Yoga and Cycling

by Nina and Bridget

When I Drive a Flower Bicycle, I Will Have a Good Future
by Yu Youhan

As someone who walks and gardens a lot, I know how valuable it can be to use your yoga practice to balance your body after intense physical activity of a different kind. Our editor, Bridget Frederick, uses her yoga practice to balance her body from all the cycling she does. She has been completely bicycle dependent for the last 5 years, and has experienced her share of body aches as a result of riding 100 miles each week just to get where she needs to be. So she focuses her home practice on the areas that tend to take a beating on the bike (outer hips, shoulders, calves, hamstrings) to keep herself mobile while still commuting daily.

Because Bridget will  leading her third Yoga for Cyclists workshop on Saturday, May 24th, 2-5 pm at The Yoga Room, Berkeley, I thought it would be a good time to interview her about why and how she uses yoga to keep her body in balance.

—Nina

Nina: Why is yoga so beneficial for cyclists?

Bridget: Cyclists use their bodies in particular and repetitive ways while on their bikes. This leads to specific muscle tightness (quads, hamstrings, calves, shoulders), for which I’ve been using yoga poses as well as myofascial release to keep myself mobile while still commuting daily the last five years. Getting off the bike and really exploring these areas in depth, and especially learning a few key poses that you can do for yourself at home can lead to more comfort on and off the bike.



Nina: What are some of your favorite poses or practices for balancing your body after you've been cycling?

Bridget: Cycling tends to have the rider leaning forward (though some upright and recumbent bicycles address this issue) so slouching shoulders lead to tight chest muscles and back strain. I like to lie over a pair of blocks (one along the spine and one under the head on a higher level) for a chest opener, allowing my pectorals and biceps to widen and soften. Once my chest is open, strengthening my back and accessing more core strength is possible.

Outer hips and calves are important areas for me, so I do a lot of Supta Padangusthasana (Reclined Leg Stretch) at home, really focusing on getting some softening and opening in the hip crease of the leg I’m working with.

Pigeon pose is another one that really gets into the outer hip region, as well as the hamstrings. Many standing poses help with stretching out the calves, for example, Virabhadrasana I (Warrior 1) and Parsvottanasana (Pyramid pose). But I also have a whole series of calf stretches I do, sometimes starting off with some myofascial work to ease my calves into those poses.

My yoga practice has grown over the years because it works for me. A deeper understanding of anatomy and the connectedness of all parts of the body have made injuries much less frightening. I feel more in control of what's going on in my body and more able to address particular aches and pains, as well as support my dedication to being bicycle dependent.

Bridget's Yoga for Cyclists workshop is:
Saturday, May 24th, 2014 // 2-5 pm
The Yoga Room
2530 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley, CA
$55.00
email bridget.frederick@gmail.com for more information

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On Teaching Seniors: The Benefits Flow Both Ways!

by Bridget

Wet Handlebars by Melina Meza

While not yet a senior myself, I do teach seniors at the North Berkeley Senior Center. I came to yoga with serious, debilitating back pain—caused by high-speed, over-the-handlebars bike accidents in my teens, and untreated whiplash from several car accidents later on. The gentle Iyengar-style yoga taught at The Yoga Room in Berkeley set me on a path of healing. So, to me, yoga has been a therapeutic, kind and compassionate endeavor—one that has strengthened my back and quieted my mind to an extraordinary degree. Because of this, teaching seniors and working with any physical limitations they may have has been a pretty natural process.

My students at the senior center range in age from late-50s to late-80s. Within the group there's also quite a range of abilities, but there is such a sweet cohesiveness, and a sense of community and support for each other. I try to keep class moving along for the more active students, but everyone is patient when I spend some extra time making sure a new student can keep up. A core group arrives early to set up chairs and bring props into the room from the storage closet, and at the end of class everyone works together to get the room cleaned up, chatting about their interesting, full lives as they go. Last week, one of my students told me that she always feels better after she comes to my class. I paused for a moment to take that in and I realized that I always feel better after teaching it too.

These active seniors are always up for trying something new. I remember the first time I taught a modified inversion – handstand with feet on the chair – an 83-year-old student (after I’d offered an assist and some suggestions for strengthening her pose) stepped down from the chair, looked up at me, and said, “That was FUN!” Of course, handstand isn’t for everyone, and we work carefully up to a final pose. I always offer alternatives, explain potential health hazards, and I often turn poses into “partner poses” just so they can have someone watching and can help each other to remember the details. The partner work also cuts down on the number of people actually attempting a pose at one time, giving me a better chance to keep an eye on the entire room.

While active, eager and ambitious, they also tire more easily than my other student populations. One of my first experiences teaching seniors, I was substituting a class regularly taught by Herta Weinstein. This large class came with an assistant who knew the students well. After I’d led them through nearly half of the ambitious practice I had planned for the hour and a half class, the assistant leaned over and whispered, “I think they need to rest.” I was surprised to realize that the sighing I was hearing was about them wanting a break, not them wanting me to hurry up!

There's never any rush to get it right. That's the beauty of yoga - there is always something new to work on, so you'll never run out of topics to explore, muscles to strengthen and alignment to finesse. My students have reported feeling stronger, better-balanced and more energetic with the addition of the yoga practice. From my perspective, they are all gaining form and body awareness that is gorgeous to behold.

