Yoga

According to the New American Oxford Dictionary, yoga is defined as the following:

A Hindu spiritual and ascetic discipline, a part of which, including breath control, simple meditation, and the adoption of specific bodily postures, is widely practiced for health and relaxation.

I know several people who swear by yoga in various forms.  Some prefer to practice yoga in their homes, others in a gym setting, while still others in the comfort of a studio specially set up for the yoga experience.  They wax poetically about the mental, physical, emotional and spiritual benefits of what they refer to as a relaxing experience.  In short, they can't imagine not having yoga a part of their lives.

I on the other hand, for the life of me, can't figure out what all the hype is about.  Years ago I tried a yoga class and just didn't get all that into it.  Maybe it was me, maybe it was the type of yoga in that particular class, or maybe it was that particular instructor but for whatever reason, I just didn't enjoy that yoga experience.  But, in the interest of broadening my horizons and giving yoga a second chance, I decided to take a yoga class at my gym today.

I had a slight reservation when I walked in and noticed that everyone had their own personal yoga mats from home.  I had assumed that since this was a free, regularly scheduled class at my gym open to all members that they would be prepared for random gym members such as myself dropping in for a class who might not have their own, personal yoga equipment but apparently not.  Thankfully the instructor had a couple of extra mats and she let me borrow one.  Then the lights were turned down and soft music was turned on as the class got started.  Not so bad I was thinking...for a very short amount of time.

When I go to the gym, it's to get a work out in and feel the benefit of my work. Usually I do some form of cardio and I've recently started adding in light weight machines as well to better round out my work outs.  No offense to yoga lovers, but I was bored silly.  As in, I spent the entire class watching the clock waiting for class to be over, thinking of things I needed to do later on today, and wondering what the benefit of the class was.  Don't get me wrong, a treadmill can bore me too but at least with a treadmill I can watch the TVs mounted on the walls of the gym, read a book or magazine, and listen to up-beat music to keep me going which is really not anything you can do in a yoga class!

And, as a note to yoga instructors everywhere, when someone walks into your class and lets you know before the class has even started that they're totally new to the style of class you're offering (as in someone like me who knows absolutely NOTHING about yoga), please, please, please don't assume that they'll know the names of the moves you're doing.  Especially if you have them move from a position where they're looking down at the ground to something else.  At least with a step class I can follow along those around me but if my forehead is on the mat below me it's a bit hard to look around at what everyone else is doing so I can follow along!