Move your body in new ways, build strength, increase your flexibility and you will be sore. This is actually a very good thing!
When you move deeper/more
the body will feel “sore” for 24-48hours (while the body is changing); the best remedy
for soreness is to move again! with-in 24-48 hours. This is how you move beyond soreness. Remember consistency is the key to progress. Practice 4-6 times a week.
Try enjoying this soreness- it is a clear sign that you are changing, enjoy feeling the muscles, enjoy remembering how your body moves and feels- Enjoy being ALIVE and Vital enough to be able to get sore! See it as a challenge to move (literally) beyond.
- Yoga Asana (any vigorous exercise, sweating) is Stimulus for change.
- Change happens in the body (it becomes stronger, more flexible) during the 24-48 hours after. (1st decay of old cells and 2nd Growth of new cells)
- If there isn't re-stimulus after 48 hours the body begins to lose that progress (Decay)
To quote Dr. Harry S. Lodge co-author with Chris Crowley of, Younger Next Year and Younger Next Year for Women: "Exercise is healthy stress...When you exercise fairly hard you stress your muscles . You drain them of energy stores and you actually injure them slightly. The stress of exercise is good because it tears you down to build you back up a little stronger....It is a signal to your body that it needs to repair the damage and then some. It needs to make the muscle just a little stronger. To store just a little more energy for tomorrow. To build a few more tiny blood vessels inside the muscle. To get a little younger." .... " At rest, only 20 percent of your blood flow moves through your muscles: in a trained athlete, that rises, with exercise, to 80 percent. Picture it: torrents, rivers of blood flooding through your muscles with exercise, picking up the cytokines, the messengers of inflammation and repair, growth and healing, and taking them to every corner of your body....Every joint, every bone, every organ, every tiny part of your magnificent brain gets it's bath of C-6, and then the wonderful, rejuvenating C-10 each time you sweat. That's the right balance, good decay triggering growth."
I recommend this book for understanding how one can avoid 70% or more of disease and 70% or more of the negative affects of aging; empowering you to live an active, independent life longer. It is also motivating and funny. We are likely to live a much longer life than previous generations. Will it be active and independent until near the end? or will we become increasingly helpless and dependent on "care" for years or decades of our life? It doesn't have to be all downhill after 40, 50, 60,70 years old you can create a younger body now, and maintain it to very late in life. ~Move it or lose it.~
Pain is another thing
all together; we tend to stop moving due to injury/pain. Rest it, stop all exercise. This is a huge mistake, keep moving, exercising all the parts you can (remember you are increasing oxygen and blood flow to the whole body)! Pain is our teacher, so
do continue to move, even move the injured parts in the range of motion you are able without pain, move through
soreness and to the edge of pain. If you measure the pain from 1- 10, (10 being most severe), continue
to move (slowly with the breath and mindful focus) up to the 1-2 range of pain and
learn. This is where to check alignment: are you breathing correctly? is the joint supported with
correct, balanced muscle engagement? Are the spine, shoulders and hips in alignment? Do
you feel energy spiraling through the limbs and torso? Move with alignment and energy in mind, noticing
what feels better and doing that! To think and focus of building new strength and flexibility in improved alignment, rather than focus on what isn’t working. This is the mindset for
healing. Homeopathy, Arnica, herbs, Epsom salts baths, essential oils, and acupuncture are some options for healing, but for goodness sake keep on moving!
Of course if the pain is 8-10 range all the time, seek medical attention. Yet keep in mind, more and more people are getting results from yoga, physical therapy and exercise thereby avoiding surgeries and other procedures that may or may not help.
My Teacher, James Cardinale, recently when I mentioned shoulder pain (in the 4-7 degree range) had me do
handstands. I was very surprised to realize there was no pain in doing
handstands! Later, even just thinking of handstands, I aligned my
shoulders better throughout the day! I discovered the pain was coming from how I was holding my shoulder while at the computer and reaching to the back seat of the car to lift out stuff! Changing those habits and doing head and handstands are healing - healing more than just that shoulder too!
"The body is a treacherous friend. Give it its due; no more. Pain and pleasure are transitory; endure all dualities with calmness, trying at the same time to remove yourself beyond their power. Imagination is the door through which disease as well as healing enters. Disbelieve in the reality of sickness even when you are ill; an unrecognized visitor will flee."
~Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri______________
