I’ve never had good flexibility. The “President test” days back in elementary PE were the worst. I have always been curious about Yoga, you always hear about the benefits of doing it. So, when my friend suggested I join a yoga class with her, I jumped on the chance.

It helped that the class meets catty corner from my apartment and it’s with the Chicago Park District, so it’s a pretty good price!

Despite signing up a few months ago, the class began at the perfect time. As I wrote in my the last blog post, in physical therapy, they determined some of my weaknesses were flexibility and core. So at this recovery stage of my fitness, yoga and physical therapy seem to go hand in hand with each other.

You can call the pairing “Yogi and Boo Boo!” (I just thought of that while writing this and I’m much more proud of it than I should be.)

The First Yoga Class

When I first arrived at class, I found a good spot near the back so nobody could see my shameful performance. It was a humid day and there weren’t any fans in the room, so I began class slightly sweaty. Little did I know that was the tip of the melting iceberg.

This is a picture I took after class, notice that the ENTIRE shirt is drenched with sweat. It felt like I jumped in Lake Michigan!

The amount that I sweat was seriously laughable. I understood that I was doing new movements, I’m not in amazing shape yet, and I’m a sweater in general (runs in my family, damn genetics!) but WOW!

Every time we would bend down sweat would drip off my forehead and get welled up in my glasses until I couldn’t see anymore. Then there would be a puddle on the mat and I’d slip in it, it really wasn’t pretty and I apologize to my friend and everyone else around me that class.

I was so loopy afterward, I imagined my yoga mat making a googly face and cackled to myself. I drew the eyes and tongue on it for you to see what I was seeing.

My Thoughts On The Class

Overall, I enjoyed it. It’s something different, more focused and deliberate movements, working on a lot of my current weaknesses. I feel that yoga can really compliment all the other things I’m currently doing to improve my overall fitness level.

There are tons of articles with people much smarter than me that can attest to the health benefits of yoga that go beyond the benefits of working out in general, and I can definitely see how that can work.

Overall, I walked out of there really proud of my performance. Embarrassing sweat glands aside, I completed the session to the best of my ability and did better than anticipated.

Even more so, I’m proud that when the instructor told us to go into Up-dog, I didn’t say to my friend, “What’s up dog?!” Because that no doubt would have only resulted in rolled eyes at the very least.

Yoga Class #2

My second class had a much better performance over the first class. My body had already done the movements once before and I understood the routine better. I wasn’t looking around trying to figure out what to do as much. I was much more relaxed with the whole situation and could focus better on the movements.

As with everything, I read a TON of articles about sweating and yoga. Aside from just repetition and getting in better shape, something that regularly came up was to focus on my breathing.

Breathing is an aspect of yoga that I’m not benefiting from just yet. You’re supposed to stay in almost a meditative state the entire time with deep breaths. I definitely remember pretty much hyperventilating while shaking trying to hold the poses that first class. Survival first, serenity later!

The poses will improve with time, but focusing on breathing is something I can and should do now. For the second class, it really did help and I did sweat much less!

Already, my downward dog is becoming less of a “dying dog,” my triangle is becoming less of a nondescript polygon, and my tree pose is less of a weeping willow. (I got these bad jokes for days!)

After just two yoga classes, I have noticed a measurable improvement in core and flexibility. At Orange Theory I was able to do plank rows better than in the past. Also, my strides on the treadmill felt longer and required less effort (Shout out to the hip exercises from physical therapy on that one!).

As with everything else, I’ll keep track of my improvement. So far, I give yoga a thumbs up and am glad to integrate it into the full routine.