Tanking—whatever that is!

Bob,

Sounds great. I've had enough of that never never land feeling through massage to have at least a small idea of what you experienced. Great surroundings too.

Sam

When I hear about tanking, this is what comes to mind:

RosalieTCeltics wrote:So, Bob,  is this the fountain of youth in bath form? Quite interesting that you shared this with everyone. I guess I will have to look into it, I need all the help I can get these days.

Glad you enjoyed yourself

Rosalie

Rosalie,

Actually, the fountain of youth is yoga.  I need to get back into it.  It's tough for me since I might be the LEAST flexible person on the planet but yoga is not a competitive sport, you do what you can and no more, but it really does work.  I was hoping reading the Wall Street Journal would be the fountain of youth, but it's not.  It's yoga.

This bath is very pleasant.  I've never spa'd before, so this was a first for me.  At the risk of sounding sexist, "spa-ing" always felt a little too "girly" for me.  The very concept of lying in a tub for 20 minutes and doing nothing is a bit odd for me already.  Sure, I've soaked in a tub, but it was always after a particularly strenuous day of basketball or hiking or whatever.  To do that when my body wasn't screaming for it is the oddness.  To soak in a tub of very thick, black mud that was heated to 105-107 degrees for 12-15 minutes took a bit for me to wrap my mind around.  Once I sank down into it and had the mud slopped up onto my chest up to my neck, it was different.

I was brought up with the saying "if you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door".  As a result I am, what I would call, a painful pragmatist.  If something works, I'll give it a look and, if it doesn't work, I don't care how compelling the theory behind it is. If the theory cannot deliver results consistent with its promise, then it's hot air. 

This felt pretty good, although I felt a little weird doing it.  My hands still feel good this morning, my knee is good too.  Normally, when I wake up, my hands feel a little stiff when I first move them and then loosen up.  Not today.

Being in wine country helped relieve the "weirdness".

You'd still have to strap me down using 4-point restraints to get me to sit all the way through a pedicure, though.



bob


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bobc33 wrote:BobH,

Your visit brings to mind a week I spent with an ex-girlfriend who had moved back home to CA and was working at a place called Wilbur Hot Springs.  By the end of the week I was in a glorious zombie state supposedly due to the lithium in the spring water.  Whatever it was it was effective.  Now why didn't I marry that girl???

bob,

Wilbur Hot Springs is 60-65 miles north of Calistoga. It's east of Clear Lake, which I want to go to someday. When I do, I will stop in Wilbur.

The Hot Springs, however, are watery. The same was true with the mineral water pool at my motel. It's viscous. The mud at the mud bath was thick, thick, black mud. So thick that trying to climb out of it was a little difficult because of the suction created due to the mud clinging to you. It, literally, was hog heaven (except that it was hot and pigs lie in mud to cool down because they don't have a lot of sweat glands).

As to why you didn't marry her, perhaps someday we could compare lists. I bet mine could stack up well.


bob


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BobH,

So you're into bondage pedicures. Got it.

I did the Calistoga mud bath thing a long time ago, also at Doc Wilkinson's. I was young and unarthritic, but we worked an oil refinery maintenance job at the time that got us covered in unappetizing grime and soot that seemed impossible to wash away, and we did the mud bath as a way to clean our pores and leach the grime out of our system. It seemed sort of odd, like a few steps removed from crystal therapy, but my skin hadn't felt that clean in years.

I should get back into yoga again. My wife does tai chi, and it also seems like a good thing, but it also seems like a bit of a racket in that she goes to a studio and pays hundreds of dollars a year and is encouraged to move up the belt scale, which keeps her going to the studio. I took a yoga class in college, loved it, and was perfectly happy to do what I'd learned in the class as my own routine, no studio, belts, or money needed. But tai chi is far from the worst thing we waste money on, and it makes my wife happy, so I guess it's money well spent. We could certainly spend as much in a weekend in the wine country as she spends on tai chi in a year. A few bottles of Grgich red would take care of that in a hurry.

Outside wrote:BobH,

So you're into bondage pedicures. Got it.

