GO OUT ON A LIMB!
I'm so inflexible. Forget about touching my toes, I’m lucky if I can touch my knees!
This is the lamest excuse for getting out of yoga. You don’t avoid yoga because of a lack of flexibility; you get into yoga for that reason. Don’t think that you have to be able to throw your leg behind your head to be a yogi. You don’t even have to be able to sit Indian Style. What you do need to do is work on some stuff that may not always be easy and start to open up those places that have gotten so tight over the years.
Flexibility is a major key to avoiding injury and it’s something worth working on. And, in yoga, it’s not about touching your toes, or your knees, or even your thighs. It’s about feeling a stretch. If you’re feeling it, you’re doing it…and benefiting from it. Whether you are an athlete or a couch potato, your life will improve by having more pliable muscles and easier range of motion.
I'm a serious athlete. I run marathons, cycle hundreds of miles, and leap tall buildings in a single bound. Yoga is not for me.
That was my excuse. And I don’t know if you got the memo, but YOGAthletica is hard! What’s
more, it’s waaaaaaaaay hard. In a way you would never imagine. You’ll use muscles that you didn’t realize you had. Including your mind.
If you think that yoga is about lying on the floor stretching, think again. I have had athletes of every kind imaginable, as well as many personal trainers, come to my classes and very few, if any, have ever made it through their first class without having to take a break. But that’s okay! YOGAthletica isn’t about powering through a workout, it’s about working through the power and finding what works for you. If you need a break, you take it. Don’t need a break, keep on keeping on.
I'm a yoga virgin and I’m apprehensive about my first time.
Wow…so you're the last yoga virgin in Los Angeles? I’d love to have you in class.
Here’s the thing about YOGAthletica…you see all those pictures? Scary, huh? We do that stuff.
BUT…
We take it in bite-sized pieces. As long as you’re okay with the concept of baby steps, you’ll do great!
Yoga isn’t about the end result. It’s about process. Trying is doing. All you have to do is the best you
can do and you’re set. How easy is that? The work is learning to check your ego at the door, be okay falling, don’t freak out or get frustrated, and have fun! And just like every first time, it may not always unfold exactly the way you expected it to. The hardest part is coming back the second time. Each time
it gets easier. You just have to stick with it!
I’m not strong enough! Just yesterday, I lost a wrestling match to my two-year-old.
If you think you’re not strong enough, you’re right. If you think you are, you’re also right. You are exactly as strong as you believe yourself to be.
I do postures that men far bigger and stronger than I am tell me that they are not strong enough to do. And it’s not because I have the strength of ten thousand men like everyone believes. 😉
What I do have, is a strong mind that has convinced my body even stronger. And through yoga you,
too, will realize that you can do anything that you set your mind to. I’m not saying that it won’t require
a lot of hard work and effort. But if you believe yourself strong, you will be strong.
Nothing this physical can possibly be spiritual.
Well, as human beings we are each blessed with a sacred triumvirate of distinct energies: the mind, the body, and the spirit. It’s tragic to take one of these miracles for granted.
Our responsibility as humans is to have gratitude and appreciation for all of our gifts. Many people get so wrapped up in the physical aspects of life that they neglect the mental and spiritual. Others are too consumed with the mental or even the spiritual. I know that seems a contradiction in terms…how can one be too spiritual? At that point where you relinquish the appreciation of the body, your connection to this life and this earth, in deference to the spiritual, you have lost the value of the moment, the present, your grounding, your reality. Yoga is about the search for reality. Through contemplative concentration, single-minded focus on one physical goal, and mindful meditation, we bring together all three aspects of self--mind, body, and spirit--to a place of unity and alignment.
