Why I Hate Yoga – But Do it Anyway
The short answer? Because nothing shapes up your body like yoga. It’s an amazing exercise and transforms you. It’s good for your organs, your blood pressure, your muscles, flexibility, lungs, heart, everything. It’s great for transplanters.
But, that still doesn’t mean I like it.
I have been doing yoga on and off since the summer of 2008. I’ve gotten back into it in a last ditch effort to try and shake off some of these Prednisone pounds. I combine it with 20 laps in the pool or an hour on the treadmill. So far, so good, but man, it pisses me off.
I love swimming, dancing and power walking. It’s active, it’s fun, it gets my joy going. Plus, I can listen to music or play in the water. Most of all, I can let my mind go and race down all sorts of different paths, thinking, imagining, analyzing, noticing…
Yoga is boring. I don’t mind that it’s physically hard. I kind of like the challenge. But it’s the boringness that gets to me.
Before you start to object, yes, I understand about breathing and meditation and focusing and stilling the mind, etc. I’ve done all that. I’m actually quite good at meditating and practice almost every day. I can totally get into a very deep place of stillness with it. I can even put myself to sleep. But I don’t need yoga to meditate or focus on my breathing.
With yoga, I have to concentrate on holding the pose or moving through it or whatever, which doesn’t leave me any room for my mind to have fun, and I can feel it straining at the leash. I also have a lot of trouble with the soothing New Age-y chatter. Stop talking to me! I don’t want to hear you. I don’t want to listen to you. I don’t care about being one with the universe at this moment. I just want to stay upright (or downright, as the case may be).
However, I think the number one thing about yoga that pisses me off is downward-facing dog. I hate that pose with a passion. I have had soooo many people – expert teachers, friends, etc. – try to help me with it. I have tried props and pads and braces. I have tried perfecting my stance, pulling in my belly, increasing my flexibility, adjusting my head and shoulders, using my entire hand to hold the weight, but to no avail.
Downward-facing dog hurts the heels of my hands and my wrists. Hurt is a mild word. It’s extremely painful. I have teeny tiny bird wrists, and frankly, I think that is the root of the problem, and it’s not going away.
I do the pose because it’s part of the exercise, but I don’t like holding it. The longer I hold it, the more it hurts. I try to hold it for as long as I can because I hate wimping out and having to drop to my knees in a modified version. But damn, if I have to hear one more person tell me what a great pose it is, how relaxing it is, how restful it is, I will smack someone. Hard.
I just want to hear from someone else that they hate downward dog as much as I do.
Still, I do yoga because I am not going to let my transplant drugs get the better of my body. I feel so odd and alone, disliking practicing yoga but doing it anyway. It’s like how I’m a vegetarian but hate beans and refuse to eat them. Or how I don’t like chocolate.
I should stop now before you really start to think I’m really weird.
I used to hate down dog as well–actually, I hated pretty much any pose that involved putting weight in my wrists. The turning point for me was an instructor telling me to put the weight in my hands rather than in my wrists. Try pressing the big knuckles of your fingers into the floor; it relieves a lot of pressure from your wrists.
Another tip — one teacher suggested having your legs spread wider apart from each other and I found it really does make it easier. I’m not talking about the leg flexibility aspect of it, I mean for some reason having your legs spread wider takes some pressure off your hands and wrists.
I hate downward dog as much as you do.
I very strongly dislike downward facing dog. The position doesn’t hurt. My arms are ok, my wrists are fine and my heels are fine. The position is fine. I still dislike it. I dislike it so much that I don’t go to yoga because of this one pose. A yoga instructor told me, “That tells you a lot about yourself”. I like that comment as it makes me think, but I still can’t think of what it means!
That is hilarious. I can’t think of what that means either. Hmmmmm.
I totally hear you! Downward-facing dog is my least favorite yoga pose, and I hate yoga in general. You’re right that it only adds salt to the wound to hear everyone and their mother blather on about how good it feels. NO, it does not feel good! Best of luck with your yoga attempts.
it makes me very dizzy. i hate this pose too. but since i like the rest of yoga i put up with it and just don’t stay in the position long. just tell the teacher it makes you dizzy and they won’t push you to stay in the pose.
Hello I HATE DOWNWARD DOG!! Let it be known to everyone! Your post inspired my drawing. Take a peak if you get a chance.
http://todayicreate.blogspot.com/2012/01/downward-facing-dog.html
Jamie