For my activity in quarter 1 and 2, I took advantage of my Duke of Edinburgh activity and decided to kill two birds with one stone and do yoga. I’m not a very athletic person and prefer to do sports recreationally and at my own pace, so yoga was the perfect option for me. I was guided by the incredible Michelle who helped me set some routines to start the morning and finish the day.

We decided that the sun salutations would be an amazing way to start the day as it puts you full of positive energy and created a yin ritual for the evenings for some gentle stretching and to wind down from what the day had for me.

Sun Salutations

The sun salutations is a ritual in which you flow between movements, and leaves the person performing them feel energized.

Figure 1; Me and Michelle recording the ritual so I could use it as a guide for my practice (Video Credit: Michelle LeBlanc)

Yin Exercises

The Yin exercises consisted of stretches that targeted my back, hamstrings and hips. These exercises loosened the tension I stored in my back during the day from bad posture and the stress I keep in my hips. My favourite stretch in the Yin ritual is the Sphinx as it is similar to the cobra pose and when I stretch, I stretched my back muscles relaxing my body.

Endurance Exercises

I wanted to be able to build endurance in my core since I knew that was where I was the weakest so I asked her to give me some that would work for me. Michelle suggested that the lotus pose (padmasana) was great for learning to bite through the burn that accumulates in your legs during the stretches.

I had to be very aware of what my body was capable of and what I was doing to make sure I wouldn’t hurt myself and in this way practiced patience. This activity has really helped to increase my flexibility and made my body feel less tense overall. I feel that these exercises are great to prepare my body for more sports such as gymnastics and any others that require me to be very flexible.