Accepting frustration
one more way how yoga helps my climbing
One of the things I've learned from my yoga practice is to "accept what my body has to offer me today". It sounds kind of silly at first, but its tough to do for a competitive person like myself. Accepting that you're not always going to be at the top of your game, accepting that you may never be able to have the perfect posture in a certain yoga pose, accepting that today may not be the day that you're going to send that climb. It's not an excuse, its not a reason to stop pushing yourself to improve, but rather its the awareness that your body may not be ready to do it.
 The proper posture for "Cow Face Pose", picture courtesy of ashtangafriends.4t.com |
 My version of "Cow Face Pose". I may never be able to grasp my hands. I can accept that. |
Monday was one of those days.
During the Strength class, we worked our way towards our "sending limit". To "send" a climb means that you complete a climb from start to finish without any falls and without any "takes" (breaks). The exercise we had in class was to first do 1 climb two-grades below your sending limit, then do 2 climbs one-grade below your sending limit, and finally climb to your limit. So for myself, I was going to do one 5.9-, two 5.9/5.9+'s and one 5.10-.
I found a 5.9- that I'd climbed before, and finished it cleanly. Then I attempted a 5.9+ and fell 3 or 4 times. I started over after each fall, so that I could send the climb cleanly. But, with each attempt, my arms and legs got more tired. It wasn't that I wasn't capable of making the move. I'm sure on another day I would have made it. But on Monday, things just weren't clicking. I was physically tired and had no energy to latch onto the next hold, to stand up on my right leg and to finish the move. I had to accept what my body had to offer me, and what it had to offer didn't include that move.
I moved on to a 5.9 that included a high step that I couldn't move off of (knowing what I learned in Friday's Flexibility class it made more sense why that move was so challenging for me), then I moved onto a 5.9- that had a sloper move at the crux. Down I came.
Monday was just not the day for me to be working on my sending limit. My energy level was way low. I can accept it just wasn't the day to do it. Writing this I seem to want to quote Stuart Smalley, "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!". I guess that's part of it -- but I'm really just happy that I was able to leave the gym monday night and NOT feel like I didn't accomplish anything. I did: I found a couple new projects to work on, and that's perfectly fine with me.