Breathing Lessons

Day one of yoga effort.
I know, I know, it is harder than it looks. Harder to stay awake while laying around taking deep breaths.
But I need to increase my flexibility as well as strengthen that tendon I tore last summer while attempting to follow Ryanne across the monkey bars.
BTW- I know that I am supposed to see a doctor for a torn tendon, but the two things that doctors can do about it are two things that aren't happening to me. Cortisone shots or operation. So I intend to exercise myself back to full range motion.
When I first hurt myself, I made the mistake of protecting the arm and not stressing it at all. After six weeks of that, pain made me decide to try something different. The Nautilus machine at the gym hurt terribly the first three repititions, but the fourth, amazingly, didn't hurt at all. That was when I decided I could lick this with exercise instead of facing doctor's knives and needles.
I've made some progress over the last four months, and yoga is my strategy for the next step. It seems to be helping, but talk about tedious. Find an awkward position, give it a stupid name, and breath in and out.
Yoga exercise ends with laying still. Usually when I lay still, I fall asleep. But at least I will fall asleep with a little bit wider range of motion.
Nancy Sherer