The Yoga Iron Man

I’m lucky enough to have a local gym with a great yoga program. One day on a whim I decided to check the schedule to see if it was possible for one to do every yoga class on the fitness schedule in one week.

It was.

And so the seed was planted. And last week I did it. Seven days, sixteen classes, about 17 hours of yoga in a week. Man, that’s like a part time job! I’m blessed to have a flexible work schedule so I was able to do morning and afternoon classes, but I still had to take two vacation days in pursuit of this yoga iron man. I just can’t do 3-4 hours of yoga in one day AND get all my work done!

What did I achieve, other than get a sense of accomplishment? The effects of my efforts weren’t really apparent to me until toward the very end. Day in and day out I ran to the gym two or three times a day, even for one class that met at 5:30 in the morning. I never felt like I didn’t want to go because I had already made up my mind that I was going to do this. Which leads me to what I learned…

1) I learned the impact of making a commitment to myself. I never considered not going to a class when it was time. There was no well, I really should this or that, or I’m tired. Nope. It was time to go and I went. No debate. I had made a commitment.

2) I learned how to talk to myself. When my legs were shaking and tired but it was time to do a balance pose again, I had one word in my mind. CAN. As soon as I thought I was going to lose it and fall out of a pose, I pushed all other thoughts from my mind other than CAN (and occasionally, STRONG.) Just that single word made all the difference. Sure, sometimes I still fell out of the pose, but often it was just the push I needed to hold it just a little longer.

3) I experienced the exhilaration of being on the cusp. My last class of the iron man was the most challenging yoga class, and arguably, the most challenging class on the group fitness schedule period. About a third of the way through the class I realized how close I was, and suddenly there was no holding me back. I powered through every sun salutation, I felt like I could lower myself down on a push-up for a count of 300 and hold every balance for an eternity. I felt strong, excited and POWERFUL. It was the best yoga class of my life.

4) Yoga is good for back strength! In my strength training class tonight my core felt stronger and keeping proper form was much easier – flowed naturally!

5) I learned how much I really do love it. Maybe someday I will teach. It was awesome just taking some time to do something uplifting just for me!

On a final note, I read this Yoga Journal article today and it reminded me of one of my classes. The teacher’s theme for the class was focusing not on what you can’t do, but what you CAN do. I thought this article on scaling back romantic expectations to something doable was a nice follow up to that sentiment.
Namaste!!