Six weeks ago I finally walked into my first yoga class. I’d been avoiding it for several reasons: 1) yoga seemed pretentious to me, 2) yoga seemed like something only women do, 3) I’m completely inflexible. Mostly it was fear of the unknown.
Anyway, I happened to be at the gym just as a Yoga Stretch class was starting so I walked in and 
grabbed a mat. Hint number one–get your own Yoga mat. They cost about $20. About 30 seconds in “child’s pose”, with your face on a mat that’s had hundreds of sweaty body parts on it, and you’ll be happy you have your own mat.
My expectations were fairly low, but the name of the class is Yoga Stretch, and I desperately needed a good stretch. I was fairly certain that it would be excruciatingly slow and boring, maybe we’d be doing some chanting, and most likely everybody will look like this:
The instructor, Suzanne, started off the class by emphatically stating that “this is not a snobby Laguna Beach yoga studio; it’s OK to stumble, and I will give beginner, intermediate, and advanced positions for each pose.” Good start.
About ten minutes in we are frozen in “plank position” and my arms start to tremble madly. I look over to see many lithe women, and a few men, calmly holding their pose. (It turns out that I was right about yoga being something women do.) A pool of sweat started to form on the mat beneath my forehead. This is the same sweat pool that has likely formed from dozens of other community-mat users.
We alternate into a score of poses, each with a name so carefully chosen that you might not even need a visual to construct the correct pose. You can get a sampling of some of the poses from this website: http://yoga.lovetoknow.com/Pictures_of_Yoga_Poses
It turns out that I’m fairly flexible except for my hips and hamstrings. At the beginning of the class I can barely reach down to my shins. Towards the end I’m able to get the tips of my fingernails down to the floor. (I’ve since improved and I promise to post another blog once I can get my palms to the floor in “forward bend.”)
An hour later, we finish with a bow as we exhale the phrase, ”Namaste,” which Suzanne informs us means, “the divine in me bows to the divine in you”. Yoga’s not so bad after all.
So far, I’ve been taking the Yoga Stretch class at the 24 Hour Fitness at Ocean Ranch. Suzanne regularly teaches the Thursday night class at 7:30. Her class is great for beginners. Tracy teaches the Saturday morning class at 10:30. She is more intense than Suzanne, but still doable for a beginner. It might be helpful to take a look at some of the poses here before going to your first class. Namaste.
