My Introduction to Yoga
My Introduction to Yoga
I am about to enter my fifth month of doing yoga almost daily. I was naturally flexible in my younger years and loved stretching; I had some confidence that I'd be fine if I persisted. I did feel that being fat gave some limitation on certain moves, which is most noticeable in those first few days. I wanted to write about how yoga can be done even if you're not skinny and flexible, and this intention had me searching for pictures of the fatties doing yoga, although I couldn't find any with the search terms I was using.
I eventually found references to a couple of people on Instagram who are large and posting pics of themselves as 'body positive' role models. I think it's beyond stupid to link 'body-positive' with obesity; it ain't healthy, not physically nor psychologically. But, this is an introduction to my journey with yoga so I can take a closer look at social attitudes to our bodies on another day.
Fat or Inflexible?
Yoga can be done by the clinically obese; I've seen pictures, so it happened. Seriously, though, I saw enough to be convinced that it's possible and am now of the opinion that my initial difficulty was probably down to lack of practice rather than the size of my gut. I was nowhere near obese when I began; I was only just grabbing at the end of the bar of what can be considered healthy.
Positive Health Effects Why I’m Doing It
I've come across way too much information extolling yoga's apparent health perfection (it's not a phenomenon specific to this group). The truth is, there is little hard science to back up the majority of the claims. That being said, solid clinical evidence does exist for its ability to lower back pain and reduce inflammation. Anecdotally speaking, my posture and attitude towards my health, in general, have both improved significantly. Regular practice, especially done at home, has been instrumental in helping me to establish a more caring attitude towards what I eat and how I treat myself in general. I know it's cliched and a bit cheesy, but yoga has helped me clean up my act physically and mentally.
What it Doesn't Do
Unless you're doing one of the extremely active styles, you're unlikely to lose much weight and toning up will take forever. You need to look elsewhere for your cardio.
Why I’m Doing It
For the most part, I've been avoiding the cross-trainer, so I'm fairly sure the changes I've experienced in my mind and body have come from yoga and diet alone. Altogether since late April, I've lost around nineteen pounds. Slow and steady progress but a good achievement considering I chose to change my diet rather than simply go on one. I do yoga most days because I spend too much time sitting on my arse, and I see it as a way to be kind to myself. While I have always had a good level of communication with my body, I've found that daily practice has helped me become considerably more proactive in responding to the messages I get from my inner self. I put more effort into posture when I'm sitting at my desk and will stretch what I can whilst sitting throughout the day. I was dieting before the yoga, but I'd rather eat better these days because I don't want an overloaded stomach before I do a session (which is often late in the day). In short, I find yoga supports the effort I was already making, and as a result, it's made my life easier. When I say my life, I mean my general well-being. I hope to continue my almost daily practice for the foreseeable future.
A Place To Begin
I've stuck with freebie youtube vids for my home practice. I tried a few before settling with Adriene, who also offers subscription-based stuff, but I love that you can access a boatload of her content for free here.
I tend not to worry about diving into something headfirst and never bothered to get to grips with the basic poses. However, here's a playlist of all the basic poses for those who prefer to do things in order.
