Much as I love my computer--and technology in general--it plays havoc with your posture and suppleness. There were huge numbers of beginners in yesterday's yoga class, all showing the classic slumped and hunched posture of people trapped behind a keyboard all day. Not that I'm any different--for the past few years, I've had less and less activity to do at work (my field work used to be fairly active), and I too am gradually stiffening like a gnarled tree. The teacher was obviously aware of our problems, and did a lot of twisting, shoulder-stretching asanas (postures), and even renamed a particularly effective one 'computer asana'. This seemed to make the whole practice more relevant to modern life, although I like the traditional names like 'downward dog', 'locust' and 'tree'.

All this work on our stiffest bits certainly made for a noisy class--when we did the twisting postures, the sound of popping, cracking joints was like distant artillery fire. My autumn resolution is to practice some yoga every day, even if only for 10 minutes, before I end up prematurely inflexible.