Oh, it hurts so good.

[saffronhare]

Just got in to work from the yoga class I convinced my doctor to prescribe for me. Wow. I'm terribly impressed. See, although I appreciate the many health benefits of yoga, I've been a little scornful of it as a form of exercise. This particular form wrings my ass out.

After the two-hour class, I'm drenched with sweat, exhausted and so very happy. Didn't have time to do much more than take a "marine shower" and change my shirt before I had to be back in the office, but hey -- that's a price I'm willing to pay every three weeks or so. (I can only sacrifice a 1/2 day out of the office so often; the onus is on me to continue daily work at home and let the classes be a check-in.)

Hopefully, it will begin to pay off in fewer headaches, general resiliency, better stress processing and a revitalized immune system. There are likely to be other benefits in terms of strength and flexibility, but those aren't the primary goals for the moment.

Later.

Comments

[diermuid.livejournal.com]

Yoga tends to rate up there with aerobics in the list of "things you thought were for wussies, but aren't" ;-)

I tend to stick to the flexibility and stress relief DVD I have, as I end up passing out in the corpse asana for about 2-3 hours every time. I also have power yoga DVDs you can borrow if you have room at home. ;-)

As far as the "Marine shower", that usually implies a dollop of shampoo on the head which is used to quickly scrub and rinse all the hairy bits. I think the female variant which forgoes the hair-down approach is the "PTA shower" which I heard tell of at Girl Scout camp. I will allow you to decipher what parts they concentrated on. (It is worth mentioning that this was adult leader terminology, not Brownie terms. ;-)

showering

[saffronhare.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure where I first heard the term, but this method involves spraying deodorant into the air and turning in circles underneath it.

Power Yoga DVDs? I've got some yoga DVDs, but they're all the "static pose" kind, which doesn't do so much for my heart rate.

Woot

[lightonthesill.livejournal.com]

Well done! I'm once again all goosed up to find a dance class - after Cabaret auditions - my ass could *almost* keep up....you know the saying about horseshoes and handgranades.....

Re: Woot

[saffronhare.livejournal.com]

Hm. Lady Martinez has just started teaching (or is about to start?) some belly-dancing classes through Community Education in the North Kansas City school district. Or we could hook up with Siham again. Like, in our spare time.

My evenings are pretty tightly booked, but I'd love to find a Saturday morning something with child care...

Re: showering

[diermuid.livejournal.com]

The YogaZone DVDs I got off Ebay are various poses set together to a theme. In flexibility & stress relief, you go through two dozen or so asanas which target the opening of chakras and allowing your joints to relax. At one point when I end up flat on my back, it is jiffypop time as every vertebre snaps and crackles.

The Power Yoga is still movement from pose to pose, but instead of concentrating on relaxing the body, it tends to use more strength-building asanas.

I think I have 5-6 DVDs in all, but lost my yoga space to bookcases. I want a huge living room again, wah!!

As far as the Marine shower, that sounds pretty funny. I don't think I ever used that though.

Re: Woot

[lightonthesill.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...while I would not turn away from belly dancing - I was thinking specifically of something a little more - for lack of a better word - Broadway ish. The choreography we did was a lot of fun - Fosse - but Not TOO Fosse... I will do a bit of research just to see what is out there. I know City in Motion has lots of classes - dunno if childcare is a part of the experience though.