It’s obvious that muscles stretch much better when they’re soft and relaxed isn’t it. But how to get that tight uncompromising muscle to soften is sometimes incomprehensible. In this connection a man who has been coming regularly to my classes told me of an ‘enlightening’ experience that he had. This is what he said:
“There’s this man in the Saturday class who is so flexible and so strong, he’s a pleasure to watch in the poses but quite daunting to measure myself against. But last Saturday I had a real break through. There he was perfecting the Folding Triangle and there was I maybe one eight of the way down, then I thought to myself – oh what the hell I’ll never be like him, stop trying – and suddenly I relaxed and got wonderfully deep into the pose (deep for me that is!).”
This is why I always say that yoga is non-competitive, don’t struggle and strive and push yourself, of course you need to do the pose to the best of your ability but work just below your limit and don’t compare yourself to others, everyone is an individual, so just accept your strengths and limitations and work with them,
