The Downward Dog, Upward Hamster, and My First Time at Yoga

Pause. Like yo, pause and hold the position.

(This will serve as my Back on Track Week 8 report. As admirable as it would be to have 52 posts with the same name, I wanna spice things up a bit.)

I’m glad I gave myself a year to make this happen. With the way things are going, I can already see where time will need to be crunched. I’ve finally started making progress on my goal of going into career coaching. But for me to make that happen anytime soon. I’m gonna need to become more efficient than I’ve ever been before. And as I have said so many times on this blog, it will be a work in progress.

This past week I took a yoga class for the first time in my life. Heading into it, I knew that it would be challenging. But I wasn’t prepared for the difficulty that awaited me – - particularly with vinyasa yoga.

This seems easy enough.

It wasn’t more than ten minutes into the class before I felt my body trembling and my muscles burning from transitioning into the different positions. Perma-Pause. And who knew you could break a sweat from stretching? Who knew how little the strength I’ve built over the last two months would matter when it came to stuff like the downward dog and upward hamster? Aight, there is no such thing as the upward hamster. And if there was, it seems like it would be one of the few positions I could get into without excessive amounts of struggle.

As the class went on, I found myself watching the instructor and some of the experienced yoga fanatics twist and contort in ways that I didn’t even know were possible. I’d slowly try to emulate only to realize I couldn’t get into some of the positions at all.Like, I literally couldn’t lock my hands or get my legs where they were supposed to go.  It was frustrating and mentally tiring. There were definitely a few moments where I thought about just picking up my towel, throwing it in, and heading off to lift weights or run on the treadmill. But quitting didn’t jive well with my ego. Nor did it jive well with my back on track plan. I also thought about having to come back here and write about how I quit something before I really gave it a chance. Not a post I wanted to write.

Let me say that sometimes it’s okay to quit. If you’re doing something that isn’t adding value to your life, you may have to let it go so that you can focus on activities that will. Yoga is definitely a value add. It exposed me to some of my greatest weaknesses. Or better yet, it exposed me to opportunities for physical and mental development. Flexibility and overall core strength were two of my biggest challenges when I competed in college. A weakness in one area breeds overcompensation in another. That’s how my hamstrings ended up in a bunch.

Regularly taking yoga, despite the awkwardness, frustration and stretch sweats, will aid me in my back on track journey. At the very least, it’ll give me a chance to clear my mind and focus on something other than work and blogging. I’m looking forward to making it a regular part of my life. I may even have to buy myself one of those mats. Chill on the stretchy pants though. I’m not bout that life.

Slim