Can You Make Yourself Like Yoga?
I’ve never been a yoga fanatic. I’ve tried this several times throughout my adult life as yoga bodies and yoga studios have become inevitable, but I’m a relatively energetic person who prefers running and other cardio when I have a choice. And while a few of the yoga lessons I went through experimentally were challenging, they weren’t challenging in the way I found satisfactory – that is, running or bouncing instead of standing in one position until my muscles ached.
But I know yoga is good for building strength , which is my weak point; not to mention the awareness that’s built into the practice, which will benefit my anxious brain. I also recently suffered a minor knee injury that caused me to take a break from my regular running habit, so I felt it was a good time to take on the Lifehacker Fitness Challenge and try to become like yoga by sticking to it for 30 days. …
Getting Started with Yoga as a Non-Yoga Person
I didn’t need to do any research to choose a yoga instructor. Although I was strongly opposed to yoga for a while, I heard about the very popular Adrienne Mishler from the book “ Yoga with Adrienne” from many people (and sources ), and I can understand why – her energy is available, practically – earth and calm without parodying the cliché of a yoga teacher. In addition, her classes vary in length — many last up to 30 minutes — and most importantly, they are free.
As I am relatively healthy and flexible enough, I decided to abandon the basic course “Yoga for Beginners” and instead follow Adrien’s calendar for this month. (The “Renew” theme sounded good too.)
The first video I tried was entitled Yoga for Concentration and Mental Focus, and while I didn’t see how a particular activity improved any of these things, I still found it to be an enjoyable 26 minute activity that I could perform during training. middle of the working day. Even the first shake of my head, which she made me do at the beginning of the lesson, was surprisingly pleasant and made me realize how little I think to stretch my neck.
By the end of the session, I felt much hotter than I thought from this slow exercise, and my back muscles felt the most worked out in a very long time. Although after this first lesson I am still not sure that I will become a true yoga fan, I had a positive enough experience to look forward to the next lesson. Stay tuned for the rest of my journey this month as I try to do yoga and take advantage of all the benefits I find along the way.