A Runner goes to Yoga
The best summary of this blog post title? Yoga is hard. Many people say it's a good idea for runners to incorporate yoga into training, although this was only my third Vinyasa yoga class and the last one I went to was in the spring. I'd forgotten just how tight my body feels trying to get into some of the poses and today was no different.
I headed to the gym after work to do a strength workout, but as I was finishing up people started to come into the room for Vinyasa yoga. One of the girls convinced my unexperienced yoga self to give it a shot and the next thing I know I'm in the middle of a 1.5 hour class. About 35 minutes in I'm ready for the cover-in-a-blanket-and-meditate part...but I kept trying and made it through (with a few pose modifications.) I'd sum up my good and bad thoughts like this:
I heart Warrior 2, downward facing dog, and cat-cow. They feel good and I don't feel like I'm going to fall over. I like Triangle pose and Side Angle pose too. Utkatasana is harder than it looks like it should be.
Many poses involved putting limbs in configurations that I'm not sure I could ever make happen. My hands/wrists hurt quite a bit. I modified quite a few poses, but I'm still amazed by the instructor's ability to do them.
The final stretches before meditation were likely supposed to be easy, but I was too tight for anything to be easy. That said, it really helped me stretch and relax. We finished with meditation, then I left with tired muscles and a happy brain.
What I learned? I'm always surprised at how hard Yoga can be. My muscles are tight despite my constant stretching and foam rolling. Yoga could be a good addition to my workout schedule to ease muscle tension. But next time I go to the beginner class.
I headed to the gym after work to do a strength workout, but as I was finishing up people started to come into the room for Vinyasa yoga. One of the girls convinced my unexperienced yoga self to give it a shot and the next thing I know I'm in the middle of a 1.5 hour class. About 35 minutes in I'm ready for the cover-in-a-blanket-and-meditate part...but I kept trying and made it through (with a few pose modifications.) I'd sum up my good and bad thoughts like this:
I heart Warrior 2, downward facing dog, and cat-cow. They feel good and I don't feel like I'm going to fall over. I like Triangle pose and Side Angle pose too. Utkatasana is harder than it looks like it should be.
Many poses involved putting limbs in configurations that I'm not sure I could ever make happen. My hands/wrists hurt quite a bit. I modified quite a few poses, but I'm still amazed by the instructor's ability to do them.
The final stretches before meditation were likely supposed to be easy, but I was too tight for anything to be easy. That said, it really helped me stretch and relax. We finished with meditation, then I left with tired muscles and a happy brain.
What I learned? I'm always surprised at how hard Yoga can be. My muscles are tight despite my constant stretching and foam rolling. Yoga could be a good addition to my workout schedule to ease muscle tension. But next time I go to the beginner class.
Yoga is definitely a tougher workout than I thought. I'm often more sore from that than an ab workout I do.
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