Friday, March 19, 2010

Round 5: Day 41: Yoga

I was up early today (early for me means 5:30AM) for a relaxing and de-stressing session of yoga. I really needed yoga today, for a variety of reasons: it's been five straight days of Insanity and resistance workouts, without a break to stretch (I know, the Insanity adherents who go hard six days a week are without a shred of sympathy); and we've had a bit of a nasty spate with our neighbour which has really stressed my wife and me. Solution: yoga.

Since I didn't have much time this morning, in spite of starting early, I decided to do Patience yoga from the One on One series. I find this routine to be quieter than Tony's other yoga workouts, both in terms of Tony's level of excitement (the opening minutes of the DVD are a notable exception) and in the music. At times, Tony is completely silent, just moving through various poses, without any narration whatsoever. This has pros and cons: on the good side, silence is conducive to my desired state of mind. On the negative side, I find myself looking at the TV screen with increased frequency to see what Tony is up to and to confirm when I should change from one pose to another. The music is very soft and soothing, which I find contributes in a positive way to my overall sense of relaxedness.

I enjoy the pacing and tempo of this workout, and its differences from Tony's other yoga workouts. Sometimes, it's nice to simplify the process, do fewer moves, but hold them for a longer period of time. The combination of very slow and infrequent moves with soft and relaxing music and few vocal cues makes this workout special. I particularly enjoy the shavasana pose at the end of the workout. It's nice just to lie down, close my eyes, do a body check, listen to my breathing, and do absolutely nothing. What a great way to end the week's workouts.

Namaste.

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