Doing It on Your Own from Here
Okay. Last lesson in "Making It Stick," and last lesson in the course, so let's not waste it.
Here's the truth nobody in the fitness world wants to say out loud: I'm not supposed to be the plan forever. If you're still waiting on me to show up on your screen every single morning a year from now, something didn't work. My whole goal, from lesson one, was to hand you enough that you don't need me hovering over your shoulder telling you to bend that knee a little more. So today's just about making sure you actually have that.
What you already know how to do
Count it up. You've got a low lunge, a forward fold, side bends, a seated twist, tree pose (badly, same as me, no shame), and a five-minute morning routine that strings a few of those together. That's not nothing. That's a whole toolbox.
You do not need new poses every week for the rest of your life. Listen—slow beats hard, always, and that goes for variety too. Doing the same five or six shapes for the next twenty years, done well, will do more for your hips and your back than chasing some new routine every month because it looked exciting online. Boring is fine. Boring is actually the goal.
Building your own routine, on paper
Here's what I want you to do this week, and it takes ten minutes, tops.
- Grab a piece of paper. Not your phone. Paper, so it can sit on your counter or get taped inside a cupboard door.
- Write down the five or six shapes that made the biggest difference for YOUR body. Not mine. Yours. Maybe the low lunge did nothing for you but the seated twist changed your whole day. That's fine. Your body, your rules.
- Put them in an order that makes sense — usually something that warms you up a little first (the lunge or the fold), then whatever you need most that day (twist for the back, tree for the wobblies).
- Write next to each one how many breaths or how long. Doesn't have to be exact. "5 breaths" is plenty.
- Tape it somewhere you'll actually see it at 6 a.m., not buried in a drawer.
That's your routine. It's allowed to change. If your hips are feeling better and your shoulders are the problem now, swap things around. This isn't a prescription, it's a starting point you get to argue with.
On timing, and a story about timing
I've got a pet peeve, and I might as well tell you now that class is ending, because it applies to you doing this on your own too.
A while back I rented a church gym for a class and showed up fifteen minutes early like I always do. The instructor before me was still in there, forty minutes past when she should've cleared out, taking her sweet time packing up cones and mats while I stood in the hallway. I didn't say anything. But I had Opinions. Respecting somebody's time, even just ten minutes of it, is a real kind of respect. It's not a small thing.
I bring that up because now that it's just you and your taped-up piece of paper, you're the only one keeping your appointment with yourself. Nobody's waiting on you to show up at 6:45, and nobody's going to be annoyed if you skip it. That's exactly why it's easier to let it slide. Treat your five minutes the way you'd want that gym instructor to have treated mine. Show up. Don't let it slide into "I'll do it later" which we all know means never.
What to do when it doesn't feel right anymore
Some mornings a pose that used to feel great will feel off. Maybe your knee's cranky, maybe you slept weird. Drop it that day. Pain is information, not a badge you're trying to earn. Ache, keep going gently. Sharp, stop and try something else on your list instead.
And when something new hurts consistently, week after week, that's worth mentioning to an actual doctor, not just pushing through because you're stubborn like me. I'll push through plenty of things. A cranky joint that keeps complaining isn't one of them.
When you get stuck
If you ever feel like you've plateaued, or bored of your own list, go back through this course. Watch a lesson again. Steal a phrase, steal a shape, adjust your paper. That's what it's for. It's not going anywhere.
And if you want company, that's what community classes are for too — mine or somebody else's, doesn't matter, just people moving slow together in a room with no music with words. There's something to that I still can't fully explain, but it helps.
Before next time
There isn't a next time in this course, so consider this the last nudge: tape that list up somewhere today, before you talk yourself out of it. Five minutes tomorrow morning. That's the whole assignment, forever now. 🌞