I'm bringing sexy back

I’m writing this after three years of severe back pain issues. The pain led me to a major 8-hour front and back operation last July. I’m scarred for life, yet the pain has finally subsided.

Why? Yoga. I can’t believe it, and I couldn’t be happier.

Two years ago, I was sitting in my brother’s kitchen, and I declared that “I did not have time for yoga.”

Surprised, he retorted, “Well, you do, you just don’t want to make it a priority.”

The conversation had zero effect on me. Zero behavioural change. However, I did feel like he’d just checked my King. Fair play, Matt. Your time management point was well made.

Rewind to January of this year, and I was still a non-yoga lad. I was sat, laptop open, overlooking a volcanic lake in Guatemala, with the sun setting over one of its dormant Mayan craters. My inner yogi must have stirred.

The most powerful and compelling thing I do annually is a personal end-of-year review. Simply put, it’s a long exercise that culminates in three annual goals broken down into 4-month milestones.

One of these goals was to reconnect with my body again. I was out of shape. With little to no exercise over three years and a delicate toothpick spine, I had been thrust into an all-time physical low. I needed to rebuild my floundering anatomical foundations.

At that point, I thought about getting back on the weights. I had played rugby for 15 years, the reason my back was messed up anyway, and lifting weights was all I knew.

However, by April 2024, my back still wasn’t up to the challenge of picking up a weight. Then, just like magic, a few different moments led me down the path to yoga redemption:

My mate Will S had a back reconstruction and swore by yoga.
My mate Mike G had been to a seafront yoga session in Barcelona and enjoyed it.
YouTube had started serving me videos about ankle flexibility and I realised that I was as stiff as C-3PO.

Alas, I was directed by Will S to Shanti Vida Yoga Studio in Barcelona. I sauntered in, with hunched shoulders, to its brick-vaulted spiritual chamber and it somehow awoke my dormant spirit within.

After 11-weeks, I didn’t expect to do a full 180 on yoga, feel no back pain at all, AND have such a mood increase. It’s quite remarkable.

So here I am, sat with pungent egg on my face. I've metamorphosised from saying yoga was “far too long” and advocating for “quick yoga”, to an idiot who writes a bloody blog about it.

What does that say about me?

What does that say about us maintaining an open mind?

I’m reminded of the importance of always saying “at the moment” after each opinion we give. You never know when your world view will humble you.

I love yoga…at the moment.

Here are some pictures of the operation from July 2023: