Of Swans and Doves

I've been to four yoga classes now. It's not at all what I thought it would be. I really don't know what I thought, but not this: really micro detailed focus on exact muscles and poses and specifics. For much of the first class, we were learning how to stand. And then how to lie down. We do lots of other poses, too, but always with a really really detailed focus on how every muscle is lined up. "Use your big toe here. Turn your inner thigh more in.". That sort of thing.

I like it. I like it a lot. It's not burning a lot of calories but it's really making me aware in my daily life of many of these same details. I think it can help my back and knees, but it also has the potential to screw them up, so I'm very careful as I make each move. I told the instructor I was there for balance and flexibility. As it turns out, I already have a fair amount of core strength, but there is a lot of room for improvement in the flex area.

This week, we did the "pigeon pose". I didn't look much like the pictures (hope to edit one in when at a real computer) but after placing my legs on the mat I lifted up my body and flung my arms up and out, spread my fingers, and I felt like a swan, not a pigeon. it was exhilarating.

This morning I was back in the gym for the first time in a week. After the strength workout, I hopped on the treadmill for a few minutes of getting the heart pumping. I planned on just fifteen minutes, three intervals of jogging. I've learned that the key in improving aerobic capacity, in the early stages at least, is to keep coming back to a high pace-- it's the second and third and beyond intervals that are creating the benefit. At fourteen minutes, I was getting ready to wind down when "La Bamba" came on the iPod. I cracked the pace back up to where my feet were pounding out the exact rhythm of the song. I felt like I could do that forever, like I was being carried on the wings of a dove. But of course, after another three and a half minutes, there came a break in the music, and I hit the cool down button and finished it up. Still, it was another exhilarating fitness moment.