Thursday, April 17, 2008

Ooh, my aching back...

So, lesson learned for the day is as follows: Do not ever, ever, take yoga at any place other than a yoga studio. (With the exception of the YMCA, who usually has pretty decent classes and instructors.)

Case in point: Today, my friend Michelle and I decided to take a lunchtime "yoga" class at the gym on base. As we're trying to prepare for the upcoming Jimmy Fund Fundraiser of 108 Sun Salutations, we thought we'd squeeze in a little extra time on the mat since we're looking at 2 weeks before the marathon takes place.

We should've been tipped off by the temperature of the room. While we knew it wasn't hot, we figured room temperature. Okay, when I say it was freezing - I'm not kidding. I was wearing long yoga pants and a long sleeved yoga shirt over my tankini - and I was blue, shivering, and seriously - my nose was starting to run. A little counterproductive when you're doing yoga. The second indicator was that not one Sun Salutation was done; poses were being done that are usually done at the mid to end of a session - and on muscles that hadn't been worked on yet. If your familiar with yoga, picture this: Half frog, or Pigeon - done without doing even so much as one Warrior 1, Lunge, or Half moon? Going from stretching your wrists to literally, half pigeon. WTF? And, freezing cold to boot.

It's so potentially damaging to be that cold and work some of the twists -- but we were troopers and weren't going to walk out, right? So, we went along with it all..and what ended up happening? Michelle pulled her groin, and I've got spasms in my back that I can feel are from the twists we did. I can not wait for tomorrow's class where I can hopefully work this all out, because seriously - the glass of wine and hot shower I took didn't do a thing.

So, this girl's advice to any of you out there who have thought about trying yoga is this: Please, please, please take it at a yoga studio. Trust me when I tell you, you will be very thankful that you did.

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