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Pictured, “Everyday Gratitude Vol 1”
Small gratitudes found in the day to day living of daily life.
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“the intent of this blog is to incrementally build a body of thought that works toward integrating various topics, yoga, fitness, and the arts – it’s a process…”
Site Areas
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adaptation in yoga fitness and nature, thoughts
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Intro
Why
recently, i posted my comments, with further thoughts, to an article written by j brown on yogadork
the question of adaptation by the body, was brought up, and, in many circles, keeps coming up
ie, we get used to doing what we’re doing physically, especially exercise of any sort, and it becomes easier and more of a maintenance of our fitness than a further enhancement
should we do more reps – should we be pushing or playing our edge?
if so, how, or should we, deal with that?
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Definition
adaptation, or being adaptable, as teachers, students, or with ourselves, in an emotional or mental or spiritual sense, is a different application and definition of the term, as provided by merrian webster online :
“the act or process of adapting : the state of being adapted“
in fitness theory, one’s body adapts to the level of exertion placed upon it, and needs further increases in duration, frequency, or intensity, to feel further benefits in fitness
so, again, how, or should we even, deal with that?
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Suggestions
i suggest two things :
Re Maintaining
1) maintaining one’s health or fitness status, is not bad!
depending on my own circumstances, there are times when this is a darn good achievement
depending on any one person’s individual circumstances, this could be necessary, barely doable, or just plain desirable – there should be a time to just enjoy what one has learned, or a level of activity one has gotten to be able to do, i think 😉
it’s also true, that at some tipping point of aging, doing the same level of exertion will actually, even if slowly so, become harder and harder! thus negating some of having to worry about increasing one’s routines or efforts to gain further fitness
j brown, in his article mentioned above, also addresses whether an unending improvement in one’s fitness is even desirable in yogic terms; it’s a good read
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Re Enhancing
2) an unending upward curve in improving one’s fitness may not be natural, even if desirable, which i kinda doubt 😉
for instance, even professional sports athletes have an off-season!
but my role model that seals the deal for me, is nature –
nature might be considered an “all-season” affair, but the way i see it, each season is also another season’s “off” season 😉
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Re Nature (and us)
seems kinda obvious now to me, but really hadn’t thought of it much til my wife and i were walking along lake champlain recently
while waiting for summer’s official start in texas is like trying to tell a teenager they’re not in love til it’s officially declared and accepted, summer here in vermont is like pacing oneself through a good breakfast and lunch, accented by a few nutritious snacks, and knowing a treat of a supper’s gonna be ready at 5
pour in plenty of rain, and the vermont landscape is lush and bursting with green – beautiful
but i don’t believe nature has any plans at present to continue without pause, covering every spare inch of earth or vermont, with growth
even if growth were unimpeded by hostile temperatures or lack of needed moisture and nutrients, excess growth itself would choke some of its own growth, preventing itself from becoming self-consumed, and destroying itself
space is left for variety (plants & people)
that seems like a good model for myself as well 😉
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Following Nature
But…
i suppose it could be argued that the human mind has no “seasons” –
and that neither does the soul; though the latter, my soul, is too unknown in terms of completeness, for me, to say my own soul doesn’t have a seasonal equivalent
but either way, our bodies we must live in, do have their own seasons
we must sleep, we must breathe, we must eat and drink, and we must love and be loved, or die –
recovery, is a human necessity, even if, with cross-training, we can delay the need for a full rest
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But Nothing!
😉 but…i choose to follow nature – it’s not nice to fool mother nature!
1) i can choose to coast when it’s a treat to enjoy the fruits of achievement
2) i can choose to test my edge, yoga’s loophole, to increase my capacities
3) i can choose to adjust my exertion levels, down-sizing to create a respite cool-front in summer, or revving up a short warm-up in winter
4) i can choose to down-size significantly, for a set period of time, allowing my body to recover, and reverse some of its gain in fitness (knowing the re-fitting into fitness, will generally be much quicker than previously; our muscles and brain and nerves, unless damaged, usually have a memory path to skip along on)
5) i can even choose to exert into a sharp or rounded peak before a significant down-size in exertion
i can choose to create my own seasons
and i can choose to mimic tiny minor seasons each day, each session, each pose, if i wish
it’s a choice, it’s doable, it’s good…
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even my dear heat-stoked texas will cool eventually 😉 maybe by christmas 😉
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tomorrow, i post a new tidbit post in that series, this on muscle memory, extending the thoughts here on adaptation
namaste – con dios – god be with you
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INTEGRATING YOGA FITNESS AND THE ARTS
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