Like Danielle said, she pretty much had to drag me to my first class. I did the typical newbie guy thing: wore basketball shorts and a cotton t-shirt, expected incense and chanting, and I got completely surprised by how tough it was, even though it was a "girl's exercise." I wasn't hooked, but I could see that it was a serious workout, even if I was the least flexible while also being the sweatiest.
On a related note: yoga is VERY intimidating for guys. Understand that going into a room full of ridiculously flexible and strong women, who are sporting nothing but Lululemon and rocking Manduka Pro mats, is like that dream where you're naked in front of a room of your peers while speaking in public. The biggest difference, however, is that the people are ridiculously better than you and appear to have neon signs that say "you're not from around here, are you?"
If you are a serious yoga girl, the best thing you can do is to introduce yourself and try to start up some light conversation like "what do you do for a living?" or "geez, it's hot outside." Avoid, especially with the uncomfortable new guys, the following: "my 4th chakra has a blockage that I'm working on," "my spirit animal is the chihuahua," "I studied at the Sri Sri Swami Baba Guru YogaDawg ashram in Punjab for 6 months," or anything the girl in this video says. We're trying to make the tent more inviting, not make it like a redux of the 1960's.
When the local yoga studio extended their opening week freebie classes to Saturday, we received a call from our friend, Emily, that her good friend Sam was going to teach. Given that it was free and taught by a guy, I decided to give it a try. I didn't have anything better going on and enjoyed the first class, so I figured there wasn't much to lose.
Immediately upon being introduced to Sam, I got the impression that I had met him before. Not sure what it was, as we're certain we've never previously crossed paths, but I was SURE that we had met before. His class started off easily enough, with some Om'ing, pranayama (breathing exercises), and sun salutations. His class then went into a vigorous "dude yoga" blend with lots of warrior poses, wide leg forward bends, backbends, and headstands.
I was hooked.
While I certainly enjoy and respect the classes that our other instructor put on earlier in the week, I was really digging the strength and challenge aspects of Sam's class. After I was done, I held on to a metabolic boost for the next 5 hours. It was unlike anything else I'd ever done. The next day I was sore all over but I felt better than I had in a very long time. Eventually, I went back to how I normally felt: tired, slight back aches, and a sore and fragile left shoulder (due to straight arming Adam Luguire in 8th grade football practice). During this time of regression, I was able to see how good yoga made me feel and what it could do. We ended up befriending Sam, the yoga dude, and have taken classes from him at Zen and eventually followed him to Gold's Gym with a membership there.
During the last 4 months we've been faithfully taking classes and workshops and have decided it's time for a deeper plunge. We're going to take a 9 week course on Ashtanga with Birmingham Yoga and Akasha Ellis. I'm both excited and scared that we've committed for this. I guess we'll just have to see how this all ends up.
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