Mostly About Yoga

Several weeks ago I tried a yoga class with Ariel. I enjoyed it at the time, but I didn't follow up on it - Ariel said the other women in the class felt uncomfortable with me around, since I was the only man there.

However, it turns out that we were mistaken. One of the staff asked Ariel if I would be coming back, and told her that I was perfectly welcome to join. I needed no more prompting than that, and on Monday I went along and signed up for three months - about the same amount of time I have left in China. How time flies.

Originally Mauritte, the new foreign teacher (South African woman, very enthusiastic about just about everything, lovely lady), was going to come too - she'd expressed an interest in yoga - but the class was too far away from where she lived.

Before the class itself, Ariel gave me a quick lesson in Chinese - specifically, the things the instructor would say while we were supposed to have our eyes closed. These are also things that aren't easy to spot just by copying what the instructor is doing, even with your eyes open - things like breath from your belly, not your chest. I forgot most of it almost immediately, of course, and even after doing it for five days straight now I still have to peek occasionally so I know when they get to the neck stretches. However, I am picking up a few words here and there. Soon I'll be able to have entire conversations about the various parts of the body and how to twist them out of recognition, all in Chinese!

The first word I learned in yoga class was "fangsong", pronounced more like "fung soong" for those of you unfamiliar with pinyin. It means "relax", and is repeated very regularly during the class - which is why I remember it so easily. The yoga lessons begin with relaxation and breathing before moving to the stretching that most people associate with yoga, and finish again with relaxation. Unsurprisingly, it's all very relaxing.

That doesn't make it easy, though. Today was the hardest day yet. There are two or three instructors that are rotated through the classes, and the instructor today was beautiful, graceful, and very demanding. All the instructors will correct your posture as needed during the exercises, but today this instructor pushed all of us to our limits - and then some. Most of it was fine with me - there are many stretches that my body can do easily enough, but my arms are not strong enough to pull myself into all the way. Just a little push on my back does wonders.

This one stretch, though, was murder. It stretches the upper thigh and hip, and all week I'd been wondering if I was doing it properly. The instructor would tell us to look at the ceiling, but many of the other students would just look up a little, not straight up. Since I don't actually understand the Chinese instructions, I mostly followed suit. Today, the instructor dispelled any doubts I had about the right way to do it, without saying a word. The problem is that I'm pretty flexible, and the right way for me to do it is not just to look up, but behind as far as I can, all the while pushing down, until the nerves in your hip shout themselves hoarse and finally say: "bugger this, I'm clocking out. See you in an hour." All the other stretches I reach the limit of my flexibility fairly obviously, and even the instructor can't push me further - because my head is touching my legs, or because my legs are flat on the floor, for example. This stretch, not so. The only physical limits it's possible to reach with this one are having your head touch your knee - from the back - and to have your hips actually touch the floor - from a lunge position.

That was the first time I took a break in the middle of an exercise. All the other students did too - she put all of us through this, it's not like she was picking on me or anything. Still, I don't like giving up, but oh god my hips.

Having said all that - afterwards, I felt great. Absolutely amazing. On Wednesday I wasn't going to come, as the first two days had left me stiff and sore, but I went anyway, and was glad for it, since I felt great afterwards. Since then I haven't had similar soreness tempting me not to go, and I always feel good afterwards. Today hurt, but it hurt so good. That's five days. I'll take a break over the weekend - I have to anyway, I have to work all day. Mostly all day - I could, in theory, go to the morning class on Sunday - but I think I'll let myself rest. I don't need to jump straight into yoga by doing seven hours a week. I'll work myself up to it.

I will do some light exercise though. Although I'm flexible enough to do most of the positions without much trouble, I can't hold them for long without shaking, because I'm pretty pathetically weak. My abs and shoulders in particular need to be focused on, so it's crunches and push-ups in the mornings instead of yoga this weekend.

I'll reiterate what I said just before - it makes me feel great. It's not just internal bliss either, the teachers at work have been saying all this week that I look better, too! I can heartily recommend it, even if you aren't flexible to start out with.