Finding Our Balance

I never thought I’d be the person writing about yoga benefits, but here I am, over fifteen years into a practice that started with a chance encounter at our local bike shop in Dalton, Georgia. It was just an ordinary day of dropping off my bike for general service when I spotted a poster on the door advertising a series of morning classes dubbed “yoga for cyclists.” I asked the owner, Shane, about the class.

“Yes, all of us have been doing yoga for a while now, and I’ve got to tell you — it’s great. Yoga is making us better cyclists,” he said with such enthusiasm that I couldn’t help but be intrigued.

A few months later, while getting a new gear shift cable, I witnessed a room full of men of every size and shape, flowing through yoga poses with focused determination. These weren’t the skinny, flexible figures I’d always associated with yoga. These were regular folks, like my husband and me.

The final push came when a friend shared a Tony Horton P90X yoga video with me. My husband and I decided to give it a try, following along as best we could. That was years ago, and we’ve been doing about 30 minutes of yoga a couple of times a week ever since.

I’ll confess that in my younger years, I thought yoga was a bit lame — just stretching and breathing, right? How hard could it be? Well, now that I’m older, I realize it takes significant energy and flexibility. Some days, it’s downright challenging. As Tony Horton says in his video, “We’re moving around in a tiny little space, and everyone’s sweating like hell.”

For those of you unfamiliar with the practice, yoga involves holding various poses for several deep breaths. Some are relatively easy — my husband and I handle Crescent Pose and both Warrior poses without much trouble. Others? Not so much. We both struggle with Twisted Triangle Pose, often losing our balance entirely or getting an achy cramp and coming out of the pose in pain. And Upward Dog has become increasingly difficult as we age, requiring a back stretch that resembles a backbend.

Then there are the names — Downward Dog, Child’s Pose, Cat Pose, Chair Pose. Sometimes we catch each other’s eye mid-pose and burst into laughter at the absurdity of what we’re doing. But we keep at it because the benefits are undeniable.

Studies confirm what we’ve experienced firsthand: yoga improves flexibility, balance, and strength while promoting stress relief and enhancing mental well-being. I recently read in AARP magazine that it even helps improve bone density (especially in the spine) in menopausal continued from page

women. Yay! My husband and I both agree that we feel physically and mentally better when we’re consistent with our practice. We sleep better, move better, and as Shane from the bike shop told me all those years ago, yoga helps with other physical activities too, like running and cycling.

At the end of each session, we relax our shoulders, place our hands either at our sides or in front of us in prayer position, and say “Namaste” — a reminder of the interconnectedness of all beings, interpreted as “The divine in me bows to the divine in you.”

Look, it’s true — we feel silly doing it sometimes. Two middle-aged people contorting themselves in our living room on spongy yoga mats isn’t exactly a picture of grace. But it works. It’s part of our ongoing quest for better health, wellness, and longevity — both quality and quantity of life.

So if you’re feeling a bit off-kilter lately, maybe give yoga a try. You don’t need fancy equipment or perfect flexibility — just an open mind and the willingness to feel a little silly on the path to feeling a whole lot better. Namaste, y’all!