Yoga anyone ?

I went tonight and I am a little soar in my arms but feeling pretty good. I had tried yoga several times in the past but didn’t stick with it. After a mis-weighing incident I decided to give it another shot. I know I need to work hard and do my part too.

What happened was; I had a little set back… I was accidentally weighing myself ten lbs lighter. I feel like a bone head I thought I had lost thirty, turns out to be twenty. Still ok, so I decided to up the ante on exercise. I have been swimming twice a week for two weeks, I am thinking I should add yoga one or two times a week. The teacher tonight was really cool. There was even one other lady a little bigger than me so we hung out in the back of the class. It was nice that there were people of all ages and fitness levels, so you just do the modifications that work best for you.

I was interested to hear about others who are just starting or maybe a full fledged yogi. Any struggles, victories, mastered a new pose?

surg date 08/05/09

I've taken a few yoga classes and I really enjoyed them. I think once I have my surgery and recover from it I'll start back up again. It's really great exercise and you do feel better after. I tell you though at the end of my first class I was hating the downward facing dog!

It must be working I am now down 23 lbs and I am getting more flexible. I don't know if I'll go tonight I have a misrable runny nose. I am good just to sitin a chair and breath. Not up for any wacy crow pose or sun salutations. I'll have to go next time.

Yoga is your friend but is harder than it looks. Get your own mat because sharing is icky and you really should be doing this barefoot. If you do get your own sticky mat, insider secret is to immediately take it in the shower with you and give it a good soaping down to get rid of the chemical residue or else you'll have a chronically slippery mat. I also recommend a yoga block if you cannot yet reach the floor for all your poses because you can seriously hurt yourself if you lose your balance mid pose, especially anything triangle. Been there, done that. Focusing on a drishdi (a spot on the ceiling sounding just so much more exotic) during poses will also help you not fall over.

At 275lbs you should probably not be doing the plough pose or anything inverted that has you putting a large amount of pressure on your head or neck. As you get lighter you can have a go at the inverted poses.

My yoga teacher was also a nurse, which was wonderful. Since I also have fibromyalgia, which is also limiting on my ability to move, she was very helpful in teaching me to modify my poses slightly to something I can do rather than to suck it up and hurt myself trying to keep up with the rest of the group. Yoga is not a competitive sport. It does require some symmetry though. Always do the poses on the right side and left side so that you don't stretch out one set of muscles without doing the other side of the body. If you quit half way through you will pay for it later with a feeling of serious unevenness in your stretch. Last bit of advice is not to snore during the post-workout rest...

One day I will get the tree pose.... I will dammit! Eventually my thighs will be small enough to get my foot wedged in there properly.

I just returned from yoga class. I love it! I haven't been in a while, but will try to get back to once or twice a week. It's really great the day after a hard strength workout because you really stretch those muscles out.

I have to modify some poses, and I can't yet swing my legs over my head ( I think this is plow???), but I will get there.

Enjoy!:thumbdown:

I wanted to try Yoga for a very long time before I actually did. Back in college my roommate's mom was a yoga instructor but I never felt comfortable trying. About 5 months ago I started taking yoga and pilates at my gym and I love it !!

Yoga is helping me to be appreciative of what my body can do . Which I find to be very important since I often get caught up in the "how do I look" aspect of weight loss.

I am struggling with maintaining a shoulder stand, but I have learned how to do plow pose !

We all have to remember to listen to our bodies tonight I was having port pain and didn't even try to do any inversions.

as others have mentioned a great instructor will differentiate instruction so everyone gets something out of the class.