When yoga poses get challenging, a columnist keeps looking for improvement – by Lisa Weber | October 7, 2022

My feet were planted firmly on my turquoise yoga mat, and I felt strong as I held the Warrior 1 pose. My front foot was lunging forward as my arms were stretched up high above my head. Soft, spalike instrumentals swirled around me as the instructor’s voice guided me to place my hands on the ground and bring myself to a forward bend. I glanced at the TV to get a visual of these instructions, calling for hands and feet on the floor to make a bridge with my body.
The past gymnast inside me thinks, “This will be easy!”
In my head, I’m still agile and flexible, as I was before scleroderma started its war on my body. Without much thought, I sprang right into that pose. Only I didn’t look like the graceful, bendy yoga instructor. My hands didn’t open fully to support my weight, and my legs wouldn’t stretch straight enough to form the V-shape I was hoping to achieve. I was grateful to be in my own home and not in a studio surrounded by strangers. It didn’t look like I was doing yoga. Instead, I looked like a crab with jointed extremities, and I couldn’t hold the pose long enough to feel a stretch. My wrists weren’t bending the way I needed them to. The pressure felt like something inside was going to snap.
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