Sit with a straight back in crossed legged position
Comfort sitting on the floor
How I plan to achive this?
Stretch as part of my cool down each time I go to the gym (which is 3x per week).
The stretches I'll be doing, all static:
- standing pike
- standing straddle pike
- single leg floor hamstring stretch
- weighted pancake
- weighted pancakes 3x10
- kneeling hip flexor stretch
- kneeling hamstring stretch
- elevated pigeon
I'll hold each stretch for 3x30s or 90s (depending on what is more enjoyable). This will get me 4.5min in each position per week. And as we learned in How to Stretch this is close to optimal.
Itd be great if there was a measure my progress...
Why is this a goal of mine?
I went to concert the other day in town. It was in an art gallery and the music got cozy. Everyone felt the move to sit on the concrete ground. I joined them. Rocking my head slightly with the music. After a few songs, I felt stiff and numb in my hands and back and legs.
The soreness of sitting on the ground pulled me out of the music.1
Despite the fact that I DON'T often find myself sitting on the ground, I still have wanted, for a long long time to have the ability to sit straight backed on the ground.
The first time I wanted to do this and really attacked it was during my time at Columbia. I would sit and do a chanting meditation for an hour each Thursday morning. I often did this in a chair. But I wanted to do it on the ground or cushion.
Footnotes
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It's not lost on me that this was a chance to practice experiencing discomfort. ↩