Yoga in the Conference Room

This guy is rocking Eagle Pose and his ponytail!

In May and June I signed up for yoga through On-Site Fitness. In case you can't deduce what this company is all about, they bring fitness classes to work sites. Penguin was offering yoga and Pilates, both on a 12 week schedule. The cost worked out to $12 a class, which is a good price for a yoga class. I knew from my Penguin orientation that yoga was offered at work, so I jumped at this opportunity. Immediately after signing up, various second thoughts came to me. How comfortable would I feel wearing yoga tights in the office? I tend to sweat a lot under normal circumstances -- how would I deal with being extra sweaty after class? How weird would it be to a) do yoga in the conference room and b) possibly do yoga with co-workers? I also hadn't taken a yoga class since we moved from Delaware; I was concerned about jumping back in. 

The class was held in the conference room on my floor, which is also right next to the bathroom, so my fear about wearing yoga tights in the office was slightly allayed. I could dash from the bathroom to the conference room and rarely ran into anyone in professional garb. Whew! I came up with the great (though hardly original) idea of keeping baby wipes and deodorant with my yoga clothes, so there was the solution to the sweating. I didn't get as sweaty as I thought I would -- perhaps it was the air conditioning keeping my glands in check. 

The question of exercising in the conference room was by far the biggest to wrap my mind around. Not too long before I started yoga, I had attended a launch meeting (where a new season of titles is announced) in this conference room. I wouldn't say it was transformed for yoga because the only change was having the tables and chairs moved to one side. The instructor, a real pro at leading classes in boardrooms, turned the lights almost completely off, so once we were into the routine, I wasn't thinking about the fact that I was in a meeting space. I also didn't work directly with any of the other students, so I didn't have to deal with doing asanas next to a colleague. It would have made for an interesting bonding experience, however. How great would it be if business were done over a little yoga and meditation instead of golf and drinking? 

Happily, too, my trepidation about taking a class soon vanished. I was glad at how easy it was to jump back in. I really missed it, too. I like doing yoga at home with my favorite Gaiam instructors, but it's a totally different experience from a class. I like the guiding narration a good instructor provides. I also like hands on teachers who will help you adjust your position and show you where you can improve. Rodney Yee leads a great routine, but he doesn't speak to me from my TV. 

The twelve weeks of class went by really quickly. It did help jumpstart my practice and I've found more time to do yoga at home. I memorized the routine we did in class and do that at home now too. It still takes a lot of my determination to get myself to practice at home. I'm always more tempted to either relax or clean. At the same time, the little taste of structure that I had for those twelve weeks did a lot for my motivation. Namaste!