Just a few days ago, I blogged about suddenly experiencing loss of arm power during the vinyasa flow routine from Plank to Chaturanga to Upward Dog.

At work today, one of our guys in Accounting and I chatted as he also was a gym person who lately had been missing out on his routine due to demands at the office (we’ve suddenly been hit by this contagious virus called work-itis!). Our common observation — we both had lost arm power!

So I found it really uncanny that today’s newest New York Times RSS feed on my other blog was all about loss of arm power (imagine that!) and how to regain it. The full article can be found here but just to give some quick takes on the article, it says:

* Training in a particular activity (like rowing, swimming, etc) is specific. One can keep cardiovascularly fit doing many physical activities but to do that particular activity, you have to keep on doing just it;

* When athletes stop training, the volume of blood plasma (which allows the heart to pump more blood with each beat) is lost amazingly fast. The body just does not need it. So within 3 months of detraining, these athletes are no different in volume of blood plasma than people who have been sedentary all their lives;

* The good news though is that it takes much less time to regain fitness than it did to become fit in the first place. Immediately upon retraining, the body quickly readapts. Almost immediately, blood volume goes up, heartbeats become more powerful, and muscle mitochondria come back.

Today, I did gentle yoga at my sons’ school gym with Pio. It was supposed to be relatively easier than my classes at my yoga center. I did not sweat as much. But during Wide Angle Forward Bend (a pose I could do already with forehead to floor), as I bent forward and was just a few centimeters from the floor, pain shot up my right back leg.

 

Remembering Pio’s constant reminder to listen to my body, I did not push it. Instead I went down only as low as my body allowed me to. But it is a big, big note to myself that sitting too long in one position is slowly eroding my flexibility.

This NYT article is comforting, however, as it reassures those of us who have slacked in our regular yoga routines that the loss of arm power (and flexibility) is temporary and can be regained (yes!).