She's Got Legs!

Isn't it fun to hear your mother tell stories about when you were a baby?  My kids love that and I'm no different.  My mother, at 86, tends to have short-term memory loss, but can remember my birth, right down to the last detail.  What she most remembers is that when I made my debut on Easter Sunday 1962, I had calf muscles.  That's right, little, protruding calf muscles.  She said she'd never seen anything like it.  My brothers came out all spindly like babies do, but I had shapely, well-defined gastrocnemia.  To this day, I cannot wear boots that go up to the knee because I can't get the zipper to close over my beastly calves.  True story:  I was once working out at the gym and a national body builder named Yolanda said she'd give anything to have calves like mine.  Careful what you wish for because these babies get in my way!

For as long as I've been doing yoga, one would think I would be able to rock out each and every pose.  Not true whatsoever.  There is a pose called Fixed Firm Pose and, when done fully and properly, it looks like this:

 

Look at those calves. There's nothing there!  Hers are lovely and trim and mine are like freaking Schwarzenegger.

Now this is what it looks like when I do fixed firm pose:



You know why I chose a photo of a dude?  Because dudes - and me - are the only ones in the class who can't go back in fixed firm!  Yep, all the lovely ladies are bending back, reaching their arms over their heads and getting the lovely stretch.  I'm looking in the mirror, all too aware of who is NOT doing the pose.  Me and the dudes.  (Okay, so some of the other women cannot do it as well, but it is glaringly apparent that I am one of few women who cannot do it.)  It's the calves!!  And my excessively muscular thighs are no slouches either, but the calves are enormous and cumbersome. 

Another reason I do not go back in fixed firm, besides the obvious reason, is my knees.  Bikram suffered a debilitating accident as a youth while weight lifting and damaged his knees rather severely.  It took a very long time for him to be able to walk and he had to resort to being carried to his guru's ashram to practice yoga and get healthy.  This has prompted Bikram to repeatedly say, "You can mess with the gods, but don't mess with your knees."  When people "get greedy" and go back too soon without making certain their knees stay firmly placed on their mat, they risk damage to their knees.  Now, my mother has had both of her knees replaced and one of my brothers trashed his knees playing soccer.  I intend to keep these knees a very long time.  If I lost my knees, what would keep my gargantuan calves company?

Excerpt from Bikram Yoga, 2007, p. 186:

Benefits of Fixed Firm Pose:

"Fixed Firm Pose strengthens and improves the flexibility of the lower spine, hips, knees and ankle joints.  It increases circulation to the lower limbs, and is therapeutic for lower back pain, sciatica, rheumatism and varicose veins.  It also strengthens the psoas muscles and helps prevent hernias.  It's beneficial for the spleen - the filter for the lymphatic system - which helps the liver as well as strengthening the entire immune system."