A Month of Yoga

Normally I run – this is the way for me to clear my head and come back to my routine with the fresh mind. Since it is usually cold and snowy in Canada almost until the end of April, I run in the gym starting in October and until mid-April or beginning of March.

This year, however, was an exception – with the unexpected changes brought by coronavirus, Canada went on lockdown at the beginning of March which means that all the gyms got closed until further notice. This meant for me pretty much not being able to continue my running routine.

It was still quite cold to run outside at the beginning of March – even in the middle of the day – so I set on the search of the alternatives. I knew that I still needed to move so instead of running for an hour, I walked for an hour almost every day. Sherlock, my dog, certainly did not complain 😉

Being used to running close to 30-35k per week, I still felt though though that my body needed more exercise than walking. My biggest issue that I have for a while is my neck pain which got intense after I had an accident this summer and slipped on the stairs where I hit my head. After 6-7 hours of sitting in front of the computer, my neck was pretty much burning from pain every day. Before quarantine, I had a message therapist and a physiotherapist who helped me relieve the pain every week but since quarantine started, I obviously could not continue my sessions with them. So I decided to give yoga a try.

There are a lot of videos online that you can watch – but my personal preference is the Youtube channel called chilelavida . The yoga teacher is a Russian who lives in Chile (so the videos are in Russian) and what I love about her is a very calming attitude. She has tons of videos for beginners and intermediate learners that are free. My personal favourite is the 40-minute stretching session focusing on your back and neck:

This yoga session is slow, not very intensive and I found it very relaxing, especially after a long day. I have been doing it 3-5 days a week (depending on the week) for almost a month and I am really impressed with the results. I have noticed a lot of flexibility in my body, I can bend much further, and my neck does not hurt as much after sitting for a few hours so I can definitely recommend these stretching sessions.

I am back to running now as the weather got improved in the past week and it is finally warm enough to exercise outside. But I am also keeping the yoga in my life – moreover, it has now become a daily routine. I am far from even being an intermediate learner but I love the feeling of calmness and relaxation that I feel after these sessions – maybe I have found my new den along with running?