Saturday, September 25, 2010

Hot Yog-oweee

I love the hot yoga. I've done it several times over the years. I never stick with it and I had forgotten the reason. Until this week. My back cannot tolerate it. I have a leg length difference and I wear a lift in my shoes to even things out. Without that lift, I have endless low back and hip pain. Pain that is almost unbearable. If you have experienced low back pain - you know what I mean.

Since yoga is done barefoot, I cannot wear my lift in my shoe. I believe that this is the root of the issue. I find myself hurting my back during postures that really shouldn't hurt my back. Its a "tweak" that turns into extreme muscle spasms. In the past, it has happened during class and I have been reduced to laying the floor for the duration. One time, I remember, I was bending over touching my toes and I couldn't even stand back up due to the spasms.

This time, it wasn't so bad. Wednesday, during class, we were in the second to last posture and I felt a little pull in my hip/low back "ut oh". I made it through the rest of class and hoped for the best. At 2 am the next morning, I woke up with back spasms....damnit.

Thursday I went to get a massage and he worked it out. I felt better and even went for a run on Friday morning. 3.5 miles and it was the best run I have had in months, seriously. That afternoon, I went to yoga. I was feeling really good....until that same posture. TWEAK. damnit again.

Sure enough, 2 am on Saturday morning, I woke up with back spasms. I wanted to cry. It hurt. When we got out of bed at 6, I could barely stand up, the spasms were so bad. I went to see my chiropractor that morning. He worked on me a little and said "no more hot yoga". This is the same guy that worked on my before Ironman - the one who fixed my arm enough that I could race. I thought it was funny - Ironman "yes", hot yoga "no".

It makes me really sad because I spend so much time thinking about how I would do yoga every day, all the benefits I would be out of it. I KNOW my arm is getting better because of it. But I can't have this kind of pain in my hip and back. I can't tolerate it.

So, for the fourth time in 8 years, I say goodbye to the hot yoga. This is probably our final goodbye. Unless I forget about this again. But I love the yoga....BLAHHHHH

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