Gentle Yoga: Making peace with Yoga........

Boom - recover, boom - recover! This is one of the rhythmic devices I use when I pursue my favorite sport, cross-country skiing. We skate ski in races which is the style used by the Olympians, although am somewhat slower to say the least.  The "boom" is the explosive action where we drive the poles into the snow and push hard outward on one of our skis. The "recover" is just as important however, and when we move our weight to the other ski we need to relax our bodies completely, even if only for a second. This moment of relaxation allows us to maintain our endurance for long distances. I lift weights and do aerobics for the "boom," but I really need to work on the "recover" part of the ski stroke. I clearly needed to make peace with yoga.

Gentle yoga is the first and only class that I have visited twice during my blogging of YMCA activities. There are other YMCA yoga classes, but before I jumped into something more advanced I realized that I needed more help with the basics and our instructor Kay was perfect in this regard. The aspect of yoga that I really hadn't internalized very well was the relaxation part and we spent time just learning how to breathe correctly. Instead of fighting the moves - a typical guy reaction - I needed to ease into these with as little tension in my body as possible. This is obviously diametrically opposite to the lifting that I do in the weight room. While we had talked about this during the first session, I really wasn't able to internalize it until the second. Kay noted that yoga is a learning process and it often takes weeks or months to become proficient and that she continues to learn all the time about the activity.

The other aspect of yoga that is perfect for my sport - and any sport or activity for that matter - is balance. Now I fly around corners on one ski so I thought I had good balance. Balance in motion however isn't the same as static motion and just standing on one foot is not all that easy, especially if are not using your arms as outriggers to stabilize oneself. Better balance, posture and breathing are all benefits of yoga that not only will help my sport, but actually benefit every aspect of life.

So, although I tend to be more of a muscle guy, I am definitely "making peace with yoga," and hopefully that peace in my body will pay off during "boom-recover!"