It seems I am stuck on the body this week. As much as I love hooping, I have figured out that I am making the alignment on my back go a bit wacky from the wild way that I hoop. Such a bummer. I was informed by my Doctor that hooping is really a contact sport much like football! Who Knew having contact with a hoop could be damaging?! Evidently no one realizes this. I certainly didn’t - the statement was quite a shock to me. I thought hooping was a passive sport with benefits.
I was hooping just for fun not to loose weight. It was a bonus that I was getting a tighter tush, stronger legs etc. I really loved putting music on and just dancing with the hoop rolling around my body. I had no idea that the pain that I started to notice around my hips was from hooping; I just thought it was me just getting older! I never felt any pain while I hooped. I didn’t realize that it was from hooping until one day I was at the park walking Lucy and hooping at the same time. For those of you who have never hooped, walking “normally” while hooping is not easy. It was then that I felt the pain in my hips, and I thought, “Hmm...is this where my pain is coming from...Hooping?!” What a disappointment I felt when my Doctor confirmed that hooping was the cause. So much for all of that gyrating that I do while I am hooping to music!
Do any of you out there sometimes feel that exercising does more damage than good? You hear of all of these people who injure themselves from exercising. Myself included: first with Ashtanga yoga many years ago, (my bad, not the instructor.) and now with my hoop - something that I did not think was possible. I didn’t even really think of it as exercise; it was more just adding a hoop to my dance routine. So is it really worth it? I had quit exercising for years and I still felt great. Yea, I wasn’t as tone or as strong, but that didn’t seem to bother me. Sure, if you are trying to loose weight, add muscular strength, or tone, I know that exercising is good. But for overall health, isn’t just a good brisk walk, good enough? Do we really have to torture this precious temple that we live in? Ok, so maybe it isn’t “torture”, but sometimes working out feels that way. Sometimes it feels like so much else in life...we have to go further, be stronger, go faster, etc. Is there ever an end or do we just become super human or at least try to? Nothing against any of you out there who are major work-out fiends or into competing either with yourselves or others. Everyone must do what makes them feel good. I’d love to know what way of exercise inspires you and what makes you feel good. Blog me.
For me, what makes me feel good is to hoop. I am not one to be in the gym every morning. (A big applause to all of you out there who do that!) Been there, done that; the gym does not inspire me anymore. I wish it did, but after 10 plus years of being a regular gym goer, I just got bored with it. Yoga became a way of life for me a few years back, and it looks like it is going to be again only in a more gentle way - No more Ashtanga.
My doctor informed me that in order for me to continue hooping the way I do, his instructions were for me to go back to the basics. Meaning, I needed to start off with doing very basic, beginner yoga and possibly go to a chiropractor for a realignment. I decided to start off with the yoga, and it just so happens that today was my first day. The stretching felt wonderful, and I must say, a little bit painful. But hey, “No pain, No gain.”
Friday, August 24, 2007
