today) in CRE and strength. Some of those benefits are shared with (the strenuous form of) yoga.

Experienced pains of poor CRE/strength are more obvious (will not elaborate today).

Flexibility does (I believe) help reduce probability and severity of injuries. I also believe in delaying the decline of flexibility. The decline is inevitable for 99% of men, due to aging.

However, the yoga-style deep stretch may not improve flexibility, partly because the improvement has a half_life = 1week.

[19] realYoga $1070 package #creep@@

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— $1070 package .. After I returned to SG in Sep 2019, I bought this package for my own wellness and commitment. Without paying this amount I would Not practice.

As of 2023, how effective is this “commitment” enforcement? Still present, though there are more and more options (often free) in the market.

$1070 buys me 1200 points. Each session costs 20 points. If only taking regular classes, and without penalties, then 60 sessions. I hoped to use up half the 60 sessions within a few months. The annual membership is $155 * 12 = $1860, too restrictive because I may become busy and can’t practice for a few months. In my mind, the Most likely scenario is

  • update: now I want to reduce my sessions. When I’m under stress and needs the conducive classroom environment and when pandemic is lessened, I will visit more.
  • the longer sessions cost 30 points each. I feel they are costlier but Not more beneficial than the regular sessions 🙁 Can use my final 30 points for it.

— some limitations, constraints

  1. if coming in late, there’s a 5-pt penalty or you may be locked out.
  2. Better book when no doubt. if class booked but you cancel within 2 hours before class start (can do online any time), then 5-pt penalty.
  3. .. Aha … I think this is a small cost I may need to accept once a while… not “don’t care”. The current level of (fear of) self-hate is /disproportionate/. I could allow myself to make trivial, infrequent mistakes… unwind
  4. .. see #extra$$ means.?.to theRich^Poor #minor mistakes

Q: is this luxury lifestyle creep?
A: Less so if lower frequency

 

BMI > flexible > strength > CRE

Posted on by tiger40490

 

k_soul_search

  • After the meet-up with YY.T, I realized CRE fitness (or speed) is not a priority to me. Longevity > freedom from illness > intimacy > good sleep and appetite
    BMI .. seems to be a key indicator/predictor of many of the above.
  • As of Mar 2022,free_from_ill > BMI green zone > ▲ full-body esp. upper-body strength relative to body weight > flexible >▼CRE ..
  • As of Dec 2021, free_from_ill > healthy_longevity > BMI > ▲ flexible > ▲ strength > ▼CRE
  • As of Jul 2021, free_from_ill_health > healthy_longevity > BMI green zone > ▲flexible > ▼endurance > ▲strength .. identical to 2018 !
  • As of 2020, freedom_from_ill_health > healthy_longevity > endurance > strength > flexible
  • As of Jan 2019, I have achieved the greatest success in weight, and I was making the biggest effort (against greatest resistance) in flexibility
  • As of 2018, If I must chose between the two, in 2018 I would choose to prioritize flexibility over bodyweight. I conceived this pyramid of fitness priorities in July 2018:
  1. weight? Affects endurance, strength, flexibility, speed, leaping, …
  2. Y-junction (central) flexibility? toughest to improve. Central means lower waist till thigh. All other parts are much, much, much, , much, much better in terms of my gap behind other (mostly female) yoga students. See ##toughest yoga poses ranked
  3. stamina in heart and lung etc
    • depends on weight
    • less visible, less keenly felt as a weakness
    • easier to improve and maintain, due to my absorbency advantage.
  4. strength (including muscle endurance) relative to weight. See notes below
    1. depends on weight
  5. speed of distance running; leap length/height
    • depends on weight

 

Even though my shoulder joint is unable to extend up to 180 degrees, it’s not preventing any yoga poses. It only makes “poor form” or forces me to take on modified poses. In contrast, my Y-junction inflexibility does render some yoga poses unattainable.

▲ means “gaining relative mindshare now than earlier”
▼ means “losing mindshare but still important (usually)”

This blogpost is mostly about my personal priorities. How about the priorities for my son/daughter (or a family member or a colleague/friend)? That priority list is usually BMI > CRE > strength > flexibility. Note BMI is the most important wellness factor for my family.

— aspect: intimacy … sexual gratification and longer active sex life…  sometimes more important to me than improving BMI to 64 kg. If BMI improvement affect my intimacy, then let go of the BMI. My intimacy is more important.

— aspect: healthy appetite.. Losing your healthy appetite, and becoming someone like grandpa in his late 80s, can reduce your BMI, but do you want that?

