(no subject)

[alexseanchai]

okay so like

exercise that

* won't fuck with any of my disabilities
* won't feel impossible to start or maintain
* won't get blockaded by my executive function or wtfever before I get started
* won't cost money
* won't make me feel like a fail on the grounds of continuing to not meet the 150 min/wk moderate exercise guideline
* won't tempt me into excessive ambition
* will help me learn patience
* will help me increase some number of my strength, flexibility, endurance, and cardiovascular health
* will start where I am wrt all four such
* will be enjoyable, not chorelike

am I chasing a unicorn here?

(I really appreciate the effort you all put in last time I posted here! just none of your suggestions stuck. /o\ and it's incredibly frustrating.)

(also I don't understand why I chose today to start caring again? I have been complaining all week about through-the-roof pain! this is maybe not the week to reinstate a practice of physicality?)

Comments

[rydra_wong]

There's the distinction between "hard" and "soft" styles in martial arts, which doesn't exactly map onto this but seems relevant to the sort of thing we're talking about.

And then you've got "yin yoga" -- very long (3-5 mins or more) holds of positions which require minimal muscular effort to hold, and which is very effective (and one of the few things I've found helpful when I'm in bad anxious/agitated states).

Or "restorative yoga", which isn't even "extreme" in the way yin yoga can be (in that yin yoga does involve sinking slowly into intense stretches); it's very gentle, very easy-seeming, very comfortable, and really really powerful.

For me, I think because in the last seven years or so I've been doing some fairly strenuous things (like rock climbing and barbell lifts), and because I'm also prone to very fluctuating energy/mood levels, I've become really conscious of how much impact the "soft" (or "gentle" or "easy") practices on my menu have, and what happens if I ignore them (or try to do strenuous stuff all the time, which is a total disaster).

Also, in terms of learning patience, it's definitely a real mental exercises to go: okay, forget whatever grand ambitions I may have had for the day, actually I woke up feeling like utter crap for no apparent reason, here is where I am today, so what is a movement thing that a) I can actually do, and b) might be positive for me right now?

N.B. If I'm making it sound like I'm all sorted and full of wisdom about this: DON'T BELIEVE IT, IT'S LIES, ALL LIES. *g*

It's a work in progress. This is stuff I have sort of figured out, and manage to put into practice quite a lot of the time.