Friday, June 13, 2008

Yoga - Finally

I know that I've posted in this blog a few times that I should really try Yoga.

I really need to work on my flexibility and I don't stretch nearly enough - so either taking a weekly Yoga class or doing a Yoga video should really help. With my hamstring issue, I looked into it a little more on RunningAhead - there are a few threads with which DVDs people had success with, etc. However one poster mentioned the show "Inhale" on the Oxygen Network - I saw that it is on at 6am every weekday, so I decided to record it on my DVR.

This morning I woke up at 6:15am (a bit late for me...I was watching the Boston Celtics' improbable comeback last night - after being down by 24 early in the third quarter, they won the game!), I grabbed my wife's Yoga mat and started to do Yoga.

Ouch!

I thought this was supposed to be relaxing!

It was not easy for me. I did not have the strength or balance to hold some of the poses as long as they were doing on the show, and I did not have the flexibility to even do some of the poses without some type of "modification". We kept on going back to the "downward dog" pose, and I can't get my heels on the ground (yes...I'm THAT inflexible!)

I'm going to chalk it up to being my first time. It was definitely a humbling experience, however, so were some of my first runs, right? I remember my first few 5K "races" when I couldn't complete them without walking, and look where I am now...

I will definitely try to bring Yoga into my routine. My tight, inflexible muscles need it.

4 comments:

tootie said...

Don't give up! I've been doing (off and on) for years, and I still can't get my heels to touch in down dog. But I still enjoy yoga, and I always modify the poses if I need to.

I might start doing my yoga DVD on the days I don't run just to do something different.

Julie & Lisa said...

Thanks for visiting our blog! Who's your friend at JD Chicago? It is a small world!
Good luck with the yoga-- you might want to try Bikram Yoga, which is "hot yoga." Dan and I did it before the kids were born when we were training for Chicago and we loved it. There is a place in Travillah. It's hard, but it feels SO good when you're done.
And congrats on doing Race for the Cure...hope you can continue to run without hamstring pain!!!

margaret said...

go to yogatoday.com. I love that site... I only do a few minutes, but it really helps my running.

Mike Fox said...

Thanks everyone for the Yoga tips. I will definitely keep them in mind as I progress on my Yoga "journey". But for right now, I've just taken one small step out the front door by doing one 45 minute Yoga session.

Stay tuned and read the blog to follow my yoga-ing :-)