During my covid infection, I lost appetite and BMI, but it is not worth it.

— aspect: Freedom from ill health
“Freedom” includes things like immunity, recovery, and karma. The perspective is shorter-term and slightly more achievable and predictable than longevity.
— aspect: longevity
longevity-but-in-poor-health is not really my goal.
— aspect: stamina [endurance/CRE//]
Jolt: endurance .. also required in yoga, chin-up, jump-rope etc, and has a massive psychological impact.

“Fitness” is vague and means slightly more than stamina. Stamina means cardio-respiratory endurance (CRE) to me. For me, fitness (and also most strengths) is measured against body weight.

— aspect: muscle mass and Strength, esp. against body weight
Strength is slightly more than muscles strength. Muscle mass is a low priority to me.

Amputation can “improve” your BMI but do you want it?

(Note muscle mass vs body fat .. is a recurring debate, but body fat is hard to measure.)

Those (sportspeople) who gain muscle mass often have a hard time maintaining BMI in old age.

For bone health and some other elements of health, adequate muscle strength is crucial.

Plank and other stationary exercises fall into the Strength category.

Many workout classes focus on minor muscles seldom exercised. I tend to think those are important and deserve some attention.

— the need to balance enjoyments with wellness priorities
some people (mostly men) enjoy muscle training and nothing else .. I think some Americans do. It can affect BMI and flexibility, two of the most important aspects of wellness. I am unlikely to become bulky, but flexibility is a traditionally neglected area.

some people enjoy jogging and nothing else. It can lead to loss of flexibility and muscle as we age.

Some women do mostly yoga including some limited strength training, so they lack CRE. Therefore, some combine yoga with cardio.

Ideally, you would want to enjoy a range of workouts, but few individuals are so lucky. For every adult and child, consistent workout is repetitive and requires a lot of effort and absorbency. Team sports and golf are more fun but requires a lot of external help.

Yoga trains some less-used muscles and includes many stationary exercises.

— Q: which aspect is easiest to accumulate? Stamina
Q: which are the easiest to lose? BMI
Q: which are the easiest to rebuild/recover? Strength

— Q: which aspect generates the most reassurance? free_from_ill_health;
Q: which component has the biggest weightage in overall self-esteem/self-confidence? BMI

==== Aging .. Even though ▲flexibility is the weakest weakness and #1 area that needs the most ‘sunshine’, I still need to work on stamina, muscle strength etc as I age.

As we age, each part of the engine must be kept in working condition, including the more durable parts (probably heart and bones).

BMI wellness would show declines in both sexes, affects stamina, strength, and flexibility.

Stamina is 80% heart and lung, but joints and bones also need continuous /boost/ and strengthening through strength training. I feel positive that I have a natural advantage in stamina, but stamina needs active maintenance.

I think 1) muscle and 2) flexibility are likely to experience the most declines.  You will always see exceptions, but those rare cases can be misleading and /breed/ a sense of complacency, a false sense of /invincibility/ and overconfidence

— upper body strength relative to weight, as we age
As we age, lower body strength is easier to maintain, thanks to climing, jogging, cardios (predominantly leg work). In contrast, upper body muscles are almost never deployed to support FULL body weight, except in 1) chin-up 2) dip. Therefore, as we age, we would lose these abilities quite early. I have many male colleagues to tell me “At my age I can’t do chin-up any more.”

In late 2021, I met a group of body builders at the Blk 79A exercise corner. I think they have lean muscles, strengths, balance, but how about upper body strengthRelative2Weight? I would guess that for most of them, as they age the bulky muscles are likely to become a problem rather than an asset.  Bodybuilders, boxers, weight lifters tend to become overweight in older age.

Similar to flexibility, upper body strength training (esp. chin-up) is less sustainable, more boring than outdoor cardio, or lower-body strength training. It requires more /absorbency/, sunshine. Classes could help. See chin-up #muscle-up

classpass c$5 for $12/M

Posted on by tiger40490

Consider taking some non-yoga classes when my self-motivation wanes.

Q: how do I freeze membership, say, for a few months?
A: “You can freeze your membership at any time by reaching out to our Customer Service team.” I would want to minimize freezing. I can accumulate credit for a few “down months”.

Q: typical price (in c$ i.e. classpass$) of a yoga class in Singapore? I know pricing is dynamic, depending on location, time, popularity etc
A: 4-6 common, at non-prime locations

Q: rollover for corporate plan?
A: 5 credits rolled to next cycle. How hard is it to clear it? 2 sessions would often use up c$8.

