Recently, I’ve been experiencing some back pain. This is new for me, and makes me really think about the fact that I’m in my mid thirties and my body needs more care than when I was younger. There have been periods in my life where I’ve picked up a new form of vigorous exercise and gotten really enthusiastic about it for awhile (hello, kickboxing classes to shed pounds for my wedding and training for three half marathons even though I don’t enjoy running!). However, I have come to the realization that I don’t like strenuous exercise very much. I much prefer gentler forms of exercise like walking and yoga.
When I started feeling the back pain, it felt like my body was really tight and needed some stretching. It had just started getting cold and I hadn’t been consistent with my outdoor walking, or any physical activity at all for that matter, so I thought it was time to reprise some movement. Yoga was the perfect option that I could do indoors and at any time through the Peloton app. I discovered the Peloton app during the pandemic and it helped me keep my workouts fresh, with a variety of class options like cardio, strength, pilates, yoga and meditation. I still use it almost four years later, and some of my go-to instructors for yoga are Aditi Shah, Kristin McGee, and Anna Greenberg.
On December 1, 2023, I decided to do a yoga session to see if that would help my back. Of course I was super tight after a couple months of minimal movement! Stretching and doing the postures was actually painful. This was not a good feeling, and I wondered how I would feel differently if I did yoga for 30 days. Right then and there, I decided to give it a shot and my 30 day yoga challenge began!
Benefits of practicing yoga
Yoga is an ancient practice, stemming from India thousands of years ago. There are said to be a plethora of benefits to practicing yoga, including physical benefits such as more flexibility, strength and balance, improved cardiovascular condition, and lowered blood pressure. Yoga can also provide mental health benefits including decreasing anxiety, stress, and depression, promoting mindfulness, and building inner strength. Here’s a list of 38 ways yoga can improve your life. Additionally, for women, this Calm article indicates that yoga can support hormonal balance and may enhance fertility.
That’s a whole lot of benefits associated with yoga! So you can see why I was excited to see what results I would come from my 30 days of yoga!
My physical experience with the challenge
My physical experience over the thirty days moved my body from tight and stiff to flexible and fluid. I started on the first day with a 30 minute, intermediate yoga session, and that is the session length and level I did on most days of the challenge.
Note: I have been taking yoga classes on and off for the last ten years, so I know the postures fairly well and this level felt comfortable for me. If you’re interested in trying yoga for the first time, it’s a good idea to start with a beginner class to get your feet wet and upleveling when you feel comfortable.
My experience the first week went like this.
- Days 1 and 2 I could barely hold myself up in a plank. Moving from the plank position down to the mat and up to the upward-facing dog position in a continuous movement was not possible since my arms lacked the strength to do so, and I would have to release myself fully to the floor before moving into up dog. Everything hurt, and the stretching involved in the postures did not feel good. I was so tight!
- Day 3 I could make the movement from plank to up dog in one movement, and I was feeling less pain in my back.
- Day 4 I was feeling more fluid and flexible. Later, I noticed my posture was better during the day and my body was not so tense.
- Day 5 In the morning, I noticed that my upper stomach was getting sucked in, and my whole body felt toned. When doing yoga in the evening, I felt more fluid in all the movements. Stretching felt good. Afterwards, my arms and thighs felt more toned. I felt like I had more energy.
- Day 6 I started getting bored with doing the same movements, so I switched to a different class. I tend to get bored quickly. Since I know this about myself, I also know that variety is key for me.
- Day 7 I did a class focused on healthy back for 20 minutes. This was a nice change of pace, and my back felt lighter afterwards.
Within the first week, I was already feeling more flexible and toned. My back pain had gone away, and the stretch from moving through the postures was enjoyable. I followed along with the breathing prompts and felt more relaxed and peaceful by the end of each session. These benefits continued to deepen throughout the 30 day challenge.
3 important takeaways I got from doing this challenge
Now, this challenge was as much about commitment as much as the physical aspect of incorporating daily movement. It was about building the habit of practicing yoga for thirty days. Here’s what I learned from the experience:
1. Really put an effort into making sure the things that are important to you are prioritized
We’re all super busy these days, with family commitments, work, trying to maintain social connections, and that never-ending to-do list. It can seem really hard to fit something more into your day, for 30 whole days. But some things are more important than others, and we will never have the time to focus on these truly important things unless we prioritize them above all the other tasks.
Taking time to do something for myself each day when there are a billion other things to do was a conscious effort. One thing I learned is, if there is something important to do, try to focus on doing it first. When possible, I did yoga first thing in the morning so I could prioritize it and get it done. Time has a way of sneaking away from us, and this way, I wasn’t beholden to whatever the day threw at me and in the end not have time for my yoga practice.
2. Focus on being present where you presently are
With all the tasks on our plates these days, it’s no wonder that our mind is constantly somewhere other than where we are right now. We try so hard to multitask, and that sometimes means that we don’t give our full attention to the task at hand, or the moment we are living in. That’s a mistake, because the other things on our mind will still be there after your practice, and it won’t make a difference if you take 30 minutes to focus on something else.
I’ve found that when doing things like yoga that invite me to focus on the present moment, my mind naturally wanders in a million directions – to something that bothered me from the work day earlier, or making dinner afterwards, or getting the laundry out of the dryer, or anywhere else but right there with myself on the mat. I have to make a conscious effort to remind myself to stay present and pay attention to what the instructor or guide is saying. A helpful reminder from on of the instructors I like is that this is my time, and to let go of what came before this and what comes after this. Remembering to do that has helped me remain in the present and fully take the time for myself to experience the moment.
3. Consistency is the key to progress and success
This may seem intuitive or cliched, but actually being consistent can be pretty hard. I had several days where I didn’t feel like doing yoga, but I still got on the mat and did what I could do that day. I knew there would be days that I would feel like this, but I made a commitment and I wanted to stick to it. We’re not always going to feel like giving our 100%, and that’s okay. Sometimes we do what we can. The important thing is that we do it. I’ve read that 30 days is how long it takes to form a new habit, and although there are some varying ideas about this number, it seemed like the perfect length of time to commit myself to this challenge.
To help keep myself accountable, I started tracking my daily yoga on my phone. I recently watched a fantastic video summarizing the book Atomic Habits by James Clear, and one of the things it talked about was tracking habits. It suggests that when we start a chain of habit completion, it gives us motivation to keep going so we don’t have to break the chain. I used the Productive app to track my daily yoga, and loved swiping the checkmark to complete the challenge each day. I also liked seeing my progress through the month visually as an unbroken chain. This definitely helped me stay consistent.
The last thing I’ll say about consistency is that with most things, results take time. You can’t do something once and expect great results. You can’t do something twice and expect great results. You have to do it over and over again. You have to keep going, even when you don’t see results. Even when you want to give up because you think it’s not working. It will work. Your efforts will keep compounding, until one day you start to see the results you’ve been waiting for and it will all be worth it.