Relaxation...

I should really just stop trusting people. I make a plan to go to yoga at the gym this morning because I think it will be a great way to start my Sunday. My coworker Megan tells me about how she used to go all the time and had a really good time and it was really easy. Great. I don't really feel like going crazy hard today, anyway. 

I show up at the gym and it's a mostly older crowd. How hard can this really be if people who could be my grandma can do it? Plus, I've done some yoga at home so I assume I'm going to be amazing. Not the case, ladies and gentlemen. The class starts out normal enough with some gentle stretching, nothing too crazy going on, but we very rapidly move into territory that I am so unfamiliar with that I'm tempted to fake a low blood sugar so I can excuse myself with what looks like an actual reason.

One particular women who is among the oldest in the class is the most flexible woman I have ever seen. One of the stretches we are supposed to do involves reaching one hand behind our backs and grasping our other hand that is coming from in between our legs. Yeah, not gonna happen. 

And then there's the planking. That awful planking where we are supposed to lift one hand and lift a foot and bake a casserole all while in a plank position. It's a good day if I can do a plank on my knees for thirty seconds and this teacher is asking me to do something that I can only liken to throwing a football fifty yards after mere hours of training. And truth be told, I don't know if that's an accurate representation because I know next to nothing about football. Is that even difficult?

The point is, this yoga workout is really hard. And my hamstrings are super tight from who knows what. This is honestly going to be the hardest thing about working out for me. The idea that it will always be hard if you're truly challenging yourself. You should never be doing something without breaking a sweat. The same exact workout may be easier, but if you want results, you have to increase the difficulty. 

After class is over, I give Megan a piece of my mind, but I do it very kindly with some sarcasm thrown in there because, truth be told, I feel awesome. My muscles are awake and I feel limber and flexible. So I decide I'm going to go for a swim. Tragically I forgot my goggles when I left this morning so I edit my swim down to a quarter mile given the circumstances.