Week 169: Tight Jeans, Tight Hamstrings - Not a Good Combination

I love fashion.

There I said it.

If I could spend copious amounts of money on clothes on a regular basis, I would. It is very difficult for me to window shop without purchasing something. Yet, a part of me hates wastefulness and excess so that little voice often talks me out of making many purchases.

Fashion. In my opinion, some is workable, feasible and down right cute. But other fashion sometimes just doesn’t work.

Now, you are thinking. What is she talking about? This is a yoga blog not a fashion blog. But hold tight…it will come together soon.

Skinny jeans have been in style for 5+ years and well, I was late on the uptake. Initially thinking, “ugh…those look awful” then coming around to “well, maybe they look good on those model type bodies". To now, “what the heck, I’m going to wear them”…circa 2013. But I’ve always wondered if this was the right fashion choice for me.

Case in point…this week.

After a long run on Wednesday, I sported one of my favourite pairs of skinny (purple) jeans. Not thinking anything of it, I felt comfortable in the morning. As the day progressed, however, my body started to cramp up. And lifting a 27 pound weight/child out of a car seat was pant splitting. Not literally thank heavens!

Moving in a restricted pair of pants while battling tight hamstrings was a disaster waiting to happen. No - I didn’t have a wardrobe malfunction but instead my back took the beating. By the time the kiddos were down for their nap, I quickly disrobed from my purple corseting pants and dawned my comfy yoga pants.

And most certainly leaped (as much as I could move) onto my yoga mat.

Give me a practice to stretch out my hamstrings and breathe out the tightness!

Thank goodness for doyogawithme.com’s deep release for hips and hamstrings (I’ve done it before and knew its miraculous work!) because it was just what my body needed!

Even one of the first poses, seated crossed legged position was difficult. Say what?

I appreciated the simply forward fold over the right leg while crossed legged. I’m not convinced my body would have allowed for a straight leg seated forward fold if I tried. The added opposite pressure on the left knee acted almost like a bind that I so greatly needed.

Needless to say, yoga saved me from my fashion mishap!

It got me to thinking though, about my back body and the possible tight fascial lines from my calf to hamstring to back that could be causing me such trouble. Alas, I jumped on Google to take a peek.

I was blown away with the Google images abound and content to be read. I think I am on to something…

More to learn about fascia, how yoga is the so-needed releasing agent that I need, and how to stay away from skinny jeans especially after long runs,
LW