“Absence makes the heart grow fonder”.

You’re thinking this, right?

Wrong!

It stands for “Absence makes the HIPS GO FREEZIN’!”

And that is exactly what happened with me. Two weeks, give or take a couple of days more, of absolutely zero yoga. Then, last Monday, I joined Chona in what we thought was still a basic 6PM class. I knew I could not go directly to the Tuesday-Thursday intermediate classes we used to do, coming from such a long absence. So we were setting outselves up for a less rigorous class that night.

Apparently, I have been out for a while because what was supposed to be a basic class turned out to be a semi-intermediate one. Pio made us do the pigeon pose, spinal twist variations with one leg in half lotus and with the other arm holding the toe from behind, forward bends with variations, etc.

Nope…we were given quite a workout for a basic class.

The good news was, I slept so well that night. The bad news, my muscles (used to the 3-times-a-week formal classes with self yoga in between) became used to NOT being used that they froze up. And that Monday class woke up all these muscles from their stupor and I ached like anything all over for the past 2 days.

Anticipating the week ahead with late evenings dedicated to training at the office, I struggled this morning to get out of bed to do a morning yoga class at the gym with Pio. I must have spent several minutes in that “Do I get up? Or roll back to sleep?” mode. Thankfully, I decided to get up and go. And thank goodness it was a much gentler class this time. My muscles still ached but I got to exercise them again. And while I still have some aches now in certain tight places, most of the parts that hurt after Monday do not bother me anymore.

It is a constant adjustment of schedules now but hopefully I can squeeze in more regular yoga hours, whether they be in the evenings (my preferred time) or early in the morning before going off to work. I can see now that completely stopping for several weeks can be a real setback for the muscles and getting them up and running in as good a condition as before will once again call on a lot of patience, perseverance and effort.