One of my favorite things about teaching this population is their dedication, both to yoga and to the community they’ve developed in the room. Another is that they’re tremendously creative and interesting. I’ve attended piano concerts, photo exhibits, and a Weavers Guild exhibit, all featuring the work of my students. I’ve also attended live performances, eco-movies and co-op dinners with my students, and any time it’s cold you’ll see me wearing a hat crocheted by one of them. My life is so enriched by their presence, and I continue to count working with them among the highlights of my week.

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Welcome Bridget Frederick, Our New Editor!

Photo Credit: Steve Jones

I’m excited to announce that Bridget Frederick has joined the staff of Yoga for Healthy Aging as a copyeditor and proofreader! Yeah, I admit it: I’ve been a bit sloppy in the past. Early on I made a conscious decision that while I would quickly edit each post for clarity and tone before I publish it, sometimes even doing a bit of a rewrite, that I wasn’t going to take the time to pour over each one for typos. And then there was the problem of the posts that I was writing myself; I had no one to edit those. So I had a pretty good idea that those typos were there, maybe even hurting the eyes of some of our more meticulous readers. So when Bridget, who is both a writer/editor and a yoga teacher, offered us her services, I jumped at the chance.

After a couple of weeks of trial, I decided to announce to everyone that Bridget was now on board and to let her tell you, via an interview, a little about who she is and why she decided to join us. I want to warn you, however, that she isn’t always able to edit the posts before they go out (as you might imagine, we have a pretty short turnaround time). While she is sometimes able to edit the draft version of the post before it is published, there are times when I publish the post first and she updates it later. I’m telling you this so you can blame ME, not her, if you see any errors in future posts.

And now let’s find out a little about Bridget —Nina

Nina: Why did you decide to offer us your services as a copyeditor and proofreader?

Bridget: The Yoga for Healthy Aging blog came out several months after I started teaching yoga, and I began reading it regularly, getting a lot out of the great insights. I teach at the North Berkeley Senior Center on Monday mornings—many of my students there either haven’t paid much attention to aging in a healthy way until now, or are just dealing with complications as they age.

And I’ve got longevity in my family. I had three great-grandparents when I was born, and they all lived through my entire childhood. The last one passed when I was 23—he was 99. Watching my two grandmothers age has shown me that living long is less pleasurable if you don’t have a healthy body to take along for the ride. The grandmother who will turn 93 this year has always had a daily exercise routine—she is still driving herself to the gym every weekday for her water aerobics class. On the other hand, my 87-year-old grandmother lived most of her life with little or no daily exercise, and has been incapacitated in a nursing home for the last seven years.

So that’s why I was interested in reading the blog. But I offered to edit it because I know it takes a lot of time to maintain a good, productive blog. Another pair of eyes to make sure it flows well can be helpful, and I’m happy that my skill set enables me to participate in this way.

Nina: Can you tell us a bit about your yoga background and your yoga practice?

Bridget: I started doing yoga in 2002, shortly after I was rear-ended while stopped at a red light. The whiplash I experienced was exacerbated by previous car accidents as well as three over-the-handlebars bike accidents—none of which I’d ever had treatment for. This time I found my way to a chiropractor, who recommended I try yoga. Well, she actually recommended Bikram yoga, but I went to the Berkeley Yoga Room instead, and have had a regular practice there ever since. The Iyengar-style focus on alignment and core strength, as well as the gentle approach of all of the Yoga Room teachers, was just what I needed to gain confidence in yoga’s ability to heal what ails me.

I completed the Yoga Room’s Advanced Studies Program in 2011. Presently I teach seven classes/week, have a regular home practice, and continue studying with my Yoga Room mentors.

Nina: Tell us something about your writing and editing background.

Bridget: I started editing in college, typing and editing other students’ papers in exchange for grocery money. While working at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, I wrote articles for the newsletter, and wrote and edited website content as well as creating contracts for use of the space. In all of my independent production work, I’ve been the writer and/or editor of content for all outreach and production documents, grant proposals and bios. My work as a Grant Manager is all about details – editing narratives is the start of many levels of detail in getting a proposal ready for submission. I also write and perform my own solo work, which is more about storytelling, but there’s a huge editing process involved before a piece is ready for the stage.

Nina: Is there anything else you’d like to tell our readers?

Bridget: I’m completely bicycle dependent—have been for five years. I’m getting better at hauling cargo, as well as layering for the changeable weather the Bay Area is known for. I generally ride 60-100 miles each week just getting myself where I need to be. It’s nice to have aerobic exercise built right into my commute time.

Eight years ago, I created a monthly solo performance series called Tell it on Tuesday with my friend Rebecca Fisher, and we still co-produce it together. I’ve written four of my own short works and am currently working on a fifth, to be performed in April.

I like to sew—mostly bags and cards— recently I've been more interested in altering clothing, or using the fabric from an item of clothing to create something totally different. I don’t like to plan it out, so sometimes it works great and sometimes not so much. But when it doesn’t work, there’s always a chance to re-purpose the material again!

And I make sauerkraut. Want to try some?

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