I am so sore after taking my first lesson yesterday. Feel so tired and like I’m catching a cold, is that normal?
Soreness is probable for new students since you are obviously using muscles that have been idle. This can be exacerbated when the student also comes from a less active lifestyle. The muscle soreness should ease after about 72 hours. It can be helped along by a warm epsom salts bath and hydration.
A feeling of fatigue is also possible but now we’d actually have to have a deeper conversation about what sort of person is doing the practice and what sort of practice that person is doing. Ideally, no an appropriate practice should not fatigue the student, all things being equal (and by all thing I mean they are well rested and eating proper nutrition in the first place). Sometimes the practice exposes things we are holding and unaware of. Other times it stirs things up and moves them around and this can result in nausea, headaches, and sickness.
gordon
Thank you for the reply. I will take your advise, I guess I wasn’t in as good of shape as I thought.
Justine
“Shape” comes in layers, just like health and truth.
Sometimes when I push my body in ways I haven’t done before, I get flu like symptoms. It is your body’s way of recovering. I know it sounds weird, but this has happened to me after a really long run and after a really challenging Bikram Yoga Class. It was my first Bikram Yoga Class I attended in several months and at a higher altitude, so I was definitely challenging my body. And to the InnerAtheletes comment, I wasn’t hydrated properly nor did I eat right prior to class, which has more effect that you would think on your practice.
Keep it up! Atleast you made the effort to try:)
GOOD for you!
I wish I can feel sore!
I have to do yoga probably all day long to feel sore now:)!
Keep going it is normal!
And welcome to the forum:)
The feeling of coming down with a cold, as others have said, is normal. Doing yoga releases emotions and physical toxins that have been trapped in your body, and will manifest in different ways. Just make sure you are drinking plenty of water to flush your body well every day. It’s just as important to drink a lot of water a day or two before practice as it is to drink it for a couple of days after (and during!) as well.
It doesn’t hurt to take a little extra vitamin C either - lactic acid is released when we work our muscles, and this is what contributes to the soreness. Having enough vitamin C in your system helps the body carry the lactic acid away from the muscles so you aren’t as sore.
it also helps tremendously to take a very hot (hot as you can stand) bath with epsom salts (1/2 to 1 cup) and soak for as long as you feel comfortable, as the epsom salts are a slight muscle relaxant, and also have some drawing power and will help draw toxins out through the skin.
Good for you, and keep it up!