…it’s better To be strong and balanced.
Over and over again, people come to me, and they tell me, You just don’t know how strong I am. They say “strength” and I want to hear “balance.” The strength idea has effort in it; this is not what I’m looking for. Strength that has effort in it is not what you need; you need the strength that is the result of ease.   Ida P. Rolf, Ph.D.
Our skeleton is connected together by ligaments that connect one bone to another.
Our bones are supported and moved through space by muscles that get their marching orders from nerves that emanate from the spine to energize the body.
The resting tone of our muscles determines the quality of support that our bones receive when we are not active.
If you equate sleeping, sitting, and standing still with being inactive, many people are profoundly inactive.
Some people are naturally strong, others not so much. Very few people, without working hard at it, are balanced.
Muscle balance is elusive because it requires a conscious plan for how someone develops their body and there aren’t that many people out there, aside from professionals, working that way.
When I first started teaching yoga I thought that people exercised to change their body and develop more efficient posture and alignment.
What I have learned over time is that people are more likely to be reinforcing the patterns that they bring to the yoga room or whatever exercise they perform.
So the point of all this is— it doesn’t matter if you are weak or strong, you have to make an assessment of your muscles and figure out where you need to begin to change your body.
In some ways, this journey is easier for the weak in that you are working with a blank slate.
The payoff is worth the effort.
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