“You don’t get me, I’m part of the union…” So said the Strawbs in their hit single in 1973. Hippie songs to one side what’s this got to do with anything?
Well, have you ever wondered what the word ‘yoga’ means – apart from ‘struggle to bend in strange directions whilst being simultaneously humiliated by others in the class’?
The nearest description is that of ‘union’ and the union that is being described is that of body, breath and mind which can sometimes help to put the struggles into perspective, but have you ever wondered if you could carry the concept elsewhere?
Apart from being a keen walker and yoga practitioner, I am also an enthusiastic cyclist and swimmer. I am at an age where the words ‘non-load bearing’ are taking on a new-found significance.
Swimming is an interesting occupation. At one time I was training for triathlons, and I had a simple imperative – ‘train hard or look a fool on the day’. I no longer compete due to ankle injuries and a slight degree of boredom (?) but I like to keep my fitness levels up and make sure I can still swim the requisite 1500m Olympic tri distance.
Apart from the mantra that ‘this could help if I fell off a ferry’, I struggled with motivation – until I thought about accessing ‘the union’.
On my worst days, yoga seemed like a lot of painful postures (asanas) which if I could get through would be rewarded at the end with a nice lay down (savasana or the corpse pose).
Dull flog
What changed my thinking was when someone pointed out that in some yoga circles savasana is seen as the hardest pose to master and that every asana during the practice was simply preparing you for it.
This was quite a revelation for me and changed the way I viewed my yoga (for the better). I wondered if it could also help stop my requisite 45/46 lengths of my local 33.3m pool from feeling like the dull flog it was becoming.
Following my yoga lesson routine, I decided to divide the swim into four 12-length blocks. 400m seemed like a nice round number and x 4 got me well over the 1500m mark and to a mile. Very neat.
The first block I use as a warmup just to reacquaint myself with being in the water and to get my breathing and mind under control. I then do a stretching routine, which is borrowed from my yoga class and is much easier in water.
Other swimmers seem to have acclimatised to my gyrations and a few have asked if it is beneficial, but no one has sought to join me – yet.
In the second block I like to marvel at how after a stretch, a breather and a mind reset how much more fluid my stroke is whilst also trying to swim with as few strokes as possible and keeping my mind on the number of lengths.
My punishment for forgetting is to make myself go back to the last pair I remember doing. Tough I know but everyone likes a bit of self-flagellation now and then – or so I’ve heard.
Creative ideas
Block 3, I get my float out and practice deconstructing my stroke using either just arms, just one arm or kicking hard with just legs. It is amazing how much this wakes the body up especially your legs and weaker arm.
If you ever fancy taking this a little further, then book a swim analysis, ideally one in which you are filmed. Often what you think you are doing is very different to what you are actually doing and re-educating your limbs can be an interesting piece of mental development!
From there I proceed to Block 4 in which my aim is to swim as ‘silently’ as possible whereby my stroke is as efficient as possible rather than fast.
My aim on the last two lengths is to make sure that everything is working as effectively as possible and that I am nearing that meeting of a body working as I want, my breathing being long and relaxed and my mind being quiet, forgiving, calm and focused on my strokes and number of lengths.
Job done, I get out, smile and say a small “Namaste” that I am fortunate to have the time, pool access and health to do all this. I then cycle home and whatever happens, I feel blissfully reassured that ‘you can’t get me…’
- As a postscript, I would mention that I swim front crawl and always breathe bi-laterally.
- As a post, postscript, I also have most of my best ideas while swimming.
