What Had Happened…

Mid-June this summer I posted about attending my first yoga class in ages with Shelagh Chandler, a long time dedicated SilverSneakers instructor who teaches classes from yoga to circuit to dance cardio. My wife has attended her classes regularly for many years now since we returned from Vermont.

That class, it turned out, was the last class I had before my gallbladder emergency surgery and yesterday my 1st class since!

Now I don’t know how much my regular reader is exposed to senior-humor, but I can already hear my same-age friends saying stuff like, “Uh oh, now I know what to stay away from” and “Boy, you must’ve been in really bad shape” to “You must’ve rattled something loose!” 😂

I can assure you that was not the case 😊 Evidently a long standing/developing infection I’d had for who-knows-how-long finally got the upper hand!

As I wrote in my post in June about going to the yoga class —

While I was slow-conditioning myself to walk beyond 500 steps a day to an average of 8-10 thousand a day, the calendar had changed a year.

I lost the tug of missing not going.

Then forgot.

And all it took to remember, and realize it was time to return to yoga and add it to my walking, was one trip to Shelagh’s class.

That’s the power of the right exercise, the right timing, and the right teacher!

This time I didn’t forget.

I hadn’t just let myself go & not bother!

In fact I had to force myself to wait ‘til the stitches inside me healed.

A reluctant if probably wise aging gracefully 😊

Where I’m Gonna Need a Lot of Work

And though starting with my trip to the ER my walking steps had initially dropped from 8000+ per day to zero, and since then has very slowly risen from a few thousand to “sometimes” reaching 7500+, both my balance and endurance need rebuilding.

I’m well aware how fortunate I am these are my problems, vs not being in a position where these are goals not even worth realistically considering, or worse, possible. I am very very grateful for that.

With my walking, my endurance is once again incrementally, steadily, slowly, improving. Long term doable conditioning!

However, for years, probably decades, I’ve had remarkable balance, able to do variations of tree pose, even fooling around having the wind blow my limbs (arms) 😊 — even able to do mild variations of airplane pose on one leg!

Not anymore…

But, ‘til proven otherwise, I will consider my wobbliness a challenge I can practice improving on.

Why?

Because even during class, constantly dropping one foot down to reset my balance, I could feel myself suddenly becoming more and more aware of my stomach muscles, my core…

Because I’ve been here before, having gotten 50 pounds overweight by the 90s (a two plus decade weight-creep), before joining my wife at Jazzercise for a decade…

Because I recognize and remember gaining better balance before…

Muscle memory is a very real thing; ask an actor 😊

Or a dancer! Or a child learning to walk!

It’s a very good thing 💕

Where I did better Than I’d Expected

On the pat-myself-on-the-back side of things, I made it through the class (a biggie), only briefly getting winded. And the upcoming surgery evidently looks to repair some of the pressure poking through my hiatal hernia to my lungs and make that even better.

My stretches and extensions felt absolutely great! I could reachhhhhh and bend and twist. In the relative safety of the class I could challenge myself a bit more.

And, I felt really good and fluid after class. And hungry.

Also a very good thing 😊

What Helped

Previous conditioning and experience with the class certainly helped, but the core factors were

1. A truly empathetic teacher with a wide range of knowledge
2. A proven exercise program via SilverSneakers
3. Going with my wife ❤️

Sheila did promise me a great lunch for after, and that never hurts 😊

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And as always, this is my personal experience. Always check with your professional medical person of choice before beginning something new for your body.

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Yoga Classes

More information about SilverSneakers is at – https://www.silversneakers.com/ .

And more info re Gold’s Gym, who hosts this particular class in Austin, is at – https://www.goldsgym.com/ .

In fairness, the only other national fitness group I’m familiar with and can also recommend as having been great for me, is The Y – https://www.ymca.net/ .

There are of course a blessing of yoga related locations around Austin, but the one’s above are the one’s I’m personally familiar with 😊

If you would like to recommend a location good for yoga, please post in the comments below.

Namaste 🙏

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Older Posts

• Older posts of mine about yoga are here – https://felipeadanlerma.com/?s=Yoga .
• Older posts of mine re SilverSneakers can be found here – https://felipeadanlerma.com/?s=SilverSneakers .
• And older posts on aging gracefully, are here – https://felipeadanlerma.com/?s=Aging+Gracefully .

My Related Amazon Affiliate Search and Products

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— Gadgets, books, convenience items, humor 😊 —

Images above are links!
My commentary –
My wife and I both take Yoga, balance, and strength classes; we’ve actually used and enjoyed Anne Pringle’s DVDs (bottom left pic), and Sheila had a really nice walker w/out wheels I had to add wheels to when she had her knee replaced –

And don’t forget : check with your medical professional before starting a new fitness regimen 😊

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Thank you for coming by!

Adan

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