Struggles of trying to be straight

"Is it impossible for you to keep your leg straight?" asked my yoga teacher last week.

In other words, I've started yoga again. 

The Hatha vinyasa yoga class I attended last time is not running anymore, but I remember that it was good for me. It was physically very hard but I noticed development in my fitness. I was able to do more and more in each session! The main focus of vinyasa yoga was in breathing though, which I still am incredibly bad at. 

This time I am attending a Iengar-style yoga class where the main focus is in bodily alignment. I'm most definitely the worst yogi in the class. My posture is incredibly bad and I have no sense of how to align my body. But I'm not attending this class to be a good yogi, I'm attending it to become a better yogi. There's really no point trying to compare myself to others. But I try to develop myself and improve my skills. I am so incredibly wonky — if I learn to even keep my leg straight, it would be an improvement. My goal is to learn to stand up straight though, it would be fantastic and probably a lot better for me! To get there I will really have to develop my muscle strength though.

What surprised me again was actually how physically hard yoga is. I mean, I am very unfit and really did need some serious exercise. Still, just face-planting at my yoga mat while everyone else was doing some fancy postures was quite a humbling experience.

Have you tried yoga?

*I'm doing the postures presented in the pictures completely wrong. My teacher would cry to see these. They are here for the comedy value only.

My Little Pony Outfit

OOTD everyone!

Do you know what that means? It's okay, I didn't know either, but apparently it's a really cool thing now. Bloggers and vloggers everywhere are posting "outfit of the day"-pictures and videos. I thought it time for me to join those cool people.

I have a feeling that no one would care what I wear everyday, which most days is either pyjamas or a pink leopard onesie. And after this post you'll understand why it's better that I don't try to be a fashion blogger. But because I started this new hobby I, recently went shopping for some yoga outfits. Now when I don't have the scary, sleazy teacher anymore, I thought it would be nice to have some better yoga outfits.

My yoga outfit.

And this is what I bought! 

I don't actually wear the socks in the class, but my toes are very private and I don't think it's suitable to show them to the whole world. Only people I'm married to are allowed to see them. And so far, no one is.

I could have shown you each piece of clothing individually, but I have a feeling that no one actually cares. Please let me know, if you happen to do.

But basically I bought a fake sports bra, which gives absolutely no support, but looks pretty and sporty. I wear it on top of my real sports bra, which is a lot less pretty. Is that how it's supposed to be worn, or does someone actually wear it as a bra?

Then I have a grey sports vest which is so low cut that you can see the fake sports bra. And because sometimes you get cold when you practise yoga in Scotland, I also have that baggy long sleeved thing. It's sides are made out of seethrough net, so that it looks cool.

These were all bought from Primark's Sports department. I went to Primark mostly because I'm afraid of real sports stores because I don't actually know anything about sports. They all seem to be branded and expensive. Even the Primark Sports section was too much for me when it was time to decide what I should wear for my bottom half. I moved to a safer department and bought My Little Pony pyjama bottoms. I think they go very nicely with the rest of the outfit.

What do you think of my yoga oufit? What would you wear for a yoga class?

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?