Lunchtime Hatha Yoga...Don't Forget to Smile

So, my work has enacted this really awesome 6-week lunchtime physical activity program. Each Wednesday, we do something exercisewise. The classes have been full, but on Monday, they announced that they got a bigger room to accommodate all the people that wanted to join in on the "fun." And yes, it is fun. Today was my first day and it was Hatha Yoga taught by this 72 year old German lady named MT (I couldn't remember her long name, but she said everyone calls her MT...not MG).

We started out with standing poses in an abbreviated version of her class (she mentioned this a few times). She talked about how the yogis named things after nature and humans; however, I'm not sure about the names of most of the poses. I do remember that we had to be a tree for a period of time. Some of the poses were hard to balance and hold, but man, did it feel GOOD. We then spent the last 20 minutes on the mat just stretching. There was one pose that my back said, "WHOA NELLY, back off on the twist." However, it still felt good. I like the corpse one the best, because you just get to lie there and breathe. I think at one point, I fell asleep or maybe I was just so in to my breathing that I didn't hear any outside distraction. Yeah, that's right. I did that all spiritually. But the one thing I took from that class is too just keep smiling. And I did smile, while trying to concentrate on breathing and balancing and stretching. Okay, sometimes, I looked like I was about to lose it, but I smiled everytime she reminded our class.

Yoga is about stretching your physical body, your mental self, and your spirituality. I did feel it everwhere at the end even if it was a short class. I start my first yoga class with Happy Belly Studios next Monday (but I'm on the waitlist for these two classes this weekend: Beginners Vinyasa and Yoga for Athletes). I can't wait.

On a side note, this morning, I did 50 front crunches, 2 sets of 30 second bicylce crunches (yowser), 2 sets of 25 situps (not sure, but I had major trouble completing this routine), and 2 sets of 30 second planks. So, at least I'm getting my cross training in even if I'm not running all the time.