Greetings everyone!
That was actually my first response when asked attend a yoga class. I have been practising for several years now and I find it very amusing to look back and see the transformation from then to now. I just want to take a moment and share a small part of the beginning of that path.
"Yoga is for Girls"
When I was in college a close friend of mine first asked me to join him for a yoga class, I was sitting in the gym before a routine workout, and I leaned in and replied “Isn’t yoga for girls?” lol. That was that as far as yoga was concerned and I proceeded to blow him off for the next few months insisting that yoga was “just for girls”. I mean really, guys work out in the gym and I only see women and gay men doing yoga!
Eventually though, I relented and finally made it up for my first class. Walking in and seeing a room filled with 90% women, most of my assumptions were immediately proven true in my own head. As you can imagine that after attending a gym, exercising and running for several years that first class totally destroyed me. During class and looking around I recall thinking that everyone seemed to be having such an easy time with this… I’m a tough guy (meathead) I should be able to do this, it’s really just for girls anyhow. Honestly, if I had dropped dead in the middle of class I would not have been surprised. I mainly recalled having such an amazingly difficult time breathing, pfft who ever thought that was important! My friend commented after class that it gets so much easier when I learn how to breath. If you had said to me two hours beforehand that I did not know how to breath I would have looked at you like just left your dirty underwear in my bathroom! But after the experience I totally understood!
From these beginnings my yoga has grown to encompass all aspects of my life and my continues to unfold in such amazing ways. I am happy to join this community and hope to contribute, learn and expand my yoga even more.