Gumby has nothin' on me

While I've been intrigued by yoga for awhile now, I've been too intimidated to try a class for fear I wouldn't know what I was doing or I'd make an ass out of myself. However, with the increased walking I'm doing, it seemed that adding yoga to my weekly workout might be a good thing -- help to keep me flexible and allow me to get in some low impact strength training as well.

Now that we've moved, I'm much closer to one of my friends that has been practicing yoga on and off for over 6 years. She was nice enough to volunteer to accompany me to a basic class at her favorite studio in the area. Sweet! We were all set to go last night after work.

Instead, she pops by my desk in the morning and says she wants to try a different class that night. She found out about a free outdoors class offered in our area every Tuesday night and thought it was worth a shot. Seeing as how I wasn't interested in trying my hand at yoga without her, I said I was game.

So, we tried the class last night, neither of us really knowing what to expect. The class is held on a small portion of grass at a local sports facility. There were at least 15-20 people there, but from the get-go the vibe was relaxed, friendly. Not pretentious at all.

The instructor came around and introduced himself to all us newbies, explained how the class would run and told us to just do our best. It was longer than I expected, 90 minutes, but it was so much fun. I was shocked to find that a lot of the poses were familiar to me from years of dance and dabbling in mat pilates here and there. Not to say they it wasn't strenuous, but I didn't feel completely like a fish out of water. At the end of class, I felt like I had a good workout and my hips and hamstrings felt nice and bendy.

Being outdoors was a welcome change from doing a normal fitness class inside. We found out most of the other participants are from a local running club and they're mostly in the novice range like the rest of us. The instructor was a really mellow guy that kept the class moving, but didn't push too hard.

My friend and I immediately set a standing date to take this class once a week. Not only is it a great workout, but the price is definitely right. Oh, and did I mention that my friend is single and the instructor is a hottie?! ;) She went up to ask him about the inversion we did at the end of class and I kept myself busy introducing myself to the other participants while they chatted. We totally giggled like little girls on the way back to the car. I teasingly asked her if she was going to dress a bit different for next week, to which she responded with a resounding "um, duh!"

I see lots of fun times ahead for us in this class.