First Yoga Class In One Year

This evening I went to my first yoga class in almost one year. Gulp! I was originally going to have a hitting session with Luis but his wife became ill and it was awfully hot to just hit against the ball machine. So at the last minute I decided to overlook my fear and head to Cooper Clinic. The class was lead by Christi whom I've know for several years and trusted would keep an eye on me.

I knew the class was not a beginner's class and that probably should of given me more hesitation but I figured I could just ramp it down if I needed too. Yeah, that's me always ramping things down a notch or two... right! I knew going in that I would not do any postures that arch my back inwards. So upward dog, cobra, wheel, etc. were out of the picture to start with.

I had never been to a class at Cooper but I knew where the room was. There was a lady already in there and she told me where the instructor would be so that helped me get situated. It was not long before about 20 people were in the room. I was surprized to see about 7-8 guys in the mix and, believe it or not, one fellow might of been as old or older than me.

The class was fairly straight forward with usual child poses, sun salutations, warriors, half moons, triangles and side planks. She threw in a couple of less commonly practiced ones such as garland and side crow (which I've yet to be able to master). I did not like that we did not have any music in class as that helps me control my monkey mind from wandering all over the place. But I have to say the hour went by pretty fast and I managed to get through it without any problems.

Unfortunately even as I was driving home I could tell my lower back was heading for "tight"ville. Sure enough things got progressively worse over the next 24 hours. At times it felt like there was a pressure pushing from the inside of my spine. Nothing overtly painful, just always present. During the year I had spent a lot of time in the gym and I was somewhat surprised at the pain in my right wrist and shoulder.

I'm not quite ready to throw in the towel regarding continuing my yoga practice. However, today sent me a ways in that direction. I was extremely tired on Tuesday but I think most of that was the eight tennis matches I played from Friday through Sunday in San Antonio. After I'm done with the Fort Worth Major Zone I'm going to allow my body some recovery time and then try another class. I think I'll be better able to decide at that time what the future holds.