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Yoga. The Best Hardest Thing I Have Done.

About 3 weeks ago I started Yoga.  

This was after toying with the idea for...about 7 years! I could never find a class near me, at a time that worked and I must admit, my own masculinity stopped me a lot of the time.  I saw it as girly.  Why do I need Yoga? Men bench press, that's all we need right?


No.  There are a lot of types of strength and Yoga is its own category.  I have been lifting weights seriously for around 5 years - not that it shows! However my personal bests (so I can show off a little bit):

60kg EZ Curl 
100kg Bench / 80kg Working Weight
Body Weight Shoulder Press (Machine)
180kg Deadlift
300kg Leg Press

That last one resulted in my nearest brush with passing out while lifting.

So I thought I would attend a local Yoga class and breeze through.  Nope.  Not happening.  This is a different kind of strength, mostly in the mind.  Brute-force and a level of stupidity will get you far lifting weights at first, if you can avoid injury.  I risked passing out and being smashed in the face by 300kg of weight so I could crow about it afterwards.  Yoga looks easy from the outside - but some of the most basic positions to a novice are fairly challenging, resulting in puffing, panting and having to pause and reset.

The hardest part to master is the breathing, or more importantly remembering to focus on the breathing, not the strain in parts of your body you didn't know needed to be stretched and released. When lifting weights, you exhale on the contraction, or positive part of the movement (the upwards of the benchpress, for instance) and inhale on the negative of the movement, allowing you to "explode" the movement the next time, resulting in more consistent reps.  I struggle to breath calmly and consistently whilst in yoga positions, and find myself holding my breath or breathing very shallow.

I had 2 reasons to start Yoga; to complement the weight training and increase my range of motion, but equally to research more into mindfulness, meditation and getting in touch with something non-quantifiable.  

I feel calmed a day or two after my class, I feel my mind is more ordered and able to focus better.  I was not expecting this.  

To be honest, I have fallen in love with Yoga.  I love testing my body, and finding out it's limitations.   But I also love how it makes me feel after.  It's hard to describe, but it's a feeling of positivity, of acceptance (by the world and most importantly by myself) and it makes me less stressed about what I have and haven't ticked off my To-Do list!

I will report more as I progress, I have a fantastic Yoga teacher who is very patient and informative, so I hope to make yoga a bigger part of my life over the next few months!

Namaste

ॐ
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Location: London, UK

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