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10/03/2006: "Not so stretchy"
Song of the Day: Nicola Hitchcock - Feel
Once upon a time, I used to be able to lift my leg over my head.
Since I took dance classes for ten years, I was a rather bendy person. By the end of my decade as a dancer, I had stretched my muscles out so much that the only way to challenge them was to go over 180 degrees, often by putting one foot up on a few inches of blue gym mats and then doing a split (which was called, appopriately, an oversplit). This gave me a rather nice set of muscular, curvy legs, much to my chagrin at times (such as when shopping for knee-high boots, which all appear to be made for pencil-thin legs).
Dance classes ended when college started, and I stopped stretching everyday. Or, really, I stopped stretching at all. Fast forward to today, when I've been plagued with an annoying tingly feeling in my legs that perturbs me all day and keeps me awake at night. Some searching on WebMD suggests that this is that "restless leg syndrome" you hear about in that television commercial, and that if it's merely annoying (as opposed to downright painful), you can fix it by stretching a few times a day. Okay, that's easy, right?
I am so embarassed and frustrated with myself that I can no longer even touch my toes. Me, the chick who used to be able to sit on the floor with her legs spread open, lean forward to rest her chest flat on the floor, and then pull through to be laying completely facedown without lifting her pelvis off the floor, cannot touch her toes. It's mortifying, and almost enough to make me stop doing it at all.
For the last week, I've been grunting my way through 10 minutes of stretching in the morning and at night, trying to remind myself that I used to live for that burn in my muscles. I know I'll never get back to where I once was, but it'd be nice to be able to touch my toes again. And it does banish that tingly restless feeling, for the most part.
Not all has been lost, however; I still have (most of) the posture I gained from my dance classes. 10 years of being told to hold yourself as if you have a string coming out the top of your head that's being pulled up towards the ceiling really does get built into your muscles. To this day, if I see someone slumped over or with their shoulders rolled foward, I want to run up to them and smack them with my purse while screaming, "HOLD YOURSELF BETTER THAN THAT!!"
And that axel thing that ice skaters do? I used to be able to do that, without the ice skates. I always used to think that was so cool.
Replies: 6 Comments
You ARE so cool!Babs, Tuesday, October 3rd
You ARE so cool!Babs, Tuesday, October 3rd
(So cool, in fact, that I needed to say it twice)Babs, Tuesday, October 3rd
I used to be in ballet myself. It wasn't because I really liked to dance, or that I liked the physicality of it all.Jeff, Tuesday, October 3rd
I SO have nothing to say to that. :DBrooke, Tuesday, October 3rd
I have to get back to dance classes. I've never been that bendy, but I have found myself hunching over when sitting lately and it makes me ill.Tara, Thursday, October 5th