A Different Routine

When I got home from work on Wednesday my original plan was to hop on my bike for my usual 50 minute routine and then do some strength training. I wasn't really feeling it, though. I mean, part of me wanted to do some cardio but the other part of me didn't.

And then I remembered: Hey, wait! I have that yoga Groupon that I activated! I had just enough time to eat dinner, change, and drive to the yoga studio for the 7:30 PM class.

It was a different instructor than last time and this one was more "Western" and less new-age-y. Fine by me. The workout wasn't quite as intense as last time but I still learned a few things.

Specifically, the instructor told us that sometimes when we find it difficult to do balance poses that means we have too much on our minds. She was right; when I focused on clearing my mind the balance poses were easier to hold. Except for Warrior III. I still needed to use the yoga block for that one.

Guess my mind wasn't clear enough!

Sadly, although my left leg felt okay during many of the moves it hurt like the dickens later. So today I decided to get in some cardio to try and loosen it up.

Over lunch I went down to the little gym in the basement of one of our buildings and hopped on the treadmill. Not to run, but to powerwalk.

I walked for 30 minutes at 4.3 MPH and then worked on stretching out my hip flexor. It's still sore but I'm happy I was able to get some movement in today. I also did some bird dogs, push ups (50 total in 5 sets of 10), leg lifts and stability ball bridges. I'm going to try and do this more often, I think. It's nice to get my workout done in the middle of the day.

Ahimsa

Ahimsa is a Sanskrit term meaning to do no harm (literally: the avoidance of violence – himsa).

Several months ago I purchased a Groupon for one month of unlimited yoga at a new yoga studio near my house. After perusing the website I wasn't entirely sure I was going to like the studio but, hey, for $29 why not?

Last night I activated my free month by going to my first class at the studio. As I suspected, it was a little more new age-y than I like. But, it was the first class I've ever taken where we actually attempted crow pose. I'm not a crow pose prodigy, by the way.

The instructor, Ty, was very nice. I talked to him about my hip issue and he asked me how I felt about him doing any adjustments to my form while in certain poses. The class was small, only four of us plus the instructor, and I feel like I left with a better understanding of poses I thought I was doing right. Specifically downward facing dog and triangle pose. Also, Ty pressed down on my hips during child's pose and it felt amazing.

Things I didn't like? That we actually were supposed to say "Om" out loud, that the shavasana pose seemed to last forever (although, strangely, I liked the part where he used some bowls to play sounds while we were lying there), and that it didn't feel like a hard workout.

Of course, tell that to my shoulders this morning. And, after looking back on it, I think I can see how trying to get better and better at each pose would be a workout in and of itself.

Ty asked us at the beginning, during the breathing exercises, to focus on something we wanted to achieve during our "practice" (aside: I feel so pretentious calling taking a yoga class my "practice") and I decided my goal was to enjoy it and not roll my eyes at any of the woo-woo stuff. Since I left actually learning something I guess we could say I succeeded.