Not Quite the Seventh Inning Stretch

I did it! Last night I attended my first yoga class. Let me say that it was a lot more invigorating than what I normally do before "Take Me Out to the Ball Game."

There were around 30 of us, about half of whom were completely new like me. We were lucky to get a 20 year veteran yoga instructor. She introduced herself as Helen and told us we'd be doing a lot of breathing and stretching, and ordered us not to compare ourselves with how high or low anyone else was stretching. Everyone at his own pace. I was relieved to hear that.

Normally I don't concentrate on doing deep breathing, except when I'm trying to relax my body on nights when the brain is still twirling at bedtime. We were constantly reminded to fill our lungs and expand our bellies when inhaling, and to squeeze the abdominal muscles when exhaling. It feels good! And it makes a difference to do that when in various poses. I got in touch with muscles and nerve endings that normally lie dormant. Very enlightening.

I did all right for a newbie, I think, although I had a couple of rough spots. The first time I sat on my legs and stretched my toes out, I got painful cramps in my feet. I stubbornly kept going back into the pose and the cramps eventually subsided. A couple of times when holding a squat pose, my chest muscles began to cramp and burn. Not sure why, but maybe that's also due to using previously inactive muscle. I do have to work on getting lower to the floor when I do squats; the trick is to keep the feet flat on the mat.

I am now acquainted with The Tortoise, The Mountain, The Warrior, The Tree, and The Downward Facing Dog. I found it amazing that, when we stretched out as far as we could go and held the position, when we drew in our next breath the instructor asked us to stretch a little farther...lo and behold, this was possible! I felt fantastically loose and limber at the end of the session. It was a pleasant sensation to be all pulled out like taffy when it was time to go to sleep, too.

I don't know whether the relaxation had anything to do with it, but the cell phone rang just when the class was ending...homework crisis because an essay had to be printed, the printer was jammed, Dad had taken it apart but didn't remove the paper...blah blah blah...I didn't feel overly freaked. When I walked in the door, I went downstairs and gently flipped the printer upside down and backwards. The two sheets of paper that were firmly wrapped around the roller and wedged in the teeth came right out. I then calmly asked the dad to put the machine back together at the next commercial break of NCIS. Printing was all wrapped up within seconds of beddy bye time.

This morning my lower back and shoulders were still feeling stretched out, and the back ached somewhat. But not the same kind of ache that I get after a day of house painting or any other overuse. I can just sense that all the vertebrae are there, but it doesn't seriously hurt. Can't quite describe it. I'm looking forward to next class!