Three Weeks Non-Stop Yoga

Non-stop yoga...makes it sound as if I'm in some type of binge yoga challenge.  All I'm really saying is I've attended Yoga classes every day for three weeks (except Fridays - for those of us that are counting - and I am).
In the grand scheme of things I am only spending an hour a day - an hour and fifteen minutes a day - stretching and holding up my own weight.  Yoga is no sweat exercise.  Three weeks of consistent work is starting to pay off.  But I wonder, when is it going to get easier?

When I say paying off I mean that I have more energy throughout the day.  I mean that my clothes have a smoother line.  I mean that even though I haven't checked I know my back is getting all buff.  I can't wait to see my back and upper arms in a tank top or one of my summer dresses. But, it's not getting any easier.  Classes include difficult poses.  My arms and shoulders still aren't limber enough to have my hands meet in the middle of my back in prayer.  Not that that was my goal.  Somehow it seems to be now.  I still can't bring my one arm around my back, loop the other arm under my thigh and have the two clasp somewhere  under said thigh while I open my chest to the sky.  And Wednesday night the instructor wanted us to do that AND lift our leg into a balance pose.  I laughed out loud.  Every evening I come home with a new ache, a new tenderness somewhere on my body.

Are the poses getting harder?  Am I no longer getting more limber?  Have I reached a limit?

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I had thought week two was the most difficult.  I found it hard to go to classes.  I had to put myself on auto-pilot to go to the studio and suit up.  The work wasn't hard, it was the mental challenge of being there.  I didn't want to go.  Yoga had lost all it's "fun".  I wasn't impressed with any of the instructors.  The studio was boring.  I wasn't able to clear my head.  I was questioning if I really wanted to do this every day, e-v-e-r-y day for another four weeks, for gawd's sake.  And then....

And then Friday came, and I was sorry there was no class that evening.  My shoulders wanted attention.  Just knowing I had no class made me want to go to class.

Saturday I realized how much fun my sweetie and are having since I started this exercise kick.  Wink, wink, Nudge, nudge.  Exercise is good for everyone concerned.  My selfish challenge is making more than just me happy.  OH! and my sweetie has been in our home studio this week using the treadmill and the knock-off Bowflex weight machine.  My feeling good makes him want to feel good too.  "Lead by example" - it makes a difference.

It's been a tough week this third week into the challenge.  My legs don't seem to want to hold me up in any of the three warrior poses.  It used to be that my arms were on fire holding them at shoulder height.  Now it's my thighs that are burning up during a simple lunge. My ankles are quaking under every balance pose I attempt.  Oh yes, my ankles seem to be arguing over which tendons are in charge of balance.  The tendons are trading off  responsibility as fast as spokes turning on a bicycle wheel.   When I get home at night my core feels as if my whole rib cage - the whole barrel of a cage - is bruised,  Of course it's not.  I don't even know which poses are working my core this hard.


Yoga is deceptively difficult.  I breathe into these postures.  I only push myself as far as I feel good.  I only hold a posture, an asana, for a couple breathes.  But at the end of the hour...my muscles are jelly. The challenge is real.  We are in the middle of this one.

No Yoga Friday

There's no yoga classes tonight. My body seems to be at loose ends. Or rather it is tightening up with the knowledge that it won't be stretching out this evening. I can feel every muscle in my shoulders, the whole carriage, is solidifying into one massive tightened heavy board across my back. Wouldn't it be nice to indulge in a massage therapist tonight?

Oh wait! Drop my shoulders away from my ears. Aha! (sigh) Yes, I am learning...but that massage sounds positively delicious.

photo found at rootedhealthnw.com (used without permission)

The Cost of a Yoga Teacher Certificate

There may be hidden charges in getting a certificate to teach Yoga. There are a couple of obscure remarks on these websites that lead me to think this way. I'm thinking this one through.

A basic Yoga Teacher Training Certificate is a 200 hour course. That means 200 hours of training. The vernacular for this is RTY200 Yoga Certificate.

One local studio has a tuition of $3,300. They have a payment plan, of course. The nice surprise is that the price is the same whether I pay all at once or go on the payment program. They could have easily tacked on a "processing" fee. What they do tack on is a three class per week minimum requirement. I see elsewhere on the site that those students that are in teacher training get a discount for classes. As a "drop in" the cost is discounted from $16 to $10 per class. Overall that comes to $30 per week, on top of the $3,300 for tuition. I am sure there are additional discounts if I were to sign up for a six month unlimited pass. The point remains, $3,300 is just the start.

I'm still shopping. Another studio offering training for the RTY200 Yoga Certificate offers the training at $3,000 with discounts for paying in full prior to start of training ($500 off the total). This studio has pricing for required classes at $40 a month for students. In essence for a ten month program the studio would recoup the $500 I saved by paying early. This studio also has a ten weekend program...it's in the fall. Maybe I can get my yoga-ness up to that level by fall. Maybe by fall I will be ready to immerse myself every weekend from October through December. I'm thinking about it. Three months versus ten months sounds like an accelerated program.

The most exciting option comes from the studio that only offers training. This is not your classic studio. This woman runs her studio only to train future yogi. What makes her studio so exciting is of the 200 hours of training the last 80 hours -two weeks- are spent overseas. She's a travel agent for yogi's. She is offering courses at $1,900 plus about $2,000 for the travel. I know, I know it's the most expensive at $3,900 but it includes international travel. This year she has booked a retreat in Puerto Vallarta. Next year in July she is looking at Greece. I can see where international travel has its appeal and its drawbacks. Though Greece sounds divine, it concerns me with the refugee issues occurring in the Mediterranean this year, and the financial instability of Greece in particular before that. At one point her site suggested Thailand. Now that option to me is a no-brainer, absolutely-yes-sign-me-up yoga retreat. I could say I did my training in Thailand. My passport would back me up.

Photo from wikitravel.org (used without permission)