My First Yoga Class

Look at me, I’m on a roll with these posts.

Yesterday afternoon I had my first experience with yoga. Initially, I was planning on just going to the gym and maybe swimming while my wife did the yoga class, but she talked me into picking up a mat while we were out at lunch, and I decided to join her. I had done a hard trainer session in the AM, and had a very solid week of training, so decided missing the swim was no big thing, and probably better to prevent fatigue and overtraining. Here’s how the yoga went down…

Pre-class: I bought a mat, turns out it was a pilates mat (there’s a difference?), but oh well. I guess the difference is pilates mats are slightly thicker and have more bounce to them since your movements require more impact with the ground. However, they are not as “sticky” as yoga mats, so they require a little more effort to really dig in and hold ones self statically in a position. I only bought it b/c it was the most manly mat I could find, and I thought the added thickness would allow me to use it for doing core work at home…hardwood floors hurt. I then fretted over the fact that I’ll probably already stick out, being one of the only guys in the class to go along with not having an ideal mat and yoga clothes. After searching a few clothes options, I settled with the basic t-shirt and shorts look…yoga pants will have to come later.

Class time: As we arrived at the gym, I felt a sense of relief almost immediately as we were right behind 2 guys who looked dressed to play some basketball carrying yoga mats. We followed them to the classroom, and to my shock there were 3 more guys in there already. In the end, men were definitely outnumbered, but I’d guess it was probably only a 1.5:1 ratio. There ended up being about 10 guys of varying age and ability level spread around. Now, my only worry was not really having any idea what yoga was.
Class began and I found out I was one of about 4 beginners, but I just used the watch and mimic strategy and was able to keep up fairly well. The class lasted 75 minutes, but the time seemed to fly by. We got in all sorts of positions named for animals (penguin, cat, swan, tortoise), most of which I didn’t see the resemblance. During the meditation at the end, I nearly fell asleep I was so relaxed.

Thoughts: I survived my first yoga session, and here are my thoughts on it. I enjoyed the experience; the relaxation factor makes it a solid Sunday afternoon activity to reset in preparation for another week of work and training. Also, it challenges me to contort my body in ways I’m not flexible enough to do at this point. The added flexibility is what I was hoping I could get out of adding yoga in the first place, so that’s a plus. Also, the class was not intimidating at all, even as a guy who going in had no idea what to expect. I would recommend it as a supplemental activity if you have the time.

I’m going to try and add the Sunday class into my schedule along with another shorter time during the week to work on some poses on my own. We’ll see how it goes.