Monday, May 26, 2014

Yoga Me


Taking a little break from the usual to share one of my newest passions. Truth be told, whenever I thought of yoga, I pictured well-to-do real housewives holding stretchy poses while making weird ‘omm’ noises.

But, after four kids, my regular exercise routine just wasn’t doing it for me anymore and I had a lot of unresolved pain in my hips and back from all the baby-carrying. I started to research some of the benefits of yoga and saw just how strong and muscled yogis get from in-depth practice and though ‘why not?’ **Okay. This totally sounds like an infommercial. It’s not, I swear. **

I didn’t have time or money to invest in a studio and while I tried to find a decent at-home dvd yoga program on amazon, it was hard to know the best option for me and I didn’t want to waste my money on something I'd be dissapointed with.

And then I thought ‘Hey, Youtube taught me how to crochet monkey hats and make glasses out of Corona bottles…maybe it could teach me yoga, too.’
So, I started ‘shopping’ for a yoga coach on Youtube, clicking through all the 30-40 minute yoga classes. It took longer than you might expect.

First of all, I didn’t bother clicking on any headline I couldn’t pronounce, so that eliminated about half my options.

Then there were videos that featured someone bending backwards to touch their ankles or some other no-way-in-hell-asanna.

When I’d actually check out a video, I’d end up hitting the ‘next’ button after much of the following:

-Exotic or psychedelic music
-Gongs
-Swedish accents
-Irritating high-pitched voices
-Instructor so far away on their mountaintop, I can barely see what the hell they’re doing
-Diaper-wearing yogis
-Videos that began with ‘Today we’re going to work a willywankomalafidofatcha…sana’ in other words, the ‘pooping pose’.

No, but really. It took me some time, but I finally found an instructor whose videos were clear, professional and fun. If you guys have the time or interest, I sincerely suggest checking out Yoga With Adriene.

Over the last two months, I worked through her beginner classes and up to the intermediate strength & lengthen weight loss classes and now I’m currently on the third week of her REBOOT program.

My energy is up, I’ve lost all the baby weight leftover from Phoebe, and I swear, my body hasn’t been this lithe or fit since I was a teenager. But more than that- something unexpected happened as I started working the poses day-to-day; a deepening and broadening of perspective that I’d heard happens, but didn’t necessarily believe it would to me. I swear, it's taking every ounce of self-control not to start eating kale and researching chakras.

So, yes, all in all, yoga rocks and I’m totally hooked.


Besides writing, you guys have other passions that have become an integral part of your day to day? 

13 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

I can imagine you waded through a lot of weird stuff on YouTube. Glad you found a good instructor though.
For mind clearing, I play my guitar. Best therapy ever.

Melissa Ann said...

I fond yoga to be very refreshing. I need to get back into the habit of doing it again.

mshatch said...

This was exceedingly helpful! I've been wanting to start doing yoga but need to begin easy due to MY hip and back issues. Thank you for this!

Oh, this totally cracked me up: Then there were videos that featured someone bending backwards to touch their ankles or some other no-way-in-hell-asanna.

D.G. Hudson said...

Chakras are important, you'll find out. I think yoga is excellent and I did it for years. I'm not a fan of the heated yoga studios however, nor of the advanced poses as much as the stretching and strength core exercises. Good luck! Don't forget the Salutation to the sun.

Pilates works well with yoga, too. A little strength training with light weights could be helpful when you need to amp it up a bit.

Cathy Keaton said...

I'm totally into chakras! Healing them can heal many spontaneous physical afflictions, actually.

I'm into an exercise called T-Tapp. This is the best form of exercise I've ever encountered, and I've done yoga before. Easy to lose weight and gain energy, not to mention how healing and restorative it is. I'm hooked on it!

Botanist said...

Back in the UK, I used to exercise regularly - circuit training, and in later years added a regular "body balance" session that included a mix of yoga and pilates. Since moving to Canada my daily routine changed and made that more difficult, plus I looked for a while and failed to find anything as satisfying. My exercise now is cycling and dog walking, but I miss those classes. Might give these videos a try...

stu said...

The trick with Yoga is finding stuff that has taken on board some of the points more recent research has made about the more dangerous stretches.

E. Arroyo said...

Thanks. I've wanted to try it but those poses just scare me. =)

Elizabeth Seckman said...

I'm totally uncoordinated, but maybe I will try it.

Mark Murata said...

I used to be able to bend back far enough to touch my ankles. That was way back in high school.

Arlee Bird said...

Never tried yoga. There's a lot of things I've never tried. On the other hand I seem to remember trying to sit in a weird cross legged position once and then standing on my head for a while. I was probably listening to far out psychedelic music at the time.

Lee
What is the best short story ever written?
Tossing It Out

Unknown said...

I love yoga! Nothing helps clear my mind better. I've never lost weight from it, but maybe that's because I do it on the Wii! (Probably not the most recognized regimen.)

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