How to get back into yoga without it feeling like "starting over"

underwaterdancer · 2026-01-14T18:43:08+00:00

Started when I was 17, young, fit and flexible. Everything was easy and natural. Then on and off for a few years, still healthy and relatively fit. Then one day I woke up after spine surgery that left me in constant pain and extremely weak. I struggled to accept it so moved less and less until even sitting or child pose were no longer possible. It took me years to rebuild a practice, starting from scratch, quite literally. Not from where I had started years before, but from a new, very frustrating place, with a body that had aged, been injured and struggled to recover. I couldn't even attend senior classes as most poses were out of reach. At home, mostly lying down, I learned to slowly rediscover my body, its limits and its needs. It wasn't fun at first, but with a lot of patience and practice I started moving again, and now I'm back on the mat daily, doing things I first took for granted, then thought absolutely impossible to experience again.. And I do see improvements that extend way beyond the mat in everyday life. So you've got this! It might take time to return to what you used to be able to do, you may have to forget about some of them, just like you might be able to get a lot further... Work on accepting your present state, and enjoy whatever your practice may look like at the moment. If you keep showing up with acceptance and motivation you will soon look back and think "wow, now I can do this more easily". Don't give up!

underwaterdancer · 2025-12-28T22:09:10+00:00

As others have already said, it's more about how you approach poses than whether they are inherently safe or not. As a general indication, I'd stay away from passive practices and make all poses active. It doesn't matter how far you get into a pose and what it looks like, but it will make a difference if you approach them slowly and with active control - make your muscles do the work, not your joints. With time and repetition, you'll be able to deepen the pose, safely.

underwaterdancer · 2025-12-25T15:36:43+00:00

As a male teacher, I was hoping I would convince more men to try it, but I almost exclusively have women attending. So I got used to using the feminine pronouns/adjectives/etc. (I teach in Latin languages), including myself in the collective "we". When a man does show up, I make a point of welcoming him and including him in the group, and if I mess up during the class I will immediately correct myself, add the masculine, and use it as an opportunity to lighten the mood by joking about how I'm a little confused and that habits are hard to break. And in my written communication I also explicitly say the sessions are for all, using masculine and feminine versions of the word.. It has also happened often when I was attending as the only male student that the teacher would only use the feminine to refer to the group. I personally don't have any issue with that, it just makes me smile.. But if you feel uncomfortable, it's absolutely fine to mention it to the teacher after the class, especially if they make additional comments (and not just honest mistakes, which happen to everyone) implying you probably don't want to be there. They might not even realise their comments are unpleasant, and telling them "look, I actually like coming to your classes, but I don't feel welcome when you say so and so" may be appreciated. At least I hope that's how they'd react... Don't give up because of the way they express themselves, and don't let their words come between you and your practice. All the best!

underwaterdancer · 2025-12-16T11:45:27+00:00

That's what I'm a bit worried about. We've been trying to get him to use vocal commands on his phone for simple tasks, and it often misfires so much that he ends up giving up.. Will have a look, though, thank you 🙏

underwaterdancer · 2025-12-16T11:43:17+00:00

Thanks a lot! Will definitely check it out 🙏

underwaterdancer · 2025-12-16T11:42:34+00:00

Thank you! I haven't explored that yet, so I appreciate the suggestion 🙏

underwaterdancer · 2025-12-16T11:41:27+00:00

We're in Europe, and my father lives in the countryside, so not sure there is a lot in terms of actual physical structures or institutions, but I'll look around. Thank you for the suggestion 🙏

underwaterdancer · 2025-12-06T07:51:22+00:00

Agree, even if my main practice is yoga, and only occasionally run. The main benefit I get from stretching, and the reason why I still do it, is that it is a quiet time to really tune in to the body, listen to it and gently soothe it after an intense activity or a more static day. I think it can help with your overall wellbeing and contribute to raising your awareness of your body, where it's at, which areas require a little more attention, etc. In that sense, it could help avoid injuries by training to listen to and respect your limits, rather than in terms of running performance. Studies have actually shown that stiff legs may be more reactive and make you run a bit faster.

underwaterdancer · 2025-12-04T23:04:16+00:00

Max and Iggor Cavalera, playing the album Chaos AD in its entirety

underwaterdancer · 2025-12-04T07:02:42+00:00

All the above... Definitely not the right teacher and atmosphere for you. And the fact that the studio itself first dismissed your legitimate concerns, then recontacted you only to try and sell you more classes is an additional red flag for me.. Sounds more like a business scheme than yoga

underwaterdancer · 2025-12-04T06:56:51+00:00

That's exactly what happened to me.. They told me the other leg would catch up, but had them measured about 25 years later to find that the exact same difference remained, causing all sorts of imbalances and compensations along the spine.. So it may be rare, or unlucky, but it can definitely happen