— how it compares to the realYoga credits (roughly $20/class)?
RealYoga credit has no expiry 🙂 but expensive 🙁
When I want to restart yoga, I would probably combine classPass + real Yoga for a few months.

Timing flexibility .. On a given day, classpass gives more time slots, due to multiple studios, at the standard rate.

class size .. often better/smaller than realYoga. Some teachers better able to remember me

cancellation .. 12h, worse than realYoga

— some locations are probably cheaper

  • remote locations like BeautiWorld or PointYoga or Kovan
  • less established studios like Amplify or
  • less popular hours
  • less established teachers

— specific studios

  • 51ChunTin (UnionYoga) ..  300m from BeautyWorld Exit B
  • 1Townshend (YogaNation).. 5min from Lavender. Perhaps closer to office

— my bookings

  1. c$4 (i.e. 4 credits): 21 Sep… tcost@commute too high exp. the long walk
  2. c$4 Friday 7.45pm.

yoga: maintain ^ improve #Steve

Posted on by tiger40490

slowdown of decline is the real goal. Steve also felt similarly.

improvement is rarely a valid goal. Positive feedback is rare.
One type of visible improvement is “endurance” in a tough pose.

Steve spoke some truths that other instructors couldn’t
* sugg: hold longer, like yin yoga, and rest in the pose.
* sugg: need to relax much, much more. If you are tense, then the muscle can’t stretch

The pain in the affected body part … is part of the process. It would improve over time. Should not be uncomfortable at the whole-person level meaning you must be able to relax with the pain. It’s possible.

I guess there’s a harmony between the pain and the relaxation.

burnOrRot =successZ+C #

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k_tyrant_of_rmSelf  k_Promethean_struggle .. k_def_of_success

In a way, burn often focuses on quardrant-II [non-urgent-but-important], the tough jobs that deserve lots of sunshine….

When thinking in terms of burn/rot, there is always a harsh, imposing self2judge at the back of my mind. This self2judge maintains a destructive self-hate, and implicitly considers self1 too lazy and weak… No surprise, because by my superhuman standard every human shows visible weaknesses.

  • I beat myself up over coding drill
  • I beat up my son over his math practice
  • I beat myself up over fried potato chips

(I also demonized masturbation, egg yolk …. all based on unfounded health theories.)

I used to set an self-expectation of such high self-discipline that every human would Fall short, including grandpa, Wenqiang, .. but I thought my standard was normal and achievable if I simply Try Hard. Now I’m older and wiser. I know these standards are too hard for mere humans. We humans are not machines.  No one has such strong will as to force the body to do all the painful things. In real people, the strong motivation comes from within, from a desire, not from harsh self-discipline.

If the wellspring, the flame, the pulse inside a student is insufficient, then neither parent, teacher or herself can force it with willpower.

— successZ+successC => burn = materialisticRoti+selfDiscipline… I think this is a pretty good characterization of the vague concept of “burn”. Now I think my sense of ‘burn’ is always a mix of strenuous [1] self-discipline over the lazy self + [2] materialistic ROTI.

As a consequence, when I’m focused on successE [carefree ezlife, wellness, harmony…], I don’t feel the burn.

Note successZ is more than zqbx! Therefore, t_zqbx has a only a partial overlap with t_burnOrRot.

[1] Without the self-discipline, I don’t feel the burn.  Absorbency and zqbx are similar phrases
[2] I didn’t say “strategic”
— Bigger Eg: My diet is arguably the best eg — so tough, unenjoyable, b
ut I could put up with it because my level of suffering is lower than other people feels. If you ask me to cut further and further, I will experience too much “pain” in terms of self-deprivation.
— Bigger Eg: Yoga is another unimaginable achievement — a physical shortcoming, painful, hopeless, no visible progress, No hope of sustained improvement, therefore a /Promethean torment/

In lower-middle school, I beat myself up over stretching. One of The earliest and most painful experience of my life. Today, I still hate myself frequently because I couldn’t get myself to “practice yoga at home everyday”. Well, those (mostly women) who can are probably too weak for daily exercise, continuous learning, …See  girls with Grade-A flexibility

Now, against all odds, I did 2 sessions a week for 8 months in Bayonne.

Willpower is NOT the catalyst.
— Eg: How about early rise? In 1993 I once beat myself up for not getting up by 6am. For 25 years since, it was impossible to keep up early rise beyond 10 days. Now I have lasted about 2 months !

Self-discipline and brute force willpower has Never been the turning point in early rise.
— eg: jolt: self-care blogging under stress — requires effort to become effective, but I often think of it as indulgence. It has high ROTI (just not materialistic).

