It’s a curious feeling, finishing this 30-day yoga detox programme courtesy of Bliss Living and Yoga.
I have – for all intents and purposes – won this contest of will.
Yet despite the suffering and (sometimes) humiliation experienced in my first-ever set of yoga practices, (thinking I would not be able to hold legs suspended in the air for another second without rupturing a kidney, realising the 112-pound girl next to me could get herself into poses I will never be able to achieve, or when the guy in the pickup truck asked me if I’d been assaulted following one class) I have made it through 30 days of continuous instruction with a bit of a sad face at the end.
Somehow, it feels as though I haven’t won at all; that winning would actually entail going back to yoga practice and keeping at it, to continue the sweating, the agony, the – dare I say – “bliss” of the practice.
So I guess that’s what I’m going to do.
Yep, once a week, probably on Saturdays or Sundays for now (still sticking with the regular exercise routine during the week) – but, hey, Bliss owner Janelle Fleur Kroon says, it’s a start.
“Some of my teachers would say, forget it, once a week isn’t enough,” Janelle says. “But I would never say don’t do it.”
Yoga teaches a lot of the body basics that many of those who exercise on a regular basis often forget about, like proper breathing, posture, concentration and the like.
Janelle has one locally renowned runner in her classes who swears up and down that simply practicing the breathing taught in Vinyasa Yoga has made her more competitive in races.
Yoga practice in conjunction with other forms of exercise is not discouraged, however. Power Vinyasa and Hot Yoga teachers like Janelle will admit that many of the poses and practices used are anaerobic in nature, meaning an activity in the body which incurs an oxygen debt. Think of it as a distant cousin to weight lifting, but add in more flexibility and mental focus.
“I used to run three times a week,” Janelle says. “I could probably use it. But I don’t really need to run.” (I think Janelle’s body-fat is something like -0.03 per cent).
But yoga practice can and should be used to help focus your mind on any other physical exercise you undertake.
“It’s the concentration and discipline I got out of it,” Janelle says. “Every class you have to check in with yourself.”
Men and yoga
There is (or was) a picture on the front door of Bliss of a fellow doing a difficult pose with the question ‘Think yoga is only for girls?’ underneath the photo.
Although, I mentioned in an earlier article that my perception on the subject of men practicing yoga was not a negative one, it quickly became apparent that most of the people taking these classes were women. There were at least four or five classes out of the 30 where I was the only male in the room.
This is not a problem in and of itself. However, I have to be honest about this – there is a psychological aspect attached to entering a room full of women and realising that the vast majority of them are better – far better – than you are at the sport (or so I still think of it) you are about to practice.
For a hypothetical example, getting beat by a girl on the football pitch is grounds for total derision from one’s mates, obviously. So, the competitiveness in me said getting my behind kicked by women half my size in yoga was the same thing; at least that was the thought at first.
Janelle says I – and some of the other guys out there – have got to get over the ego.
“When you start to see what the effects are, you start focusing on yourself and not on your ego,” she says. “You have to start forgetting about all the physical things.”
She believes a big point in favour of Power and Flow Yoga practices with males is that they are – truly – very physically challenging.
“A big seller for men is the strength portion,” Janelle says. “A number of my male friends said [yoga] is the hardest thing they’ve ever done.”
Actually, I’m hard pressed to think of any exercise that was as challenging for every aspect of the physical form as Vinyasa Yoga when you consider the full range of power and flexibility. I imagine it has rudimentary similarities to what a gymnast would have to do in early training.
And, who knows, maybe it is catching on: in the Sunday Hot Yoga class on Halloween men made up 40 per cent of the people in the room.
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