Yoga X

I really don't enjoy exercising. But, about a year and a half ago, I decided that I needed to start doing something. A friend of mine convinced me to start running. I was very sceptical but after a while I decided that running was the perfect exercise for me. I say this because I am lazy. I realized that running is the easiest and quickest way to get the most benefit of exercising. In a mere 30 minutes you can burn more than twice the calories of walking, biking etc. And, it is a great cardio workout and it is also a great weight bearing exercise to strengthen my bones and muscles. So for the last year and a half I have been waking up at 5 AM to run with my friend, Carrie Ann.

This last week however, Jason was in Boston so I couldn't do my regular running. Carrie Ann told me to come to her house and do a workout from one of her new DVDs she got for Christmas. Most of them looked way to complicated for me (remember I am lazy). So we decided to do yoga. I have done yoga quite a bit in the past. It is an easy, relaxed way to strengthen your muscles and you don't have to sweat or exert too much energy. I thought I was in good enough shape, how hard could it be.

As we started the video, titles YOGA X, I noticed in the right hand corner of the screen a timer. It read 1:30. I asked if that meant we had to do this for 1 1/2 hours. That is correct. We had to do yoga for a full 90 minutes. I couldn't figure out what you would do for that long, but I quickly found out.

For ninety minutes we had to twist, stretch and balance our bodies in shapes that I never realized a body could twist, stretch or balance. My body especially does not like to stretch or bend the way we were supposed to. I have zero flexibility. I can't even touch my toes, and I especially can't touch the floor with my hands flat. We had to twist into pretzles and hold that position for a minute at a time.

By the time we were one hour into it, I had sweat rolling off my face and my legs and arms were shaking out of control. The people in the video made it look so easy. What was wrong with me.

After the 90 minutes were up. I realized the only positions I was good at were the tree pose (see picture below) and the other poses where you just sit there and breath.

Yesterday and today my shoulders, neck and arms are killing me. My legs are fine, but that is about the only part of my body that doesn't ache. I think I will stick to running.