I decided to dive into the world of yoga this week as I followed another YouTube workout personality.
I have always been curious about yoga as a workout. I have always had what I think is above average flexibility. Even when I was younger, I felt like I needed to stretch before I did any physical activity to get my body feeling right. That feels especially true now I am older.
I only know the basic information about yoga. I’ve seen people hold poses. I know its about breathing. I know it’s a way of life for some people that goes beyond just being the preferred way to workout.
With the practice dating back to the third century and being more of a philosophy than just another way to work one’s body into shape, yoga has many layers and an intricate history to it that goes beyond the weight lifting, running and calisthenics and I have done in my life.
That has been the reason I have been hesitant. The stereotypical yoga practitioner that movies and television have fed me my whole life, one who is in touch with their spiritual side in a eastern religious type of way, is just not someone I could ever see myself being around for very long.
I know it works for plenty of people and that’s great, but I have been skeptical if it was for me. I don’t like being told how I am supposed to be feeling and constantly being told to exhale away all of my worries while I transition to a pose is not really how I deal with my stress.
Still, I went in with as open as my mind could be. I settled on this channel called SarahBethYoga. This woman has yoga workouts dating back to eight years ago, but eventually settled on putting out one new video a week. She seems to be pretty successful on the platform, with more than 800,000 subscribers and 68 million total views. She also has her own mobile app and membership website.
Videos can be anywhere from five to 30 minutes long. No mater what you want out of yoga, she has a workout for you. The video titles are pretty clear what you are going to get.
There are videos for beginners, intermediate, stretches, weight loss, body target and more. There are also videos for the spiritual like a 10 minute calming workout for anger and frustration. I didn’t really mess with those.
I started easy with one titled to “wake me up in the morning” on Saturday. I did not invest in a yoga mat, but I do have good news.
My dreaded shedding rug is no more. My sister decided to get me another one, even though I did not really have much issue with it the last two years until I made it my regular workout area.
I learned the first day that just hanging my body limply in certain poses that were supposed to be relaxing were not that relaxing to me. The one where my upper body was slumped forward down reaching the floor while my knees were bent was described as a resting type of pose of some sort.
Even with my ability to comfortably touch the floor with my hands with my legs straight when I stretch, this pose proved more taxing to me than it should have been.
I also picked up on that as people got more comfortable with yoga, it would sort of start to resemble dance steps to me.
Each pose was kind of taught as a step and some would transition into other poses. Eventually several poses would be strung together.
No more than two or three at this beginning level, but I can see the appeal of the idea of seeming to flow through ones workout.
Another thing I was prepared for and tried to keep note of was the part that breathing plays when doing yoga. Every move was specifically made to either be breathing in or exhaling a breath.
Each exhale was sometimes described as blowing away certain thoughts from the mind or stresses from the day. I’m not sure I was able to do that last part, but I did my best to breathe right when directed.
I’m sure the workout did something for me, but I could not tell the difference afterwards.
After another beginner stretch on Sunday left me underwhelmed, I looked for a workout that was advertised to burn more calories than anything else.
While it had more poses and the pace was fast enough for me to start sweating, again I was not too impressed. Maybe after five weeks of consistent beginner exercise, I just needed more than the 10 minute gentle yoga workouts.
I know yoga can be hard, so I found a 15-minute core workout. It involved a lot of time on my back as I did a lot of similar movements I had done in other core workouts. The difference was instead of reps, it was transitioning through a couple of poses in a controlled pace.
This workout pushed me at times. It was the one where I felt the most benefit from as there was some light burning afterwards that had been mostly absent.

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