Fly eagle fly

It was my first real injury and I can’t even remember the details of how I got hurt or even what was injured. I could not run or do aerobics. As an active runner and weight training gym rat in my late 20s, I was not happy. It was clear this was going to require more than a few days to recover.

Maybe I’d try yoga. What I remember most about the whole experience was that overwhelming feeling of discontent, frustration and anger when I realized five minutes into the class how slow yoga was. This class, and this recovery, was not going to be easy. Having no other choice, I worked around my injury, but yoga did not give me that same endorphin high that running and my regular aerobic cardio activities provided.

Prepare to be let down. The next part of my story is not about how I learned so many things because of my injury and how I fell in love with yoga. I did not. It took another 12 years for that to happen. I did cultivate more patience for the slow pace of yoga, but when I healed, I was back to running and my other high energy activities.

This week two ideas are intertwining that reminded me of that experience. I have been thinking about eagle pose, and  I’m writing an article about The Five Whys of Yoga. One of them is that yoga is infinitely flexible. (I’m sorry for the bad yoga pun.) Here’s why.

First, there are many different “flavors,” or styles of yoga. It’s hard to get a definitive count. Some sources say there are six basic styles while others cite over 21. After five years of practicing yoga a friend asked me “What kind of yoga do you practice?” I had no clue. It was yoga. It didn’t really matter to me. What mattered was it felt good and served my needs.

How do you figure out what style is right for you? Here’s a Yoga Style chart and a quick quiz to guide you. Making sure you pick the right style is similar to making sure to visit a podiatrist when you have a broken ankle instead of ending up at the office of a cardiologist. This version of flexibility illustrates there are many different styles of yoga to meet many different needs. When I was injured, the class I took was a combination of Hatha and restorative styles of yoga that helped maintain my flexibility and strength and also cultivated my patience to allow myself to heal.

The second aspect of flexibility is that yoga can build up your muscles, energy, stamina AND it can calm your anxiety, provide clarity of purpose and allow you to relax and restore. You choose, day to day, how your practice will serve you according to what you need.

The last aspect of flexibility brings me to eagle pose. In its full expression, eagle pose is a challenge with twisted arms, and legs, the need to balance and some leg strength. It requires some shoulder and ankle flexibility, but that is not the third aspect flexibility that I mean. The infinite flexibility with eagle pose is that you can pull the pose apart and any one of the “pieces” has great value in itself. The flexibility of variations can meet your needs, right where you are.

The arms can cross and your hands can rest on the top of your shoulders. This is a great upper back, shoulder and arm stretch, especially if on the inhale you lift the heart and let the elbow press down. This is doable at your desk or in a meeting. No one will even notice it’s a yoga pose.

You can keep your arms at your waist and just practice crossing the right leg over the left with the right toe on the floor, squeeze your inner thigh and lower down with an upright torso. You’ll feel it in the inner and outer thighs and if you lower down, the quads. This variation is also fun up against the wall. Or, once the right leg is crossed over you can work to wrap the right foot around your left calf and add the balance aspect into it.

The point is that eagle, and almost every yoga pose, is a full body experience. You can deconstruct each piece and explore what each has to offer.

As I practice eagle, I like to imagine I am building my body, my character and becoming a majestic, ennobled eagle. As that beautiful bird, I am ready to explore the skies upon skies of infinite possibilities ahead.

Most importantly, it feels good.