FINAL DAY of The December Challenge: Yoga & Performance (30/12/2022)
Reflections, lessons & getting ready for my final post of the annual challenge tomorrow...
My report for Friday 30th December 2022 - the final day of my 30-Day Yoga challenge.
This report structure will be a little bit different. I’ll start with my reflections & learnings from this challenge in the form of:
My lessons & reflections from carrying out this challenge,
My improvement points if I were to replicate the challenge,
My practical actions I’m taking into the future even after this challenge has finished.
December Challenge Reflections:
My intention was to do 10 minutes of yoga per day following the 30-day challenge outlined by my YouTube ‘teacher’, Yoga With Kassandra.
Overall, I managed to achieve this.
Pretty happy with this!
So, let me summarise 5 lessons/insights from this challenge:
Reducing the inertia to this challenge by simply following an existing 30-day challenge (that only required a 10-minute commitment) saved so much effort.
I think these 10-minute per day challenges are a brilliant way to introduce yourself to a new activity or skill.
10 minutes is enough to begin developing a skillset, without feeling like an overwhelming commitment.
With a physical challenge like yoga, it also ensures you’re not pushing your body too much.
There was a 30-minute alternative by another yoga YouTuber, but I knew I didn’t have the bandwidth for that…
I also thought I’d increase my risk of injury by going from very little stretching to full-on 30-minute daily yoga sessions.
So, after 15 years of resisting it…yoga has actually been incredible and I’m planning on using it to replace my usual stretching routine.
Several of my injuries have cleared up (my shin/patellar tendinitis issues), and the intercostal muscle injury I have has been recovering quickly (breathing ‘into’ the ribcage has helped so much).
More than that, I just feel more limber in my day-to-day life!
Can sit cross-legged without my hips acting up anymore.
Hamstring flexibility has improved a lot.
Balance has also improved during this programme - my Warrior 3 is much stronger than it was to start with!
Yoga is humbling for anyone who considers themselves fit & strong.
When you train as much as I do (in tennis, running, and strength training in the gym), it’s easy to think of yourself as being relatively fit and strong.
But flexibility and balance are rarely part of those training routines.
This 30-day challenge has been humbling in showing me my weaknesses.
Specifically, I have atrocious hip flexibility.
My shoulder flexibility also needs a lot more work.
My balance is not as good as I thought it was.
I wasn’t ready to do yoga for 15 years, despite my mother being a yoga teacher. Now, at almost 30-years old, I’m finally ready for it…
…the irony is how resistant I was to starting this challenge at the start of this month…
I quote from my final November Substack in which I introduced the December challenge: “Sigh. I really don’t want to do this one…which is exactly why I’m going to do it.”
The lesson here is to remain open-minded to actions that can potentially benefit us - they may not resonate with us today, but that doesn’t mean they won’t resonate with us in a week, month, year (or 15 years…) time.
An action point I’d love to suggest is to set aside 1 week each year to try out an action that previously hasn’t resonated with you, but that you know can objectively benefit you (based on the science around it) - for example, yoga, meditation, running, cold showers, sleeping earlier, learning a language, etc.
Your mindset here is so important - one of curiosity at seeing what’s different about it this time around.
As opposed to straight-up reluctance to do it, or putting pressure on ourselves to enjoy it (it’s hard to sustainably enjoy anything we put ourselves under pressure to do…)
You never know how these things build up over time to make you ‘ready’.
I can’t thank my mother enough for giving me a ‘yoga foundation’ all those years ago - it meant that none of these terms or poses were too unfamiliar.
The fact I’ve been doing a minimal amount of stretching (often in some yoga poses) over the last 10 years of training also contributed to reducing the barrier to entry with this new behaviour.
Finally, combine the above with the increase in small injuries I’ve experienced & general muscular tightness I’ve had this year - the combination of factors to turn this 30-day yoga challenge into a long-term habit was perfect.
I’m excited to keep it up in 2023!
As always, gentle, steady progress is far more effective than pushing ourselves to improve quickly. Go slow to go fast.
Stretching & flexibility is just as unforgiving as weights training if you push beyond your capabilities.
