Touch Your Toes - Eventually

As a yoga teacher I've gotten a lot of good juicy body-oriented questions. They come from students, from friends, even from random people that have seen my classes from another room. I figure that means I look like I know what I'm talking about. Yay me.

One question that comes up often, in many variations, is:

"How long will it be until I can touch my toes?"

Let me set some things straight about toe-touching. One guy I spoke to said he thought it was "pathetic" that he couldn't touch his toes. Most people that don't specifically work on it - can't touch their toes. You're not pathetic! Ask all your friends and family if they can stand with straight legs and bend over at the hips and touch their toes - you'll likely find that few can. Especially in our current society where people sit in chairs, sit in cars, sit at desks and generally do everything they can to tighten all the muscles that affect toe-touching.

I've heard a story about a student asking his Guru this popular question.  What did his Guru tell him?
Stack up a bunch of telephone books or bibles or something. Books with VERY thin pages. Stack them to a height you can bend over and reach today. Keep practicing your forward bends every day. Each day tear off the top page of the stack. How many pages away are you? That's how long will it take.

Luckily, I like to remind my students that it will probably not take anywhere near that long. If you're new to yoga and you listen to the tips and you do the work on a regular basis then you will see results. You will see results quickly.

• Tip 1: If you don't want to stack books - you can place a couple blocks down to lift the floor to a more appropriate level.


• Tip 2: Feet together is limiting, so if you're struggling with your forward bends (or even if you're not) then keeping your feet hip distance apart can be mucho mucho helpful.

Now you might ask: If it doesn't actually take that long - then what's with the story?
The point of the story is all about patience. One page a day - that's the kind of patience forward bends require. It's the kind of patience they teach. You may be able to remove a whole book from your stack today, but don't think less of yourself if that one page is all that happens right now. You'll get there in time, and all you can do is breathe and learn to enjoy the practice.

If you're reading this post there's a good chance you want to read these too:
Standing Forward Bends for Unflexible Bodies
Seated Forward Bends for People That Don't Bend That Way
So Your Forward Bends Suck