Athletic genius

Sarah came over today determined to finally master some basic yoga poses before her next running group meeting. She’d been talking about wanting better flexibility for weeks, and I offered to walk her through some beginner stuff.

Athletic genius

Twenty minutes. Twenty actual minutes she spent trying to get into what she thought was a complicated hip opener, getting more and more frustrated with her “tight hamstrings” and wondering aloud why this pose felt so impossible. I kept offering suggestions about breathing and alignment, but something seemed off about the whole thing.

Then she looked down.

The moment of defeat and laughter.

She’d been trying to stretch while still wearing her running shoes. All that struggle with her “inflexibility” – just her Nikes being, you know, shoes. The look on her face when it clicked was absolutely priceless.

We spent the next hour actually doing yoga, and turns out Sarah’s plenty flexible when she’s not fighting against athletic footwear. Though she made me promise to never let her live this down, which obviously means it’s going straight on the blog.