Kettlebells and Yoga – Not What I Want, But What I Need

It took me a while, but I finally made myself go to a class at the gym I joined recently. OK, maybe I shouldn’t say recently. Two months ago?

I keep promising my nutritionist I will increase my strength training, but getting back into it has been excruciating.

I’ve also wanted to start doing yoga again. I’ve done it in the past. That may make you think I have some level if competence. Nope, absolutely none.

My body is not created for yoga. I have horrible balance, little flexibility, and my mind is controlled by ADHD, so quieting it is beyond my comprehension.

Obviously that is why yoga is called a practice – for people like me.

My first yoga teacher was amazing and the reason I keep trying. She told me never to pay attention to others in a class. What they can do is irrelevant. My body is the only one that’s my business.

She also told me I need to be gentle with my body. If I got up the next morning and was anything worse than pleasantly sore, I had gone too far. She always emphasized that yoga should be gentle on my body and improvement came slowly and gradually. I just had to keep doing it.

Those philosophies has helped this woman who grew up thinking she was not athletic to realize I hadn’t done athletic things, The goal is to make small changes for a lifetime. Changes for my body and not anyone else’s.

I’d forgotten about that and let my body stop doing much of anything. I’m trying to get that back.

The other aspect of the new gym is that it is, well, foreign to me. I’m not comfortable there yet. My shyness comes out when I have to walk into a new class, though almost always I am greeted by kindness.This has been a barrier to me getting there.

But last night I told myself it was time. I went to the class. I was the second to arrive. I told the instructor it was my first time. She took me under her wing.

The woman who got there before me was also new, but she had done other classes there. Two other women arrived, regulars. Evidently several who also come regularly we’re out last night.

The instructor threw out her original lesson plan and led us through a gentle class. It was nice. I can tell she will help me be successful. In fact, she told me if I went into child’s pose for the whole class until I got comfortable that was OK.

But I didn’t. I made it through the whole class.

I hate kettlebells. I used them in a class before and they made me feel like a failure. This time I had a 5 lb. one. It was manageable.

The class is an hour and a half long, which is way longer than I want to be in a class. But I need every bit of it. It’s only offered twice a week, so I figure that is doable.

So I got through. I plan to go Friday morning and do it again. I also saw there is a spin class afterward. Maybe one to try later?

Starting to get your body in shape when you have been way too sedentary is so hard. I hate putting myself out there and being though a failure. Funnily enough that failure label is most often in my own mind. It’s also a lie. You really can’t fail if you try. You just keep moving and trying new things.

My iPad charging cord broke last night, which is one of the reasons I went to the gym. But I’m glad it did. I had fun, started something new, survived it, and did a good thing for my body.

We can always find excuses, but why not make a positive change and try something outside of our comfort zone? Even if it doesn’t work out, we lived life a bit fuller.

Oh, the picture above? The hopscotch was in Old Navy. Do you walk on by it or give it a try? I gave it a gentle try. I’m not supposed to jump these days because my knees are teetering towards surgery and I try to avoid surgery. But even if you do it very gently as I did, I think it does something good for your brain. We need to bring back childhood play as we try to get or stay fit.