Turning Yourself into a Pretzel

I've taken up yoga, or what my husband calls "Turn Yourself Into a Pretzel".  It's something I've always wanted to do, but never felt confident or competent enough to try it.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm finally giving myself the go-ahead to try a lot of new things.  When a "beginners' yoga" class was offered early in April, I decided to check it out.  I persuaded a friend to join me, and the two of us found ourselves on a mat in an art gallery with a peppy instructor about our age.  She made us feel very comfortable and over the course of a few weeks, I found out that yoga was fun, and that I could do it -- not well, not competently, and certainly not prettily, but I was doing it.  That class has now ended, so I signed up for a class at a local fitness center.

What I've learned:

1.  Anyone can "do" yoga.

2.  Yoga is a practice, and it takes practice.

3.  Yoga is individual.  You do what you can, modify where you need to.

4.  You can use props to help you with some of the poses - a chair, blocks, a belt.

5.  I am more flexible than I thought.  Not as flexible as I'd like to be.  I'm improving.

6.  I still have a weak core which means I lack stability for some of the poses, like warrior II.

7.  Balance can be an issue, but as my core strength improves, my tree pose improves as do other standing poses.

8.  I'm not burning a ton of calories, but I am gaining strength.

9.  Yoga class day is my favorite day!

10.  I'm pretty sure I won't ever be able to do this: