Who would have thought – we have both been to our very first yoga session and I loved it! Rachel, on the other hand, isn’t too sure. Biggest question beforehand was “what to wear?”
So I Googled it and went straight for the images. Lots of young women wearing tight fitting Lycra. Seemed okay to me, straight forward enough but then I thought a little more.
Seems there are times in yoga when you have your hands and feet on the floor with your bum in the air in a pyramid shape. This could allow a loose fitting tee shirt to fall down over your face and exposing one’s midriff and this is probably not going to be appreciated, or at least my midriff might not be.
As for footwear, I think this must be a little more flexible but certainly not my grubby running shoes. So I decided to take my slippers, after all I only had to walk from the changing room and into the yoga studio.
It is fair to say, I was almost certainly the only one with grey, woolly carpet slippers in the class. Ever. In the studio I slipped them off and enjoyed being barefooted. As for the rest of me, I had a bright red snug fitting tee shirt which announced I ran the St Albans half marathon a few years ago and I wondered if that would bring me some street cred? I had my Ron Hill black running shorts on. They’re a fairly loose fit but have the essential black liner to prevent any scares, embarrassments or arrests.
So what about the yoga?
As I walked in the lights were being dimmed and some relaxing chill music started. There were about 20 or so others there and I found a place near the front where there was room for Rachel to join me. She followed me in a minute later but didn’t join me – apparently couldn’t see me lying peacefully on the floor in the darkened room.
The tutor was at the front. Slim, extremely stretchy and bendy. I had thoughts of becoming like that but realised I wasn’t going to achieve that through one single yoga lesson. ‘No pain, no gain’ thoughts were running through my mind as we started.
Following the tutor seemed fairly straightforward. That was until we were all standing up and the tutor pulled her left foot and rested it on the inside of her right leg, right at the top. I struggled to get some of the way there and then trying to balance with slowly whooshing my hands up into a huge circle was too much. I staggered about in trying to balance. My immediate neighbours were much better than me with this, though they did teeter a bit (might have been through edging out of my way as I might have been looking very unstable and about to fall over). The tutor said something about “….we have people at all levels here….” and she was undoubtedly referring to me falling all over my mat.
The hour seemed to pass really quickly, although to be honest, I was quite pleased when it was time to lie down on our mats and relax. I had been thoroughly stretched and I absolutely loved it!
Afterwards Rachel and I swapped notes. Seems Rachel was feeling more stretched and “worked out” than I was. The comedy of me in my woolly slippers made us smile; so guess what I’m wearing next time…..
Suffice to say, we both slept very well indeed!