Breath In Breathe Out

The last time I took a yoga class was at the YMCA in Bellingham in 1996. The instructor there taught Hatha yoga. I couldn't tell you what exactly Hatha yoga is, except that it invovled a lot of poses with my head facing down, which resulted in light headedness and nausea for me. I stopped going after a few classes and decided that yoga was for hippies.

Since that was 11 years ago, though, I thought about giving yoga another try. There is a yoga studio called Whole Life Yoga down the street from my building, and I have been curious to check it out. But up until recently, I just walked by and looked in without stopping.

So this past Saturday, I got a bee in my bonnet, and decided to pick up a few of the colorful flyers that Whole Life Yoga has displayed outside their studio. One flyer in particular caught my attention. It was for a free class on Sunday for beginners to try.

I'm a sucker for anything free, so I went and checked it out. I'm glad that I did! Whole Life Yoga teaches Viniyoga. Our instructor said that the main difference between Viniyoga and other types of yoga is that Viniyoga has 4-5 variations for each pose, while other types only have 1-2 variations for each pose.

I was afraid the class would be full of skinny pretzel people, but it wasn't. There were about 12 people in the class, mostly women and everyone looked pretty average and not intimidating. Our intructor was energetic and explained the different poses clearly. Some of the poses that we did were relaxing and some challenged my balance and strength. It was a nice mix and I actually worked up a sweat!

It was a good experience, and I plan to go back. I think I might start out by buying a pass that allows you attend drop-in classes .

And maybe, I will end up with abs like Jessica Alba! Or maybe I'll just be really mellow and flexible. I'll keep you posted.