This past Sunday Ali and I took our 1^st yoga class at YogaLifeNH in Exeter.  Finding parking was a little difficult but, truth be told, that was the only negative part of the experience.  The building was in a little office park type area that was quaint and charming.  It was a brick building, easy to find due to the sign hanging out front.

First thoughts

The instructor, Allison, was manning the front desk and greeted us when we came in.  We took our shoes off, brought our mats into the studio, and sat down.  The class had 10 or 12 other people in it.  The atmosphere was very easy going and I didn’t feel out of place.  And yes, I was the only guy in the class.

The studio was clean, with polished wood floors and an interesting post and beam setup.  The back wall behind the instructor was brick, which was a nice detail.  The lights were dimmed and that gave the room a peaceful ambiance.

Run through of the class

She began with a description of Yoga and we had some back and forth on what we think of when we think of yoga.  She introduced the concept of the 8 limbs of yoga, which are yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana, and Samadhi.  After the intro, we went into some warm up poses.  These were some simple, small movement exercises (such as rolling our necks sided to side, rolling our shoulders, and extending (think reaching straight up into the air and yawing in the morning).

From there, we hit the meat of the practice, which included progressively more difficult poses.  The focus of the class was on side bends, though that is not all we did.  She explained that there would be a different movement ‘focus’ each week.  The side bends tended to provide stretching to the lower back and gave the abdominals a break.

We moved on to relaxation and some meditation to finish the class.  I get the impression that yoga practice tends to follow a similar pattern each time (warm up, meat of practice, relaxation, and meditation).  I am sure I missed some pieces in there but it was only my first class so I hope that is ok.  Certainly, there could be a method behind the ‘meat of the practice’ as I called it.

My thoughts

The intro itself could have been shorter.  I expect that most people would want to dive right in to the poses, or Asanas.  I was happy to get the information, as I believe that the more information the better.   It could have been more effective if she had shared the information throughout the practice instead of hitting us with it all at the beginning.

The poses were not overly difficult, which I was happy with, but I could definitely feel the muscles being worked, more so in the standing poses.  Despite the ‘ease’ of the poses, it clearly still felt like a workout (but without the soreness the next day).  For some of the standing poses, I found that I could not hold them as long as some of the others in class (such as Ali, but don’t tell her).  I also noticed I had difficulty with my balance a few times, which I had not expected.  It will be interesting to see if that works itself out as I go along.

The stretching seemed more pronounced for me in the seated and laying down poses compared to standing.  I think that may be more a function of how I was doing them but we will see.  I already knew that I had a lot of tension in my hamstrings, especially my right hamstring, so I am looking forward to seeing an improvement in that over time.

The class was a little more spiritual than I assumed it would be. This seemed to be more a function of the women in class than the actual teacher herself.  Allison was very open right from the beginning that we didn’t need to treat it as a spiritual practice, but could if that was what called to us.

Overall, I was very happy with the class, even if it did run about 30 minutes over.  If you have never taken a yoga class then you are missing out.  I highly recommend it as a means to supplement whatever other training that you are doing.  So far, I also recommend YogaLife NH but will keep you posted.  I look forward to sharing the next class with you!