Tales From The Ipe!

This past Friday, I attended my first yoga class through the campus gym.  It wasn’t bad.  The class consisted of relative beginners and more advanced folks who were very limber.  The instructor who comes in was very nice, and told me to take it easy by being “true to my body”, and only stretch as much as your body allows. 

The first thing I learned is that socks have to come off, because there is no traction on that yoga mat.  Socks came off halfway through the session, as I kept slipping.

The second thing I learned is that it’s hard to keep all those poses, while remembering to breathe.  Breathing at least once in 60 minutes doesn’t sound difficult, but I noticed that I was holding my breath while trying to get into the various poses.  I suppose I was concentrating as I moved into the various poses.  I had to remind myself to, hello, breathe.

The third thing I learned is that you can break a good sweat just stretching.  Yoga is just stretching and breathing, so I felt initially bored while I wondered when I was going to do something exciting.  Towards, I was breaking a sweat as I moved back and forth from downward-facing dog to student pose, to warrior pose to that weird pose with your arms interlocked around your back and under your thighs.  I tried all the positions, except that pose where she had us put our rears and legs straight up in the air.  I couldn’t do that, but I sorta gave it the old college try. She then had folks move the legs over their heads like a fishhook.  I laughed, and gave in.  There was no way I could do that, so I waited until they were done.

Strangest part?  During one of the poses, the fellow in front of me farts audibly.  I gave the back of his head a dirty look.  All in all, I’ll do yoga again.  I’m certainly not as limber as I used to be, and this would be good for me at least twice a month.