Time to loosen up those hips

I've got to do something about my hips. They're causing me more and more pain and nothing I've done to date has managed to lessen it.

Hip openers are meant to help but they sound painful. My hips already crunch and grind and lock up. Opening them up to more abuse doesn't really sound desirable. What's being opened and extended is the range of motion your hips can cope with. It's one of the big benefits of yoga – and it’s something I’m sorely in need of.

It's National Yoga Month in the US. In honour of this, my friend and yoga fanatic Ann Chihak Poff, wrote on her GoFitGirl blog about how to get started with this stretching and strengthening discipline. She kindly credited me with prompting her to consider what a beginner needs to know about starting yoga practice. It's something I've toyed with, but I've never got beyond trying breathing exercises and the initial stretches recommended on yoga videos and online.

The Wii Fit convinced me that there's something in yoga for me (but I eventually tired of the Wii Fit itself), but I didn't really know where to begin. I was put off by terms such as ‘hot yoga’, ashtanga, bikram and hip openers and scared of what a random gym class might entail. The local yoga practitioners I'd approached for advice all seemed less than keen to take complete novices. But it's about time I took the plunge.

September's going to be my 'get back into getting fit' month and Ann's helpful blog post was a timely reminder of how many resources are out there when starting a new form of exercise.

Lengthy walks and back stabilisation exercises have done little to ease the ongoing hip pain I've been having, so I need a more aggressive approach to fixing my spine and joint issues. Armed with some passes to the local gym, I'm off to reacquaint myself with the cross-trainer, the fixed bike and, yes, some yoga classes to ensure I’m stretching properly and lengthening my contracting muscles. Yikes! But anything's better than sitting here in pain worrying about how much worse the pain might get and letting those joints get stiffer still.