Growing up as a decent athlete means that I still have tricks and muscle memory for things that are much more difficult to learn as an adult.
I found out recently that the below yoga pose can be quite difficult.
To be honest, I didn't even realize this WAS a yoga pose.
These shoulder stands were something I learned when I was really young and going to gymnastics. It has always been something I randomly move into - on the floor, watching tv, on the bed - basically whenever I have an inkling to do something easy and yet a little active (engaging my core). Even more than that, being able to fold my legs over my head and get my knees to the floor has always just been a fun challenge. I never thought it was a legitimate yoga pose.
So apparently, the muscle memory from my athletic days and my commitment to trying to stay relatively flexible with some strength has allowed for me to surprisingly learn pretty difficult poses.
Because to me they are just old gymnastics tricks.
The only piece of advice I have for people doing these poses (that I failed to realize until it was too late), it would be smarter to do shoulder stands on a yoga mat sitting on carpet. Due to the hard floors, I feel a little bruised from those shoulder stands.
I am just happy that I can practice yoga again - I had taken a pretty long hiatus.
I am a little worried that once the cortisone wears off (especially if they reduce or remove me off of medication) the pain might be off the charts and take me out of practicing yoga again.
But we'll cross that bridge when we get there.
