This is not me!

One of my only goals this year is to try and become a little more flexible.  See the word “little” I don’t want to set myself up for failure.  For example I will never be able to do this pose to the left. My quest is simple,  I would like to be able to sit cross legged without the aid of several cushions or blankets under my butt.  Sound easy?  Well if you saw how inflexible I am you would know that this goal is probably tougher for me that an ironman!

I’ve started taking a yoga class for runners once a week at  a local yoga studio.  Yoga for runners is all I can handle it is hard but not too hard. Not hard enough to make me give up on yoga for the millionth time in my life.  I find yoga studios much better than yoga at the gym.  It is just nicer and you get more personal attention.  There are much more options given for the newbies and the class for newbies really is for newbies.

Today I skipped my yoga for runners and went to a Miracle Ball class at the same studio. The description sounded amazing. The one thing that caught my eye was the “undoing” of muscle tension.  Here is the full description of the class Miracle Ball.

I walked into the class and set my mat up.  The instructor started off by handing out pieces of pvc pipe.  So of course I immediately started rolling my tight glutes and hammies…… it was heavenly after a morning of computrainer.  As the class began she had us sit on the pipe.  It felt great except that I didn’t know what to do with my legs.  I tried to cross them but eventually it got to be to painful so i stuck them out straight… this was better.  It felt pretty good having that hard plastic pipe digging into my tight glutes.  When we were done we gave up our pvc pipe.. i really wanted to hold onto mine!  Then she handed out two small plastic balls.  This is where I became skeptical.  I thought to myself there is no way these two not so hard balls are going to get anywhere near my tension or stiffness.  I need a baseball or a lacrosse ball… something hard!  I continued.  We lay flat on our backs with the balls underneath our butts and just hung out for a while. We did a series of leglifts.  Then we moved the balls to our hamstrings.  Then our knees.  Each time lifting our legs or doing some sort of movement.  The movements were not hard.  Between each “session” we went back to laying flat on our backs to notice the difference of how our body’s felt compared to before.  I started to notice that my lower back felt looser and it felt more and more comfortable to lie flat on the mat.  We did some neck movements and some upper back stretches with the balls under our upper back.  Then ended with some toe touching stretches.  Again, she emphasized not pulling or pushing anything just going with how your body felt.

I was ultimately surprised at how good it felt.  I stepped outside and felt a spring in my step that I have not felt in a long time.  I actually felt like running!  It WAS a miracle !!!!!

I will definitely follow up with this and may consider buying a set to do at home.