Why Yoga?

Why Yoga?
I would answer: “why not?”
I’ve always been very sportive, but reaching almost thirty, I start to feel some pain here and there. I face the fact that I’m not fifteen any more. Jumping out of the bed, doing a handstand and walk around on my hands from the bedroom to the bathroom, cycling to school, doing intensive ballet, … it was all daily routine for me.
I felt my body was changing a lot, especially in the transition of being a student to the working life. Coming from a very active youth, followed by physical educational studies at university where we practised 4 hours of sports each day, to a sedentary job. I calculated that suddenly I was sitting 12 hours a day (8h working, 2h driving a car, 1h lunch/diner, 1h couch).
When I look back at my past, I’ve done a lot of different kinds of sports. After, dancing, football, basketball, handball, volleyball, tennis, badminton, swimming, judo, gymnastics, fitness, wall climbing, aerobics, steps, figure training, Zumba, … it was time for something new. I had the feeling that I passed the whole sports trail already, so it should be something which is healthy for my body.
I don’t say that these sports aren’t healthy, but when you reach a certain age you know that if you f.e. make brusque movements, the chance of getting injured is much higher than when you are fifteen. I have always pushed my body hard and often injured myself when over tired.
So, I was introduced to some form of Acrobatic Yoga, some months ago, taught by a colleague engineer of my husband. It was done every Sunday outside at Raffles Place. This was the first time I performed any form of Yoga. I often read about Yoga and always had the urge to practice it, but never took the step to do so. So this was a motivation to push myself into these classes.
So after these few classes of this acrobatic form of Yoga I wanted to take it a step further and go for a teacher class.
I wanted to learn new movements to make the body stronger with less gravitational impact (f.e. jumping). Because I felt that in the world of fitness I was getting bored with the same exercises over and over again. If you watch which exercises you get in figure training, back prevention school, some aerobic lesson, in a fitness centre, you see that the same exercises are more or less used at the different disciplines. I wanted new stuff, new movements, and a holistic concept.
This is how I got to know Tirisula Yoga and I loved it from day one.
All though like I already mentioned, my education at university was based on sports, I have hardly spilled so much sweat as in the very first Yoga class. It was overkill but my body enjoyed every single second. The good thing about Yoga is that it is a good mix of eccentric and aeroob training. After these few weeks, it has strengthened my core. My muscles are lengthened and strengthened, not only making me more flexible, but also improving my endurance. Getting to know the different breathing techniques gave me inner discipline and focus which is very useful for any type of sport but also in normal daily life. I feel that Yoga will help me in the way I’m approaching the daily routine.
When we are back in Belgium and I start to work again, I don’t have the time to practise a lot of hours of sports. If I make time for it, it should be worth it and efficient. Yoga is perfectly suited to practice until my old days to remain lean and strong.
Anja, 200hr weekday – personal reflection 1