After dipping our toes into the tai chi pool last summer, Sibylle and I have been looking for some physical exercise to improve our overall body tone and fitness. Quite by accident, during a conversation with a work acquaintance, I discovered the name of a personal trainer and fitness professional, who teaches hatha flow yoga from her home studio. Both Sibylle and I were impressed with her web site, and decided to attend a class or two to see what we thought about yoga.
Neither of us has done yoga before so we didn’t quite know what to expect. There were five other people in the class, plus the instructor. Hatha yoga, as it turns out, is about gentle postures, breathing, and relaxing. While some of the poses were strenuous in terms of twisting th spine or stretching unused muscles, the overall workout wasn’t difficult. As with any new activity there was some trepidation about “not doing it correctly.” We are both detail oriented people and want to know all the tiny nuances right from the start. One of the reasons we discontinued tai chi was the lack of individual instruction, which left us guessing as to the correctness of our postures or gestures, et cetera. Fortunately, given the small class size, we got more hands on or individual instruction last Monday evening, in our first yoga class, than we did in a month of tai chi.
The mother of one of Sibylle’s students told Sibylle about the health club she belongs to. Sibylle looked it up, and found a location near to us. After reading about their offerings, including tai chi, goju-ryu karate-do, and yoga, we decided to visit the club and take a tour. The manager who led us around answered all of our questions openly and honestly, and left us with three guest passes, so we could try the club ourselves.
On Saturday morning we went in time for the nine am yoga class, and ended up staying long enough to walk the indoor track several times, try out a treadmill and the rowing machine, and lift a few weights. We both enjoyed the atmosphere and facilities very much. At the end of our workout we took time to relax in the sauna before showering.
We are going to continue for a month at the first yoga studio, and we are going to sign up for a membership at the health club. We are both committed to improving our overall fitness, and are looking forward to utilizing the club’s facilities to reach that goal.