It's been almost a week since the conclusion of our annual tennis tournament, the Babolat World Tennis Classic, which Ed and I have been running for the past nine years. Ed does the majority of the work, planning, scheduling, organizing sponsors and the like whereas I run the tournament desk during the week of the event.
What my role entails is to keep the courts full by sending matches on court at their intended time. We use walkie-talkies to communicate with three roving umpires across 15-17 courts. So, you can imagine that when we had a complete day of rain on day six of eight, we had some catch up to do on day seven. Over 150 matches needed to be played on Saturday. To say it was non-stop would be completely correct. I was like an octopus at the desk, needing to stay focused (and calm) in order to make this run as smooth as possible. It's like being an air traffic controller at a tennis club.
What does this have to do with yoga? One word...posture.
I found that towards the end of the week my upper/middle back felt as though I had a hot spot...an electrical buzz. My knees ached and my lower back felt stiff. Even with doing a short few yoga poses after all of the morning matches were on court, taking a moment or two to do a chest opener with blocks and bringing a shortened foam roller, I still couldn't get past how sore my body was from staying in the same posture for hours on end.
Our bodies were built for movement. So anytime we hold them in a sustained position such as sitting, standing or lying down, the body begins to give us feedback. "OK, Jayne", it might say..."time to move out of this position into another one because I can't take this much longer".
Think of how many of us sit for hours at a computer. Stand for hours at a job (chefs, retail, hair stylists) or if we're ill, lay in bed until we're feeling good enough to get up.
Modernization has reeked havoc on our posture. Our heads are out in front of our torso; our shoulders are rounded forward; our chests are closed and tight; our back muscles overstretched and weak.
This held posture beckons for us to return to some semblance of balance and this is where yoga supports us. The practice is amazing at offering our spines an opportunity to move in all of its ranges of motion-forward, back, side-side and rotationally. When we undertake our yoga practice, we recalibrate our skeletons back into their intended functional patterns through lengthening and strengthening all that is tight and weak.
In addition to yoga, walking is hugely beneficial to overall health. Recent research on extended hours of sitting in office-based jobs has shown how this posture negatively impacts our health. In fact, treadmill desks and its associated research has grown in popularity. By simply walking at a work tread desk, at one mph in bouts of 30-minutes walking, 30-minutes sitting, the participants all lost weight. Overall health improved with total cholesterol decreasing, plasma triglycerides dropping on average 37 percent in total for all 18 study participants. No going to a gym...just going to work.
My experience this past week has once again reaffirmed how supportive my yoga practice can be. In addition, I might suggest that we install a walking desk at the tournament desk next year! So after you have finished reading this...stand up and stretch a bit, eh?
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