Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Stretch

A while ago I decided that I needed to start taking better care of myself...like the song says, I'm way to young to feel this damn old. I'm not as bendy as I used to be, and my actual body isn't quite matching up to my superhero self image (where I'm mean and lean, fight evil, and can leap over tall buildings downtown). I'm not doing badly at all by general American standards, but I have to do better than that if I'm going to be like one of my heroes when I grow up:
(this poster is a favorite of mine...the man version is also very inspirational!)

Anyway, to further that goal, I went to my first yoga class in a decade on Tuesday morning. I had been wanting to do it for a while, but we're on a very frugal budget right now (to replenish savings after putting a down payment on our hippie fiefdom) and yoga classes are very spendy. However, just before Christmas I scored a ridiculous Groupon deal for 20 yoga classes at a posh Hollywood yoga studio for (drumroll please) $20. $1 per class!

Golden Bridge is a crazy 3 story yoga shop with a super-culty following (Cindy Crawford did prenatal yoga here, I hear) and the building was full of white-turbaned students in flowing dress. They have valet parking. I rolled in on my motorcycle all dressed in black and leathers. The yoga was good, though, and I got to talk to the teacher after class about balancing out the effects of martial arts on my body. Then I went home and slapped a bunch of stucco on the wall next to the house, then went and did martial arts with hands that felt like limp fish from toting around all that wet cement.

But you know, I woke up this morning at six feeling pretty damn good. Muscles I haven't used in a long time felt pleasingly used, and the pinched feeling I've been having in my lower back and sacrum had let go a bit...just like the teacher promised it would! I went for a two mile walk, came back, and slapped some more stucco on the wall.

Now I can slack off in peace feeling like I really deserve it. Any good movies to recommend for my netflix list?

4 comments:

  1. If y ou can find "The Apple War" I think you will love it. It probably comes with subtitles. It's about an idyllic Swedish farming community that a German development firm wants to bulldoze to build, "Deutchneyland." But the community is protected by a beautiful blonde witch and her two odd brothers (One keeps kissing frogs because, you never know, one MIGHT be an enchanted princess.) They enlist various mythical characters to defeat the evil corporation. A delightful blend of reality and fairytale.

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  2. By the way, you have more energy than any two people I know and you are going to be a completely AWESOME old babe! Bravo on the workout!

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  3. I completely hear you about the whole getting old thing. A good friend's mother has just gone into a care facility, and I am seeing for the first time how much your life can change if you don't have the strength, balance and flexibility to take care of your own needs. Just the thought of needing help to use the toilet gives me heart palpitations... So good for you: yoga, bike, stucco and all!

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