My Yoga Diaries – Session 3: Intro Vinyasa

Beverly was our instructor again for today’s class. She started the class off by mentioning that some of the advanced students attend the odd intro class to brush up on their form. Right. I guess I don’t feel so bad after all about struggling with the intro classes.

Since every pose is described and explained extensively, we find ourselves having to hold all the poses throughout the duration of instruction.

Beverly talks about which muscles are active, which should feel strain, which can relax, and how to shift or tweak our posture to suit our needs. It’s exactly that sort of instruction that makes me acutely aware of the muscles in my body. The down-side is that it takes time – seemingly lots of it – if you’re trying to hold a Downward Dog.

On a positive note, a lot of the sequences and forms were familiar from last week. I guess I started to settle in. I think I might even say I found today’s session marginally easier. But only marginally. It seems that my muscles are more willing to respond to my conscious control than they were last week. The poses flow easier. I think less about what exactly I’m doing and just keep doing it. The breathing thing is still hard, though. I keep trusting my breath to autopilot and that makes the routine much harder. Then I get back on track and it feels better until, inevitably, I lose it again.

I think it’s appropriate at this time to cover something I’ve been noticing for the last week: everything we’ve done so far has been accompanied by the reminder to “only do as much as you’re comfortable doing.” Everything is adaptable to every different type of person or body type, it seems. My classmates are variously flexible. From the looks of things, they come from a wide range of backgrounds and they’re not all equally physically capable. But they can all participate equally and get just as much out of a session. I mean, sure, some people strain a lot harder – yours truly included and especially – but there’s never any point at which you are unable to participate. There are always options, and they’re usually made helpfully explicit by the instructor.

My remaining fear is that they’re only coddling us in the beginner class. I can’t keep going to Intro lessons forever. I’m planning on trying a Yin class this Wednesday. It’s supposed to be meditative Yoga – or more meditative Yoga, anyway. It’s not one of the beginner classes, so I suppose I’ll get more of a taste of what I’m in for.

My Yoga Diaries:

• Session 2: Intro Vinyasa
• Session 3: Intro Vinyasa
• Session 4: Yin

[tags]intro yoga class, beginner’s class, vinyasa, yin yoga, meditative yoga[/tags]