Friday, March 4, 2011

Day 4: Gender politics and a really long pigeon pose

I may have overdone it today.

I spent an hour with my trainer this morning before grabbing something to eat and then heading to the studio for a hot yoga class. Now, my muscles are aching and I feel like I could fall asleep sitting up.

Anyway, it's very interesting to see the mix of people who come to a yoga class. My usual early evening class consists of many younger people, mostly women. Yesterday's hatha yoga was completely women, but tended more towards the older side of things. Today was full of older women and many, many men, which surprised me. Though many of the yogis are men, it's rare to see more than one or two men in a yoga class, at least thus far.

However, it was a weird situation. Academically I should be okay with men stretching beside me, but I was a bit uncomfortable. It was like my practice had become a very private thing, and suddenly the opposite gender was intruding upon it. Being a hypocrite, I had no problem with my husband attending a hot class a few weeks ago with me, and two of my favourite yoga instructors so far have been male, including the one who taught me "relax: release" which I have since used in my yoga practice and in my personal life when trying to fall asleep while my brain wouldn't shut up.

I wasn't particularly fond of feeling like the men were intruding, so I hope it was a momentary thing and the feeling will not return next Friday. Perhaps it was just a product of being tired. I think the ridiculous amount of sweat also contributed to it: ladies should never sweat, just glow, and that is definitely not possible in a hot yoga class.

I mentioned earlier this week that I love the pigeon pose. I still love it, but a bit of the sparkle went out of it today when the yogi asked us to hold it for a very, very long time. I believe it was about two minutes on each side; those may have been the longest four minutes of my life. My hips began to hurt, my mind wandered and my arms ached. I know it was good for me because it unlocked my hips where I hold a bunch of tension, but it was kind of sad for my favourite pose to become so hard.

I sound like a big whiner today, but I do promise that I enjoyed my practice, just as I do most days (yesterday notwithstanding, but I'm trying again tomorrow.) Four days has passed fairly quickly now and I'm getting into a routine. The biggest test will be Sunday when I go before work, as Sunday is the day I usually sleep in a bit and take the day off of exercise.

Four down, 26 to go!

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