In the Name of Yoga.

Gulping water from my emo Newbury Comics water bottle, wiping the sweat that had formed all over my body, rolling up my mat, I ventured into the cold thinking I had a great yoga class.  As we were walking back to my friend's car, she said that she left the class satisfied because she didn't "suck at yoga as much as she thought."  This leads me to my rant about yoga. 

This past Sunday, the New York Times published an article saying that yoga may be doing more harm than help to Americans.  Today, the Globe published an article from the point of view of a woman who was "relieved" that she did not give into the peer pressure of her friends and try yoga after reading what was published in the NYT.  My relationship with yoga is like a long term on and off boyfriend; I started practicing in high school, gave it up in college, picked it up when I graduated, dropped it, and now I am in love again.  One of my resolutions for 2012 is to attend one yoga class weekly; so far I have done that! 

With that said, I can see that one may view my opinion as biased.  First off I will say, anyone can get injured from any form of physical activity.  People die skiing, people break their spines playing football, and I once gave a girl a concussion playing basketball.  I have sported two sexy knee braces from running, rolled both ankles from soccer, and I once even knocked a toe nail off from dropping a weight on my foot.  Should everyone stop being active because there is a risk for injury?  

Physically and mentally, yoga is a great fit for me.  Because I have had two knee injuries, yoga helps me dive deeper into stretching my IT band and keeping my body loose.  While training for my half marathon last year, I was too exhausted to stretch after running.  A week before the race, my right knee was giving out on me to the point that I could not run two miles on the treadmill.  I stopped running and went to yoga four times that week  before the race; I was able to run and finish my first half marathon.  Aside from my knee, I don't sweat more in any other exercise than a 90 minute hot yoga class.  Just in the past three weeks, I feel more toned in my arms, back, and core.  Mentally, like after any other workout, I am calm, relaxed, and a little more sane. 

It would be cool for me to say that I can do a headstand, I can hold my whole body up with just my forearms,  or that I make my nose touch my shins but I cannot.  I can do a full wheel (back bend) at most.  This is where my yoga rant came from when my friend made that dumb comment about sucking at yoga.  Yoga is like training for a marathon -- you aren't going to be able to run the full 26 (or 20 because they advise you not to run more than that) the first day of training; you have to build up to it!  Any level class, yoga instructors do not expect you to be able to do advanced poses in your first ten classes; like any other exercise, they want you to listen to your body and know your limitations.

Have you seen the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall where Jason Segel is trying to do a handstand in yoga class?  Of course this was more for humor, but if people really do not listen to their body and push the limitations too far, there is extremely high risk for injury.  Yoga is not a competition, but an exercise practice with meditating involved.  On top of that, like I mentioned before, a lot of yoga is great for injury recovery.  While I was in physical therapy, I observed that a lot of the exercises that patients were practicing various forms of yoga moves.  

                             


I will be the first one to admit that I am a yoga advocate; if my friends are in an emotional or physical rut, I invite them to a yoga class.  Some of my friends are still practicing yoga and some have decided that yoga was not for them.  My friend's boyfriend went to his first yoga class last week and returned this week.  Joe said that the classes have been a challenge but his arms feel stronger without using any weights.  I am hoping to see Joe do a "Galvasana" or one armed crow by the end of the month.  (Kidding this is how injuries happen!)

My favorite picture of Joe.

Currently, I am attempting to go to a hot yoga class taught by Tim every Wednesday at 6:00 pm at South Boston Yoga.  Also, my cousin Whitney and her sister-in-law are putting on a yoga workshop February 5 in Hanover, please join (but don't if you are going to injure yourself on my watch because you don't listen to your body)!