30 Day Challenge!!!

With every new move I like to take the first little while to try out big things in my new city of residence. Current location is Vancouver, BC (my third move this year and hopefully the last for a while) and the newest endeavor is yoga. I just finished a two-week trial pass where I tried hot, regular and cycling yoga. I was surprised by how challenging I found it, possibly because of my inability to relax, my kankle (fat ankle) and the somewhat ridiculous music at times.

The highlight… that might not be the right thing to call it… how about most memorable moment so far was ending a hot yoga class with the instructor singing us Lenard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” While the instructor had quite a lovely voice it was such a strange experience for me that needless to say there was no relaxing during that five minutes, just trying to stop myself from a fit of giggles. My maturity level astounds me at times.

So the yoga place I go to has started a 30 day challenge for the month of November, basically you do some form of yoga every day. As I am currently unemployed and it isn’t a big Frisbee season so I have decided to attempt it. I’ll do my best to keep a record of my yoga experience every couple of days, this will also help my friends monitor if I have actually gone crazy or if I start to head in that direction.

Day 1: Power Yoga
Definition: An energetic and challenging flow class heated to 32ºC Power that integrates the breath with movement to build flexibility, strength and core stability. Beginners will be challenged; all levels.

Please note that I am definitely a beginner and it lived up to the definition. The instructor was clearly very advanced (as they should be) and was doing handstands, weird jumpy things and a lot of very cool looking things that at this point I feel no need to attempt. I am not the most graceful of people, despite the fact that I play sports I can be quite clumsy in ‘real life.’ I have yet to fall over or knock someone over, but I am sure it is only a matter of time.

Workout wise I thought it was pretty good, I broke a sweat and totally felt it in my legs. However, this could be the repercussions of a night out last night in Everett, WA, USA where I carried one of the girls half way through the city on my back and then somehow ended up rolling around in a heap of grass, leaving our hotel in quite a state. Sorry… tangent. The best part so far is that it is really helpful for strengthen my ankles. Since recently rolling one of them and having a reoccurring injury the hope is this will help sort it out.