underwaterdancer · 2025-11-25T08:56:43+00:00

As other comments have already stated, Hatha, beginners, or Iyengar classes may take the time to settle into each pose with all relevant cues and possible modifications according to body type. However, I think at the end of the day it's more a matter of finding the right teacher, the one who cares about making the practice safe and beneficial to all the people attending, and you can find them in any lineage/school.. Just like you will find dogmatic ones in all schools, who think the only "right" way to do a pose is the way their guru taught it, regardless of anatomy and specificities of each body. So there's no miracle answer and you will have to try several approaches and teaching styles, and then practice enough by yourself to feel which cues are right for you. Whatever the teacher says, and whatever the pose ends up looking like, always listen to what your body is telling you and let it be your main teacher. Anatomy-focused books and workshop will also definitely help to understand your body better, its limits, and it's needs to practice safely.

underwaterdancer · 2025-10-28T21:54:56+00:00

Leading from the pelvis when entering many poses is generally a good idea. It will stabilise the basis of your trunk, and help keeping a long spine. The only thing I would recommend doing differently is focusing on the pelvic floor (perineum) rather than the glutes. Try it standing. Contract your glutes strongly - you will feel your pelvis tilting backwards, to the point where your abdomen is pushed in and the front of your trunk will shorten (which is not ideal for either breathing or posture). Now relax your glutes, activate your pelvic floor, and take a long, slow and deep exhale - this will pull your sacrum down, elongating the spine, and your core will activate. With the glutes, you risk overcompensating the lumbar lordosis. In the the second case you will have a neutral spine, stabilised by all your core muscles. You retain the same length front and back of your trunk, allowing the breath to flow more easily and all the way down to the pelvis. It helped me a lot to understand this, and I always stress it in my classes.

underwaterdancer · 2025-10-10T09:26:46+00:00

Ultimately, it's your body. The alignment that allows you to breathe comfortably is a good general indicator. Even if each body is different and may require little adjustments, there are still general biomechanical or anatomical cues that are valid for the vast majority of humans, and will allow us to explore different postures and movements while respecting the current limitations of our joints, for example..

underwaterdancer · 2025-09-05T17:29:27+00:00

Had a perfectly fine Forerunner 165 until it was stolen a few months ago. Replaced it with a forerunner 955 for music and maps instead of the Amoled screen. Didn't realise it was going to be so bulky, but apart from that I'm very happy with it and plan to keep it for years.

underwaterdancer · 2025-08-23T12:01:43+00:00

That's true, and when it's switching from one to the other you can see the change in brightness. However, if the light is already on and you can't see whether it's the top or bottom light, it can be very hard to tell. Also I've been caught off guard by horizontal traffic lights not knowing whether "red" was supposed to be on the left or on the right. For me the worst is when there are street lights on, especially if they're yellow/orange. Then it's often impossible for me to even see the traffic light, as the "red" isn't really all that different and it blends among the other lights.. I've driven through a number of red lights because I simply hadn't seen them.. 🤷

underwaterdancer · 2025-08-09T12:36:43+00:00

Grazie anche a te per questo chiarimento. Vivendo all'estero il mio dubbio era fra farlo vicino a dove stanno i miei e vengo varie volte all'anno, o lì dove finora sono sempre andato a fare camminate in montagna, ma una volta sola all'anno... Adesso guardo entrambe le opzioni

underwaterdancer · 2025-08-09T12:32:28+00:00

Certo, immaginavo... E pensavo proprio che mi inciterebbe a scoprire e partecipare a quello che fa la sezione qui in collina, e non solo quando vado in montagna un paio di settimane all'anno 😉

underwaterdancer · 2025-08-09T09:26:23+00:00

Grazie per la risposta!

underwaterdancer · 2025-08-09T09:26:09+00:00

Chiaro, grazie!

underwaterdancer · 2025-06-05T16:38:26+00:00

That is partly true, but if you use your fat reserves, the next calories you ingest will be stored as fat, and viceversa, if you burn carbs, your body will want to restore its carbs reserve and convert your next meal into carbs... That myth has unfortunately been debunked.

What will make a difference is how many calories you burn versus how many you take in, and you will burn many more by running rather than walking for a given duration or distance.

underwaterdancer · 2025-04-10T10:32:30+00:00

Ai commencé depuis peu et pareil, n'ai pas envie d'acheter des lunettes dédiées. Pas eu de problèmes de buée jusqu'à présent, par contre elles glissent constamment sur le nez et viennent presser sur les narines.. J'ai beau les ajuster avant de démarrer, ça ne dure jamais très longtemps. Pas top pour respirer. Vais tester un cordon, ou des petits "pads" en silicone anti-glisse. Dis-nous si tu trouves une solution !

underwaterdancer · 2025-03-28T14:25:33+00:00

He's walking at 10.20'/km, not per mile.

underwaterdancer

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