Adapted yoga continues to improve my abilities

Adapted yoga, the art of adjusting yoga poses for students of all abilities, has become a hugely buzzed about movement spearheaded by paraplegic Matt Sanford, an adapted yoga guru from Minneapolis. What’s not to love about using yoga to get people to reconnect with their whole bodies again, despite various disabilities/illnesses? Adapted yoga is changing people’s once very stationary lives, including mine.

I’m going to be honest. Being stuck in the very limiting body of a C6 quadriplegic for the last 17 years has been the hardest thing I’ve ever endured. Waking up each day, fighting daily spasms, feeling very much just “there” regarding my physicality, always in the same position in my chair, etc, etc, drove me mad. Humans weren’t meant to sit all the time, and it takes it’s toll – both physically and mentally – when you’re in a chair. This is why joining Matt’s class has been such an incredible boon to my life.

It’s been about 2 months since I began doing adapted yoga on a very strict weekly basis, and the results I’m seeing are simply amazing. The biggest change I’ve noticed is increased endurance in my daily living activities. Things I’d usually save for my caregiver to do, like putting groceries away, is something I’m now finding myself doing. It seems that yoga is undoing the laziness that set-up camp in my life a few years ago. I wholeheartedly believe that the adrenaline rush of a) getting out of my chair and b) moving my body/limbs in ways that hasn’t happened for years, are the reasons I’m feeling more able and more fluid in moving my body, and desirous to do it.

A few other cool things I’ve learned in my recent yoga classes:

• The “subtle body” is the notion that there’s an awareness that underlies the obvious physical body. This subtle body can still sense touch and still be influenced and utilized no matter your sensory and motor limitations. By tuning into this subtle awareness during poses (like when a volunteer pins your hips with their feet), you can feel the pressure, and in turn, get more out of the pose.

• Handstands on the back: Yep, you read that right. Handstands are an important pose in yoga. And since many of us can’t do handstands, handstands via laying on our backs with our arms stretched above our heads (with our hands pressing against the mat), can have the same effect.

• In my most recent class we did an adapted form of downward dog, in order to get the good arm stretch that influences the back/side torso muscles that comes with doing that pose. Since my balance is bad and I was in my chair for this pose, I used my chest strap to keep sitting upright as I pressed my arms/hands into a table in front of me. I’m constantly learning new ways to adapt the already adapted poses to my ability level (which every student eventually learns to do).

• Speaking of downward dog, my most exciting moment in class to date has got to be when three volunteers helped me onto my tummy, and then on my knees, to get into the downward dog pose, with my arms outstretched in front of me. Words cannot express how in-tune and “one” I felt with my body once I got into that pose. In the words of Matt, “I no longer felt like a floating upper torso.”

It’s also important to note that the class has about as many volunteers as there is students (to help with transfers to the mat, to tag-team disabled students who need help getting into whichever pose Matt is teaching at the moment, stuff like that). These volunteers are really what make the class possible for people like me, and need to be thanked….over and over and over again.

If adapted sports don’t peak your interest, seriously consider adapted yoga. We all need to move our bodies. I’m finally starting to understand that.