Thanks to @goldendawne for hosting this fun contest! I am not into "resolutions" but I am all about setting goals for myself! If you want to join in, details are here:
@goldendawne/heathy2018-steem-contest-this-stewards-of-gondor-strikes-again
My goals for 2018 are intended to improve flexibility and strength, especially in my shoulders and back. I have developed TERRIBLE posture over the past few years and I want to "stand tall" again. I will be using a combination of yoga and physical therapy to "stretch" for my goal.
I took up yoga as a child, studied it pretty seriously as a teen and have continued to practice it off and on all my life. I won't really be using an instructor for this part. I will do Surya Namaskara, or the Sun Salutation. This is moderately aerobic if you do the full sequence, twelve rounds. It is a wonderful way to start a day, stretches everything and gets blood flowing, it is incredibly energizing!
(free google image)
I will also stretch to the sides using the triangle pose. This is done to keep the spine supple. We spend much of our lives leaning forward, a little time leaning backward, but we rarely go side to side after we leave grade school gym class. Especially as a homesteader and gardener, it is important to me that I can push and pull without hurting myself!
(free google image)
A daily twist is also part of my routine. Again, it is about keeping my spine flexible. At my age, pulling muscles is getting easier and easier, I have to try to offset my aging with limberness! Sometimes I "revolve" my triangle pose but I also like the "Half Lord Of The Fishes" pose:
(free google image)
There is a pair of physical therapists on youtube that I watch regularly, Bob and Brad. They have a routine for improving posture that I will be doing. It is designed to strengthen the back and shoulder muscles. People tend to lean forward on almost everything we do, and so we are pulling on those back muscles, making them slack. Meanwhile, our chest muscles get stronger and pull us more and more to the front. These men offer a couple of routines to undo and reverse that damage, like this one:
There are the nuts and bolts. A physical problem with physical solutions... except the REASON I have such terrible posture has not been fixed. I will have to work on that in my head.
I have a family history of breast cancer, my mother. Bras have been implicated in the tremendous increase in breast cancer rates. I have such tiny titties it makes NO SENSE to put a rubber band around my chest to protect them or hold them up or whatever the bra is supposed to do. When I stopped going to work at a 9 to 5, I quit wearing a bra... and I started slouching. I don't like the "smuggling raisins" look. I am embarrassed about how tiny my titties are. I curl forward to keep my shirt from clinging, and oddly enough to make my tiny titties just disappear. I want to get over it. I want to stand tall again, my father raised me better than this! I am not quite sure how I will work on getting over my mosquito bite shame, but I am going to to it.
My goal is sort of like this:
Before: C
After: I
Wish me luck!
