Yoga can be very intimidating, especially when you're trying to get started. I've had several friends over the past few years rave to me about the benefits of yoga. From increased flexibility, to injury protection, and for me most importantly, stress relief, yoga has been gaining much popularity in recent years. Approximately 18 months ago, my stress built up pretty bad in my neck, shoulders and back. I apparently had some sort of stress attack in my sleep stemming from the neck down caused by angry, short, quick breaths. At first I listened to the advice of many saying that I just simply slept on my back wrong, and that it would go away soon. It still hasn't gone away from me. Within a few months, I tried out a chiropractor. While they were nice, and it did give me some help/relief, it wasn't nearly enough. Deep tissue massages have definitely helped me, especially for a few days after my session. I need a new practice that can help my mental health and stress long term.
Even though I've been targeting yoga for a few months, it's taken time for me to build up enough courage trying this. While I've always been a die hard fan of yoga pants (again, how lucky is Awesome Girlfriend Megan?) the art of yoga has been intimidating to me. Can merely breathing and stretching help me escape the at times extreme amount of pain my neck, shoulders and back have been in for over a year and a half? They say that trying new things together can be easier, so once last week, and again last night, Meg and I tried yoga together --- remote. How? We're very simple and primitive. While I'm at my place in Vernon, and Meg is at her place in Hackettstown, I text her the name of a yoga instructional video we find on Youtube. We even set aside a time for our yoga date, last night was at 7:00pm. The fun thing is now we're learning what we like and don't like, what to do and what not to do. These beginner tips are also very helpful for us.
Which of the Youtube videos has helped us the most? So far we have tried Adriene and Jen Hilman. While they both definitely helped us, Meg and I prefer Adriene so far, as she seemed to have a stronger focus on breathing. We like that both of them were friendly for beginners such as ourselves. Last night, we tried a girl on Youtube whose handle is YOGATX. We enjoyed her a ton. She gave us some new moves we haven't tried, especially for our chest which is a big part of the process. Meg and I are having fun trying this new thing for us, while exploring videos seeing what we prefer the most. Hopefully, yoga will be my key in getting back to running. I miss running every single day.
My 1st ever attempt at yoga a few weeks ago, you can see here.
Have you heard of this "Hot Yoga," sensation? Meg and I are NOT ready for that yet! Here are tips on how to handle that advanced stage of yoga.
1 of 1