I Do Yoga

My job occasionally offers yoga classes, and this being the Year of Yes, I signed up for the current session. It's once a week for seven weeks, and yesterday was our first class.

Yoga!

I've only done it once, way back in the day when I belonged to the Good Gym (as opposed to when I belonged to the Crappy Gym), and, unknown to me, it was the hot room version. I remember it being a sucky time. I had no idea what to do and had to keep looking at other people, my glasses kept sliding off my face, and I couldn't figure out why heat was on. I only went once.

Yesterday was a different experience, thankfully. There were about four or five beginners in the class (with maybe 15 people total), and I didn't feel too much like a n00b. I still had to look at my neighbors on occasion to figure things out, but since other people were doing the same thing, I didn't really feel like a Goofus.

So... did I like Yoga class? Yes, I think so.

I really hate exercising on my own (it's so damn boring), so it's nice that this is in a class setting. Being in a group prevents me from getting bored and wandering off.

The session itself felt nice. My legs were straining at some points, which surprised me - I'd always thought my legs were my strongest muscles (other than my brains), but I enjoyed it. I actually felt good afterward, so that's a plus. That's what exercise is all about, as far as I'm concerned.

Yoga is a weird type of exercise, though... I guess it's kind of conditioning muscles, right? But it doesn't feel like what I'd consider traditional exercise. Which is fine, because I hate getting sweaty.

It's like when I took Pilates because a friend's friend was getting her certification and needed students to practice on or something. It was interesting, but I didn't feel like I'd been "worked out" afterward and didn't do it enough to see any results. Still, I'm glad I did it.

Another thing I like about Yoga: I get to come up with sentences that use the words "Yoda" and "Yoga," such as "I hope Yoda teaches the Yoga class." This amuses me to no end, because I am ten years old.

I fear one class a week isn't gonna make a difference on my life, but I'm reluctant to join a gym or take a class that I can't walk to from my apartment (something about being sweaty and getting on the subway bothers me).

So I like it so far, and even if it doesn't make me as fit as a fiddle, it'll hopefully be interesting.

Also, after writing this I realized that it's an alarmingly ignorant post, so I did a Wiki search on Yoga as Exercise, and read that it's "a combination of breathing exercises, physical postures, and meditation."

I like that.

It sounds nice and is something that would be up my alley. I have terrible posture and would like to fix it, it doesn't sound too exercise-y. It just seems nice.

Oh, well, six more weeks. We'll see how it turns out.