I am definitely not a yogi, but I wouldn’t necessarily say I’m a beginner either. I started yoga classes pretty young at sleepaway camp and have taken them sporadically over the last ten years. When the idea of this article was pitched, I jumped right on it. I liked the idea of doing something I’ve done before, but in a different way. There’s nothing more driving than having a deadline to write about something — so, here’s my week-long Yoga journey.
- Friday
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I decided to start Yoga with Adriene’s 30-day challenge as a way to get back into the swing of yoga. I had already worked out today so some of the moves that used my abs were way more difficult than expected. I realized that even though I stretched after I worked out, I was definitely holding a ton of tension. So many parts of my body cracked in ways I was not expecting. My friend, Gabby, was in the room so I was a little distracted and felt silly. Needless to say, it was a little hard to concentrate. But not a bad start to my week.
- Saturday
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I woke up with a migraine on Saturday. I thought yoga would help me loosen up which might relieve some of the pain, so I decided to start my day with it. I chose a video about checking in with your mind and body. The start of the video was nice but about 7 minutes in when the practice went into its first downward dog, I felt extremely light-headed and dizzy and had to lay down, so I didn’t pass out. Naturally, that was the end of my yoga practice for the day and I ended up going to bed at 5 pm.
- Sunday
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I decided to go back to the 30 days of yoga that I started this whole week with and go to the second video. I’m not going to lie; I was definitely feeling the middle of my yoga week slump. I did my practice today at 3 pm so it was warm in my room which was nice but definitely made me a little lethargic. I went through the moves of the practice but never fully got into the right headspace. The hard part of doing a challenge like this is that yoga becomes a chore. And I checked the clock a couple of times during the video.
- Monday
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Today I went to my first actual yoga class of the week at the Fitness Center. Hofstra offers yoga two days a week, Monday and Wednesday, both of which are taught by Emili, and are scheduled to be an hour and a half, though Emili says upfront that they are actually closer to an hour and a quarter. This class was a little different than many classes I have done before. I felt like we either flowed through positions quickly or held them for a long time. We also only did child’s pose two times, which was definitely a little weird for me. The highlight of the class was definitely during Shavasana when Emili rubbed essential oils (I believe lavender but am not positive) on our temples. Overall, great class and I felt super refreshed and am even considering adding it to my weekly workout routine.
- Tuesday
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Ending this practice the first thing I thought was that I missed the physical corrections that I got during the actual yoga class the previous day. This is a much more active yoga video than most, the practice started standing and used a lot of balance and core work. I was pretty tired by the end and actually took a longer Shavasana than the video allotted. Other than that I didn’t do anything all that special.
- Wednesday
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Wednesday is one of my busier days, and I’m not going to lie — I was not feeling it. But like the dedicated blogger I am, I forced myself to get on the mat and do a video. As much as yoga is about the motions after this practice, I would argue that it is more about the mindset. I went through all of the motions but got virtually nothing out of his practice. Needless to say, I was very happy that the week was coming to an end.
- Thursday
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For my last day of yoga, I decided to lead my own practice based on the poses that I did regularly through the last week of practices. I started with some basic stretches, like cat and cow, and twists sitting up. Then I worked my way to standing and did some sun salutations with various additions of Warriors and Lunges. I finished off with a shoulder stand and then bridge. I then listened to a meditation from Buddhify, my favorite meditation app, for Shavasana. It was definitely less relaxing because I was coming up with the practice off the top of my head but also nice to totally be at the mercy of what felt good for my body
I like yoga classes and I like the feeling I get right after a good yoga practice, but I don’t really like the yoga part making at home video practices drag on. That being said, I really like Yoga with Adriene and think her 30 Days of Yoga was incredibly well done, and she did a great job of mixing it up so you weren’t doing the same things every day. In conclusion, I don’t think I will add yoga to my daily routine, but I really enjoyed Emili’s class and would definitely go back.