To challenge myself and give my body a change from my everyday workout program, I am doing 6 weeks of yoga. 42 days straight. My goal is to increase flexibility, body awareness, and basically take a big exhale over the past few emotionally hectic months. I am 1 week into this challenge, and each day I've learned something new.
Monday: Hatha Flow yoga after I downed half of a wheat grass smoothie (not a good idea). First of all wheat grass is nasty, but I am trying to detoxify after vacation gluttony. It was my first experience with Hatha Flow; I have only done Vinyasa. I enjoyed it and found it challenging. My teacher whipped out a guitar and sang during savasana and I actually found that part of class distracting and a nuisance. Tuesday: Hatha yoga, which was different than Hatha Flow was relaxing and allowed for time to clear my mind, but it wasn't physically stressful. My teacher recited a lot of poetry and quotations while we held poses. She also used about 2 minutes to let us dance around and shake our limbs. It was strange, but then again, I dance around my own house to relieve stress, so why not do it with strangers? Wednesday and Thursday: I went back to my Vinyasa roots and really felt the burn in my hips and shoulders. My instructor rang a gong throughout savasana and the sound vibrated through my entire body... I was not a fan, BUT he baked cookies for us (it was his birthday) and had a killer play list... definite bonus. Friday: Ashatanga yoga kicked my butt. I was not familiar with the flow of the series and I was sore from the previous 4 days. Saturday I did Vinyasa at home after travelling.
Anyways that was probably an unnecessary breakdown, but the main take away from the week was I am not stretching enough and I lack focus at times. Hopefully, that will improve in the coming weeks. Hopefully, I can relax my mind and my muscles. If you're looking for a change in your workout routine or need some cross training to balance your lifting and running, try yoga. After this first week, I still believe pilates is a stronger core workout, but my guess is that yoga will provide greater gains in lengthening and releasing muscle tension.
Happy Sweating ;)
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