October 11, 2011

Losing My Yoga Virginity....


"Melt into the floor.... relax..."

After talking about it for ages, K and I have jumped on the yoga bandwagon. We took our first yoga class this week; 12 people in the community centre at 7 on a weeknight, ages ranging from 30s to 70s, and yes we were the only dudes in the room.

Why? We want to exercise more, and if we take to this it gives us an activity to do together. Plus I'm all for a new experience, especially one that requires a preliminary shopping excursion at lululemon. Even it was for plastic mats that smell like tires.

The woman beside me warned I was going to make "old person" sounds. Ha! I thought, not me. Then there was assorted creaking and cracking during the 90-minute class. What the hell are those sounds? Oh. Me. Oops.

There were lots of beginners in the class, so the leader Brenda took it easy on us. She talked us though every step, and yes it was essentially stretching, with some twisty moves, and hidden in there some sort of lunges and squats disguised as harmless yoga poses. We did stuff on chairs and with blocks, and by midway through the 90-minute class it felt like a workout.

As unbendy and uncoordinated as I am, I followed the instructor pretty well, though I kept looking over to see how she was doing it; now I understand why real yoga studios have mirrors everywhere including the ceiling.

The class was a bunch of different poses with exotic names, the only one I remember is The Mountain. Brenda did come over and shift my body once, when we were supposed to be doing a relaxing move and I was apparently trying to do something cardio-ish.

The 90 minutes passed quickly, and before I knew it, it was time to cool down. I was surprised there was stuff on chairs, during which my only thought was please gawd don't fall off. Or at least don't fall off first. Yes, that was my ongoing worry. Besides the urge to fart. Is that normal for yoga?

Aside from the falling and farting worries, it was a good first round. I left the class pretty invigorated, and slept well. We will be back for more...

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