Self-care blogging often generates self-hate ! Unfair. I deserve more tender care and sympathy.
— eg: coding drill: I guess many of my friends don’t enjoy it as they feel high effort low chance of ROTI.

Contrast Ashish and Deepak who keep practicing. Even if chance of passing is rising slowly, thhe practice slows down the decline.
— eg: reading about Sec1 posting — feels thankless and no “burn”. Requires effort but there’s no materialistic ROTI !

yoga: dependency^self-practice

Posted on by tiger40490

This reflective blogpost .. written after in-depthdiscussion with Platinum yoga salesman.

— I once said that “a dependency is unhealthy if costly or non-dependable”.

Well, in many places commercial yoga would be unavailable (not dependable).

As I told Platinum salesman, U.S. and Philippines both offer cheaper classes. Even there, price is still a luxury, unsustainable. What if one day I move to a location without classes, or what if I can no longer afford? Admittedly, the current cost is some small percentage of my income, but I stand resolute against that view. I aim to save 70% to 80% of my income so this cost is a big chunk of my disposable income, something like $100/M.

A secondary factor is the tcost. I have to pick the session, commute, arrive in advance, wind down. Total tcost was about 3 hours in Bayonne. Even at 2H/session, it’s very hard to maintain 2 sessions/week for months.

— self practice .. For a sustainable practice, I must rely on myself.

The Platinum salesman had a valid argument that my self-practice is far from enough, so I told him “Climbing one flight of stairs 5 times a week, or even one squat 7 times a week consistently … is also far from enough but challenging and beneficial for some.”

It’s harmful and counterproductive to be fixated on an unrealistic target. As long as I fail to practice enough hours of weekly yoga, the commercial trainers would always say “You need to practice more”.

In reality, 99% of guys in my age group won’t do 3 sessions a week (not even once/month), so these centers are basically implying that “Most of you need to pay someone to help you achieve what you should (but can’t) achieve by yourself.” Harmful propaganda, similar to the brainwash by tuition center or weight-loss supplements.

yoga pose: modified^incorrect

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“Right postures are important but Modifications are often necessary.” Saumik told me. Other yoga instructors often help me modify the posture, based on my limitations.

Q: but How do you tell the difference between a poor form vs a modification?
A: I don’t think we need a professional to devise the modifications. I would go with my own modifications.

women with Grade-A flexibility≠stronger than me

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Those teachers who criticize my flexibility are invariably comparing me to females, never my mere-mortal male peers.

That lady with grade-A flexibility

  • faces higher risk of injury. Chair yoga teacher told me many examples. I guess it’s rare to see an individual both very flexible and very strong.
  • eg: she met many flexible (but not strong) women
  • eg: Many athletes and dancers have injuries…. often push to their limit and over-stretch.
  • may not be able to make a living as a yoga instructor, as Ankur could
  • may not derive satisfaction and self-esteem from her superior flexibility
  • may be poor in balancing, strength and endurance in yoga, not even considering endurance sports
  • may not have so much willpower.
  • is probably not going to win in any yoga competition, but why bother with competition? So why feel inferior to them?
  • enjoys yoga just as I enjoy jogging. However, in terms of cardio fitness and weight improvement yoga is ineffective, so if I must choose I would rather have the jogging advantage than the yoga advantage.

My self-knowledge advantage helps me put up with the negative peer comparison and keep going on yoga.

I have hypolordosis (reduced lumbar lordosis). I once imagined that if I could surgically sever some connective tissue in my lower back, then I would be able to bend forward “like them”. However, whatever is too short in my lowerback is still vital for my body. I am grateful to that piece, when I can swim, cycle, climb stairs, jog, squat, twist, side-bend, sit-up…

examples: earn/deduct points unfairly #wellness++

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Compared to ##加分不够: effort,improvement…  this blogpost is mostly about wellness. In all of these personal experiences, the improvement, however small, required an disproportionate effort to overcome really tough obstacles. I deserve a lot of reward. Same for my son.

  • eg: When I was unsuccessful for months with weight loss, I felt a crushing load of guilt. However, when I endured tough diet regime and finally achieved some visible weight loss, the satisfaction didn’t last more than a day  — unfair
  • .. see 63kg was very hard for 20Y
  • eg: Yoga offered a similar illustration. I wanted to continue yoga after arriving in the U.S. I was unable to and felt deeply guilty and disappointed with myself. When I finally restarted yoga practice and managed to keep it up for a few months, the satisfaction lasted only a few days — unfair