Now that I am finally mobile again and have been able to exercise for a while, workouts like running loops around Barracks Shopping Center, swimming back and forth in the Aquatic & Fitness Center pool and spending hours on the elliptical machines at Slaughter Recreation Center are starting to lose their former thrills.
Exercise is still something I'm thankful to be able to do everyday, but just as a kid with a strong sweet tooth will start to feel queasy after downing three pieces of cake in a row, I'm starting to look for new and engaging ways to exercise.
I'm not doing a complete overhaul of my exercise regimen. I am merely giving it a tweak. Something interesting and adventurous - like putting extra red pepper on the bland fish at the dining hall. So when I talked to a local athletic trainer at my home gym during Spring Break, I was surprised and excited to try what she suggested: yoga.
I don't know why I never tried it before. The benefits of yoga had been extolled to me for years; my friends on the high school swim team, teachers and even physicians mentioned it. Not to say yoga isn't worthwhile, but to me, it always looked like a glorified stretch routine, something that was relaxing but really didn't serve as a workout or a challenge. Nevertheless, I decided to give it a shot the next day when the same trainer was leading a yoga class. It was power yoga, which she explained is more challenging than the average class.
My first observation: Yoga is much, much more difficult than it looks. For those who haven't done it, a yoga class looks like a group of people performing a roughly synchronized poses. I quickly realized that the tree pose felt more like a war of balance between my metatarsals and my ankles. And the boat pose is a lot more difficult than floating. It was challenging in a way that's much different from our traditional American workouts.
My training as a multi-sport varsity athlete in high school ingrained a spirit of competitiveness with both others and myself; I was used to trying harder, running faster, pushing through tiredness. The only way I ever really needed to engage my mind was to some way further this goal. In the pool and on the cross-country course, I focused on passing the person in front of me and powering through growing tiredness. With yoga, my mind was engaged in a new way. I had to focus on the poses, but the slow pace gave me time to relax, meditate, stay calm. And in stark contrast to the bright lights and pulsing music found in most gyms today, the yoga classroom was kept dimly lit, with soft music filtering through the quiet space.
When the class ended, I was refreshed and ready to face the rest of my day. My muscles were sore for a day or so after, which I took as a good sign; I finally was using other muscle groups! I decided I would keep doing yoga when I returned to U.Va.
I got my chance, of all places, in my Tuesday 9 a.m. USEM class. As part of our mindfulness study, one of our classes was dedicated to yoga. An instructor from a yoga studio in Charlottesville came to teach a class. This class was more meditation-focused than power yoga. Many of the poses were the same, but we focused more so on the concept of breathing. Perhaps the most powerful part of the class for me was an aspect called the intention. At the beginning, we were asked to silently choose an intention, a benevolent feeling on which we would focus and meditate. Mine was peace.
Our instructor told us that thoughts and worries would come and go, to try to intrude on our meditative space. We were to notice them but not let them take control. I fretted about midterms. I thought about upcoming assignments. I thought about learning my lines for my play.
Then I relaxed. Eventually, I let the worries go. There was a kind of sacred simplicity: breathe, stretch, meditate, shift. Our instructor said yoga comes from a word meaning "union," and that we sought union with our intention. And, if only for a few moments, I found that through yoga. For the first time in a long time, I was able to be there and in the moment: relaxed, healed, whole, calm, at peace.
Courtney's column runs biweekly Fridays. She can be reached at c.hartnett@cavalierdaily.com
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