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sinanjuMore than a month after deciding to start taking yoga classes*, I finally had my first one last night. I attended a "Yoga for Body Acceptance" class at Yoga Shala. It's a class for, well, let me just quote the class description:
This gentle yoga class can help you reclaim your health and well-being by increasing body awareness and promoting self acceptance. A supportive environment is created for students to use props and adapt poses to safely explore yoga. Students are encouraged to move at their own pace and to honor their body’s needs. All levels are welcome.
It wasn't my first choice, but the classes I really wanted to take--the Hatha or Vinyasa 1 classes--weren't available when I could make it. This was, alas, the case for every yoga studio I investigated. What--don't any of their students, you know, work for a living? In a 9-5 job, anyhow? Apparently not. But I wanted to get started so I attended this class.
The young woman who taught the class was a substitute who'll be handling the class for a couple of weeks. There were only four of us there, including the teacher. I was surprised by that, but the room couldn't really hold a lot more people without getting crowded, so maybe that's typical. And if so, the average price of a class in the Portland metro area (anywhere from a low of $10 to a more typical $13-14) begins to make more sense. That studio space has to be paid for somehow, in addition to whatever the teachers earn....
Anyhow. I wore sweatpants and a t-shirt. Next time I'll wear some lighter sweatpants. The room was warm, and I was sweating pretty good for the latter half of the class. More so than I'd have expected. Yoga takes more effort than I expected, more than mere stretching. Or maybe not, since I don't generally spend 75 minutes doing stretches before or after running. If I did, I might get just as warm doing that.
We started by sitting on the mats. We did the Child Pose, though I used a bolster to rest my head on. I also did a lot of squinting** at the teacher during the class to see how the poses were supposed to look. We did Head rolls and a sitting side stretch. Other poses (not in the order we did them, just the ones I remember) included sitting forward stretch, mountain pose, tree pose, downward dog (several times), lunges, warrior pose, staff pose, cat stretches, lying knee to chest stretch (each leg, then both), forward standing fold, knee to the side stretches, lying side stretch, and the relaxation or corpse pose.
The teacher kept up a running commentary through the whole class, which also surprised me though I suppose it shouldn't have. Part of it was instruction on doing the poses, keeping us focused on proper form and breathing, but a lot of it was...patter. Like a meditation tape or a hypnotic induction. Lots of visual and kinesthetic imagery. Which, again, in retrospect I guess shouldn't surprise me. But it did.
I found some poses to be considerably more difficult than others, unsurprisingly. What did surprise me was that some I'd have thought I'd have trouble with were easier than expected, and others that I didn't think would be troublesome were. My hips and the backs of my legs have always been tight; no shocker that poses which stretched the backs of my legs were tough. But by the end of the class I could feel that I'd loosened up some--I could do the child pose and rest my head on the mat instead of a bolster.
In fact, by the time we ended the class I was very warm (and sweating) but pleasantly so, and feeling loose and relaxed. Right to the moment when, lying on my side in a fetal position I tried to push myself upright and felt a familiar twinge in my back right above the hip bone. I hadn't felt it at all during the class; none of the other poses had bothered me--but that did. It's a pain that will zing me when I move wrong for a few days, then it subsides for weeks or months. But it's one of the things I hope yoga will help with eventually.
Coincidentally, I've seen in a few yoga books that one stretch in yoga involves clasping your hands behind your back. We didn't do anything like that in the class, but I'll be interested to see if we get to that one in one or another of the classes I want to try. See, I used to be able to do that. Not anymore; at best I can just barely touch the tips of my fingers together behind my back (right arm over, left arm under. Bringing the left arm over my shoulder? Not even close. I'll be interested to see if I can regain that flexibility, or at least a good part of it.
So, overall? I enjoyed the class. It wasn't quite what I expected, but it was enjoyable and worthwhile. I intend to try different classes, probably at different studios, before eventually settling on the one(s) that work best for me. But I definitely want to continue exploring this.
*First it was the holidays--Christmas and New Years. Then it was trying to find classes (and class times) that would![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
snippy and I would both like, and working around our schedules. Then she was out of town for a few days, and so forth. I went to this class alone, though snippy will be joining me in the future.
**I can see without my glasses, which I removed for the class, but things have blurry outlines.
This gentle yoga class can help you reclaim your health and well-being by increasing body awareness and promoting self acceptance. A supportive environment is created for students to use props and adapt poses to safely explore yoga. Students are encouraged to move at their own pace and to honor their body’s needs. All levels are welcome.
