Sun Salutation

If you know what the title of this blog entry refers to, then you already know that I'm going to blog about. Today... yoga.

I have gained about 7 pounds so far in 2009. Yeah, yeah, you're going to say, "Finally. You need to gain some weight..." Ok, maybe, but these 7 pounds have been just from eating (traveling + seeing friends and family = lots of eating) and from doing hardly anything physical. So, in these remaining weeks in Dallas, we are trying to exercise 4 times a week or so.

One of the ways of exercising that we've been wanting to try is a free Tuesday evening yoga class at lululemon in the Galleria. Bethany has done this class a few times before. We tried coming a few weeks ago but got the start time wrong and so showed up when the class was nearly over. But today... today was my first day ever taking a yoga class.

The good thing about this class is that they encourage people to be beginners - if you need to fall over, then fall over. If that stretch is too intense, then do it this way instead. You don't need to be perfect. I had a really good time. Got in a good, one-hour yoga workout, but also left refreshed. But admittedly (insert ego here), when the instructor says, "Alright, for you beginners out there, you can modify this one and make it easier by..." I would ignore her. Even if we're allowed to be beginners and aren't expected to be perfect, I didn't want to be the guy that does the push-up position from his knees.

I think I did fairly well for my first time in a yoga class. This is probably because I'm a little bit lighter, have pretty good balance, and am fairly flexible. By the way, I attribute my lifelong flexibility to a gymnastics class that I took when I was in kindergarten - a class in which I was the only boy. Kinda felt like today's yoga class (25 students. I was 1 of 4 men.).