Elephant Knees

Inhale. Forward fold. Halfway lift.  High-to-low plank.  Up dog. Down dog. Stretch my fingers wide.  Melt my shoulder blades together.  Pull my tailbone up to the sky.  Breathe.  Pull my heels towards the mat.  Find a spot to focus on.   Oh sh*t!

I have elephant knees.

My fingers relaxed, my shoulders stiffened up and I clenched my jaw.  I sucked in a high pitch yelp, lost the pose entirely and found my focal point. Them.  My elephant knees.

The skin melted towards the floor forming an accordion of flesh and it puckered right around the knee cap.  This is a sign of the times.  My grey hair, my near sightedness, my forgetting where my keys are.  I once heard that you can tell a person’s age by looking at their hands.  I beg to differ.  I believe down dog reveals all. 

I decided to become ok with this.  

And this is how is how.  

Research.

• Many people believe that elephants are the only animals with four knees.   After a steadfast search however, it looks like the elephant does have two knees (on the hind legs) and the front legs are in fact similar to the wrist joint. 

• Elephants wrinkled skin acts as a cooling mechanism as it increases the surface area (this is kind of like why chew Werther’s Originals, and all hard candies,… to increase the surface area of flavor).

• Elephant skin is very sensitive to the touch.  They can detect most insects and changes in environment.  Ooh la la.

• The combination of thick skin and a thin layer of fat beneath the skin enable the elephant to tolerate cold temperatures.  This is perfect for my trip to Canada in December.  Elephant knees are headed to Banff.

• Elephants can run up to 40km/h.  I can’t do that. 

I have always loved elephants.  And now, I love my elephant knees too.

I’d like to thank Bush Gardens, Wikipidia, Yahoo Answers, The Straight Dope and Sea World for helping me turn my elephant knees into something beautiful.

SHIFT YOUR FOCUS.

Namaste.