I started yoga

Hey, guess what?!

I did what I promised in the last blog post and I have started yoga!

Before my first class last Tuesday, I had literally no idea what to expect. 

I bought an exercise mat just 15 minutes before the class. I thought it might help. Apart from that I was wearing my regular clothes: a tiny dress with some coloured tights.

The first class which was titled hatha vinyasa. It was led my a nice Norwegian(?) girl. There were lots of people in the class, and I tried to speak to a few people, but everyone else already seemed to have a friend group. It was okay, I didn't go there to look for friends. So I lay my mat next to some guys mat. I didn't even know which way was the right way up or if it mattered. I asked the guy and he said that he had no idea, because it was his first time too. 

Then the class started. I was very happy that the guy next to me was a newbie too, because the girl next to me seemed to be a pro. She did all sorts of difficult looking things while I kept falling over on my mat and lying on my face.

I somehow had had an idea that yoga would be calming, which misled me to thinking that it isn't really a sport. But oh man, it was hard work! I discovered that I don't have any muscle strength, flexibility or balance skills. I can barely breath.

And today I went to my second yoga class. I was more prepared and was actually wearing gym clothes this time. Today's class was titled ashtanga yoga. This time the teacher was an Indian(?) guy. I looked forward to seeing what this class had to offer since it was supposed to be something different. I had come in a bit late thanks to the local bus service, and the front row was already full. But it was okay, there was still space in the backrow and the class hadn't started yet. Soon I was very glad that I was in the back corner. This yoga type wasn't to my taste. It was a lot faster than hatha vinyasa yoga had been. I still didn't have a clue how to do those positions and trying to copy others didn't really work, because they kept jumping to the next one when I was still trying to figure out how to do the previous one.

The worst thing, however, was that the teacher was super-scary. Although it was a beginners class and some people (including me) were there for the first time, he put out really strict on rules how well the positions need to be done. And then he walked around touching people who he thought could do them "better". For some reason though all these people were pretty girls. Almost 50% of the people there were guys but for some reason he didn't touch them. But every time he picked a girl and folded or pushed them deeper into the position. Even if the girls said they were fine or that they didn't want to. "Oh, yes you can do it", he said and pushed them while the girls screamed and said that it hurts. "I will help you face your fear", he said. And afterwards if a girl glared at him he said: "Don't worry, nothing got dislocated."

This really made it impossible for me to try and concentrate on what I was supposed to be doing. The guy next to me looked really concerned too. I think it was his first time as well. I was really glad that I wasn't wearing any make-up and that I was wearing an old t-shirt and baggy trousers like all the guys instead of tight leggings like all the other girls were wearing.

All the screaming, the fast tempo and really stressful times make me wish I hadn't gone to that class in the first place. Is ashthanga always that awful?

At least I don't have to think twice to which class I want to carry on going to. I guess I'll just stick with the class the nice Norwegian girl was teaching.

Because yoga makes me think of tropical beaches.

I, however, feel that learning how to do yoga will be really good for me. And my back. And it will help be develop the skills mentioned earlier.

Have you ever tried yoga?