It wasn't my first choice, but the classes I really wanted to take--the Hatha or Vinyasa 1 classes--weren't available when I could make it. This was, alas, the case for every yoga studio I investigated. What--don't any of their students, you know, work for a living? In a 9-5 job, anyhow? Apparently not. But I wanted to get started so I attended this class.
The young woman who taught the class was a substitute who'll be handling the class for a couple of weeks. There were only four of us there, including the teacher. I was surprised by that, but the room couldn't really hold a lot more people without getting crowded, so maybe that's typical. And if so, the average price of a class in the Portland metro area (anywhere from a low of $10 to a more typical $13-14) begins to make more sense. That studio space has to be paid for somehow, in addition to whatever the teachers earn....
Anyhow. I wore sweatpants and a t-shirt. Next time I'll wear some lighter sweatpants. The room was warm, and I was sweating pretty good for the latter half of the class. More so than I'd have expected. Yoga takes more effort than I expected, more than mere stretching. Or maybe not, since I don't generally spend 75 minutes doing stretches before or after running. If I did, I might get just as warm doing that.
We started by sitting on the mats. We did the Child Pose, though I used a bolster to rest my head on. I also did a lot of squinting** at the teacher during the class to see how the poses were supposed to look. We did Head rolls and a sitting side stretch. Other poses (not in the order we did them, just the ones I remember) included sitting forward stretch, mountain pose, tree pose, downward dog (several times), lunges, warrior pose, staff pose, cat stretches, lying knee to chest stretch (each leg, then both), forward standing fold, knee to the side stretches, lying side stretch, and the relaxation or corpse pose.
The teacher kept up a running commentary through the whole class, which also surprised me though I suppose it shouldn't have. Part of it was instruction on doing the poses, keeping us focused on proper form and breathing, but a lot of it was...patter. Like a meditation tape or a hypnotic induction. Lots of visual and kinesthetic imagery. Which, again, in retrospect I guess shouldn't surprise me. But it did.
I found some poses to be considerably more difficult than others, unsurprisingly. What did surprise me was that some I'd have thought I'd have trouble with were easier than expected, and others that I didn't think would be troublesome were. My hips and the backs of my legs have always been tight; no shocker that poses which stretched the backs of my legs were tough. But by the end of the class I could feel that I'd loosened up some--I could do the child pose and rest my head on the mat instead of a bolster.
In fact, by the time we ended the class I was very warm (and sweating) but pleasantly so, and feeling loose and relaxed. Right to the moment when, lying on my side in a fetal position I tried to push myself upright and felt a familiar twinge in my back right above the hip bone. I hadn't felt it at all during the class; none of the other poses had bothered me--but that did. It's a pain that will zing me when I move wrong for a few days, then it subsides for weeks or months. But it's one of the things I hope yoga will help with eventually.
Coincidentally, I've seen in a few yoga books that one stretch in yoga involves clasping your hands behind your back. We didn't do anything like that in the class, but I'll be interested to see if we get to that one in one or another of the classes I want to try. See, I used to be able to do that. Not anymore; at best I can just barely touch the tips of my fingers together behind my back (right arm over, left arm under. Bringing the left arm over my shoulder? Not even close. I'll be interested to see if I can regain that flexibility, or at least a good part of it.
So, overall? I enjoyed the class. It wasn't quite what I expected, but it was enjoyable and worthwhile. I intend to try different classes, probably at different studios, before eventually settling on the one(s) that work best for me. But I definitely want to continue exploring this.
*First it was the holidays--Christmas and New Years. Then it was trying to find classes (and class times) that would
snippy and I would both like, and working around our schedules. Then she was out of town for a few days, and so forth. I went to this class alone, though snippy will be joining me in the future.**I can see without my glasses, which I removed for the class, but things have blurry outlines.
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-31 04:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-31 05:49 pm (UTC)Hey! I took my first bellydance class last night! :)
Not exactly my "first," actually -- I went to beginner classes in 2006 for awhile -- but it might as well have been. This teacher has a much gentler method of teaching than the other one did, better suited for my age and (somewhat deteriorated) physical condition.
We rock!
(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-31 07:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-02-06 04:30 pm (UTC)With the back thing, be sure to let your instructor know about that and be super, super gentle. I know, stop being a naggy worry wart but I can't help myself. If your back goes sprong it's one of the few injuries that will prevent you from doing most of the poses for a long time. Most other injuries you can do a work around or avoid a few poses until you heal, but the back is much harder to work around and you'll be stuck with just a few poses like Warrior for months. Not that I (cough) speak from experience (cough!) or anything.
Kami