Yoga can be practiced anywhere, including the beach
"Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful." - Joshua J. Marine
MindfulEats is celebrating its 10th year anniversary with yoga this year. We haven't been together for nearly as long as we've been with running, but it's still a pretty long-term relationship. And like all long-term relationships, it's changed a lot over the years, and gotten unexpectedly better over time.
We're glad that we stuck with yoga - we occasionally get infatuated with other loves like kickboxing, pilates and plyometrics (and we still hook up with them once in a while), but yoga has been a constant. It's been incredibly rewarding - yoga's forced us to be more mindful in all aspects of our lives, and we think you should give it a try, keep doing it, or give us tips!
We've gone through through several phases, but the benefits have remained constant over time. Yoga:
- Uses muscles we'd never use otherwise. We get into the same fun shapes (called poses or asanas) that we contorted our bodies into as kids. Practicing the different poses releases the kid memories in us.
- Makes us limber. Between cardio and strengthening, we don't find the time to stretch and practice balancing. Yoga forces us to do both.
- Tones our muscles. We work all the major muscle groups (and ones we didn't know existed). It requires strength to hold the poses. The dozens of pushups per class are also pretty good for our arms.
- Calms our mind and makes us more mindful. Something happens during class where whirling thoughts get replaced with calm. It's pretty cool, and we leave class with less stress and more appreciation for what we have. Oh, we also get to chant in some classes. It's not for everyone, but we think the chanting is fun and beautiful.
- We breathe better. It sounds stupid, but we never knew that we weren't breathing deeply until yoga. Breathing right carries through into the rest of life.
Sticking with yoga wasn't always easy. Sometimes it was beyond tedious, but the payoff in terms of strength, flexibility and peace golden. If you are in any of these phases, keep going!
- First crush. Practicing yoga makes us feel great, and we feel fully stretched out. An added bonus is that we get to chant and no one notices how bad we are.
- Bored. The classes are long and repetitive. Then we learned there are different styles of yoga. Different strokes for different folks. We prefer fast-moving athletic classes, and after finding ashtanga, yoga stopped being boring. Try different styles and find the one that suits you best. Also try different teachers.
- Skeptical. Yoga often didn't feel like a tough workout, and the mental benefits sounded hokey. We were annoyed by the new age chatter. Then we eventually found yoga calmed our minds down and give us peace. That benefit is just as good as the physical one (it might not feel tough, but we now have much more tone, stamina, and flexibility.)
- Angry. We took one class a week for years, and if it wasn't intense enough, we were pissed! Then last year we started going twice a week, and the extra class leapt our practice forward and resolved the anger issues.
- Accomplished. Now we've matured into appreciating yoga and look forward to class. We immediately unwind, and understand crazy talk like linking breath to movement. We adjust our poses and try to maximize each asana. We're not experts, but an instructor called us accomplished!
- Excited. We're looking forward to the next phase. We don't know what it is, but we know there will be another one.
What to do - Find a Yoga Practice
- Find a class. Classes are offered at yoga studios, local community centers (like the YMCA), or the gym. Classes are helpful since an instructor can check your alignment. If you don't like classes, there are books, DVDs (Rodney Yee and Om Yoga make popular ones) and internet videos. If you're a beginner, take basics or hatha classes. Then, you can branch out into one of the dozens of different kinds. For novice yogis, check out these different styles.
- Figure out what you like. Studios, instructors and classes are different. Lots of yoga studios will give discounts for initial classes - take advantage of these until you find one you like. Try different styles too. If you are familiar with yoga and looking for different types, look at this more advanced style list. Check out different teachers. Our gym offers lots of different classes, but we only like a couple of instructors. If you don't like practicing with others, use a DVD, CD or internet class.
- Commit to a regular practice. Try to practice at least once a week. After a while, you may want to practice more often and/or develop your own self-practice. I have friends that attend classes, and then do their own 20 minute routines at home on days they don't go to class.
- Move on when you're ready. You may outgrow a style or teacher. It's okay. Find another one. There's a whole world to explore.
What I ate: hardboiled egg, banana, 2 oz. pumpkin seeds, 2/3 c. quinoa, 1/2 c. vegetarian chili, 1 orange, 12 oz. cafe au lait, 1 coffee, 1 apple, 5 squares dark chocolate, 5 dried apricots, 1/2 oz. cashews, antipasti, 3 goat cheese + truffle raviolis, 1 cappucino, 1 chocolate biscotti, 60 oz. water
Exercise: 1 hour fitness assessment: resting heart rate of 64, 18.8% fat, 49 VO2 max (Sophia said it was the highest she'd seen), 15 pushups, very flexible (yoga accounts for a lot of the positive stuff)