I did the Calistoga mud bath thing a long time ago, also at Doc Wilkinson's. I was young and unarthritic, but we worked an oil refinery maintenance job at the time that got us covered in unappetizing grime and soot that seemed impossible to wash away, and we did the mud bath as a way to clean our pores and leach the grime out of our system. It seemed sort of odd, like a few steps removed from crystal therapy, but my skin hadn't felt that clean in years.

I should get back into yoga again. My wife does tai chi, and it also seems like a good thing, but it also seems like a bit of a racket in that she goes to a studio and pays hundreds of dollars a year and is encouraged to move up the belt scale, which keeps her going to the studio. I took a yoga class in college, loved it, and was perfectly happy to do what I'd learned in the class as my own routine, no studio, belts, or money needed. But tai chi is far from the worst thing we waste money on, and it makes my wife happy, so I guess it's money well spent. We could certainly spend as much in a weekend in the wine country as she spends on tai chi in a year. A few bottles of Grgich red would take care of that in a hurry.

outside,

Some people need to get dressed and go into the office regular hours to be productive. Other people are perfectly happy, and even more productive, by rolling out of bed and shuffling down the hall to the home office in their PJs and bathrobe. Perhaps your wife is the type that needs the structure. The nice thing about Tai-Chi and Yoga is that, once you learn the poses/katas you can do them anywhere (as opposed to needing a fully loaded gym, complete with Nautilus machines and free weights, etc).

Tai-Chi is meant to be done slowly. The slower you do it, the harder it becomes. If you go to China (or into a public park near a heavily Chinese community at dawn) you will see a lot of older Asians practicing Tai-Chi as a group. Yoga is also meant to be done slowly. Neither discipline is about speed or sudden, quite the opposite. With yoga, slowly stretching as far as you can and then holding that position for 30 seconds, is plenty hard enough.

I said you would have to strap me down for a pedicure, I never said I was hopeful someone would. :-) In fact, to increase their odds of success, they'd be best served by tapping me across the back of my head with a brick first.


bob


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BobH,

As a trained yoga teacher and practitioner for almost 30 years now, I've found that the older and less flexible I get, the more yoga benefits me. I've long since given up the idea of doing the postures "perfectly" and it sounds like you have a good take on it also.

I occasionally attend a class, but for the most part I do it on my own at home. I use a set of CDs called the Gentle Series by Rudy Pierce which works well for me.

I love this forum; where else in one thread could we talk about basketball, tanks, bondage, pedicures, wine, yoga and hot springs.......

BobH,

You're absolutely correct -- my wife needs the structure. It benefits her greatly, and she likely wouldn't do the tai chi without it. So even though I grumble somewhat at the cost, as I got around to admitting, it's money well spent.

BobC,

Would you recommend the Gentle Series for someone who hasn't done yoga in years, is closer to 60 than 50, and has issues with various joints?

Outside wrote:BobH,

You're absolutely correct -- my wife needs the structure. It benefits her greatly, and she likely wouldn't do the tai chi without it. So even though I grumble somewhat at the cost, as I got around to admitting, it's money well spent.

outside,

Maybe check around to see if there are Tai Chi groups similar to what I described with the park?  Then she's around other people doing the same thing and she has to go to the park at the correct time just like the gym.

Of course, those tend to be at or near dawn and that might make for another obstacle.

Are you familiar with Meetup?  There are Tai Chi Meetups.  I don't know exactly where in SoCal you live, but I'll almost guarantee there is one.

Here's a sample I found:

http://www.meetup.com/Tai-Chi-for-Beginners-Seal-Beach/



bob


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BobH,

She's very happy with her teacher and the whole setup, so dropping that established bond just to save a few hundred bucks a year would be a petty request on my part. I like being independent rather than dependent in these things, so my grumbling when talking about her classes was primarily a reflection of my innate preferences. It's been a good thing for her, she needs the structure provided by the class, and she's established a positive bond with her teacher.

If something changes with her class or her teacher, I can suggest the meetup option, but for now, it's all good.

Outside wrote:BobC,

Would you recommend the Gentle Series for someone who hasn't done yoga in years, is closer to 60 than 50, and has issues with various joints?

Absolutely, sounds just like me minus the hasn't done in years.