Strained muscles are common - especially for those who are used to pushing themselves to their threshold.
This is especially important if you’re doing yoga or stretching first thing in the morning - your body is cold, your muscles are tight.
The conditions are ripe for overstretching injuries…
For me, the aim of this challenge wasn’t to improve my flexibility or improve at certain poses.
1) It was to commit to this 30-day challenge.
2) It was to try and enjoy the yoga flow - which meant not pushing myself as hard, and instead focusing on my breathing + connecting with my body.
There’s an old runners saying, “slow down to speed up”.
I would definitely heed this advice for any new habit.
Yoga - don’t start with more than 10 minutes per day.
Meditation - don’t start with more than 10 minutes per session.
It may feel slow to begin with, but the foundations you build from a ‘slow but steady pace’ are invaluable to maximise the likelihood of creating a sustainable habit.
What I would improve on if I were to do this challenge again in the future:
Setting time aside to do the yoga practice. As always, my challenge with these habits is that I haven’t defined time periods to carry them out in. This has been due to my choice to prioritise my work, sport and relationships over these habits.
However, if I were to repeat this habit, I’d aim to do this practice every day at 8:30-9am.
Take the affirmations more seriously (especially as I build my yoga skill). Kassandra loves her affirmations. But I was so focused on carrying out her ‘flows’ and focusing on the poses & breathing that I ignored her ‘affirmations’ altogether. Affirmations are powerful things - think of them as more empowering thought-alternatives compared to our default thoughts. I would love to incorporate it into my practice.
Just as I do with my other sports.
When I play tennis, I’m always affirming my focus, strength and fighting mentality.
When I train in the gym, I’m always saying, “strong, strong, strong…” at least 10 times before every set.
When I run, I’m often affirming how grateful I am to my body for being healthy, to my legs for being functional, and to my ability to recover after other training sessions.
1 Action Points from this challenge that I will take with me into 2023:
10-minutes of yoga in the morning, 5 days a week - that’s all I ask of myself.
I’ve saved my favourite routines from Kassandra’s challenge, and I’ll do these in the mornings.
If I get bored, I’ll create my own!
Where I am now with past challenges I’ve done in 2022:
I’ll save this for my final post!
I’ll also talk about the challenge of writing these Substack posts for 365 days straight, and what I learned from that.
My Experience (Friday 30th December 2022):
Reflections on Yoga Challenge:
Video: Yoga With Kassandra Day 30
Time: 5:30pm (before heading off for some evening chess with my father)
Session Affirmation: “I am grounded and stable.”
Session Movement (Notable Poses):
Segment 1:
Reclined pigeon pose - right leg bent.
Single-leg bridge - right leg elevated.
Repeat Segment 1 with left leg.
Segment 2:
Using a block on its lowest setting to do a supported bridge pose.
Extend legs up towards the sky, then bring them down to 45 degrees.
Do this 3 times.
Cat-cows x 3
Hold plank for 15 seconds or so.
Segment 3:
Downward-facing dog - lift right leg toward the sky (3-legged dog).
Tap knee to nose, then back to 3-legged dog x 3
Step right leg through into Warrior 1.
Bring hands to hips, straighten right leg, bring left leg in a few inches, then go into pyramid pose.
Bring hands in front of you, and go into standing splits (lifting left leg), then bring left leg down (but keep it off the ground) and come into a ‘ball’ shape - this is a yoga-style one-legged squat. Repeat this 3 times.
Go into chair pose.
Exhale, fold it down, then go into halfway lift.
Plant palms, lower into cobra/upward-facing dog, then into downward-facing dog.
Repeat segment 3 with opposite leg.
Finish with segment 4:
Sit with legs outstretched, and go into a passive fold.
Finish with laying spinal twists on both sides.
Reflections:
End of the 30-day challenge!
Very grateful to have come across this 30-day challenge by Yoga with Kassandra - highly recommend it to anyone!
We’ve made it to the end of the December Challenge! Thank you so much for reading - I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
Hope that you have an amazing New Year’s Eve/Day!
Until tomorrow (for the final post of this challenge!)
Kam