Each week, our entertainment reporter tries out a new activity. This time, Duncan Hall bends and stretches his way to inner enlightenment.
How to do..Yoga
WHY, oh why would anyone ever want to touch their toes?
It is a question I often find myself asking when feeling particularly unhealthy.
To be honest it is a good day when I can actually see my feet when I stand up, so touching them is not really something I really have a longing to do.
As I headed for my first yoga class, though, I sensed that I would be getting closer to them, as well as discovering exactly how inflexible I was.
That Yellow Pages advert with James Nesbit having to call a chiropractor after an advanced yoga class kept sticking in my mind.
Somewhat unusually for a How To, I was starting out in an intermediate class with teacher Vicki Squires, but she assured me she would go easy on me.
My internal monologue told me I had heard something like that before, but I bravely still went ahead and joined in.
The class at the Herlington Centre in Orton Malbourne, Peterborough was mixed, although the women outnumbered the men two to one.
I was glad to see not everyone was as perfectly toned as Vicki either – I was not the only one who had a bit of a belly or was sweating as I walked in. And unlike most exercise classes I don’t think I was the youngest there.
Things were looking up.
We started off simply enough – lying on our backs on a soft mat, with our shoes and socks off as we warmed up our muscles.
It was strange though – I realised how rarely you find yourself lying completely on your back without any support anywhere. Vicki made sure I had a rolled mat under my knees so I didn’t start feeling pain in my chest or back.
Then the actual moves began. They reminded me a little of the tai chi moves I tried a few weeks ago, although you would never get down on your hands and knees in tai chi.
These were much more about flexing muscles all over the body in long stretches and moves and timing your breathing with them.
And yes, in the salute to the sun move – which is generally used to loosen up and is designed to correspond to an inhalation or exhalation – I found myself heading toe-wards and missing completely.
It did not seem to matter though – as was proved in a later move, the tortoise posture, which split the class down the middle.
Half the class were in what we were told was an extremely relaxing position, with their head right down between their knees and their arms hanging loose behind them. The rest of us were simply sitting up laughing at how inflexible we were.
I surprised myself with how flexible I was – as you can see from the picture I can hold a tree posture with the best of them, and my warrior was genuinely scary (although that may be because it demonstrated just how big my belly was!)
And all the way through our bodies were being worked out – although it did not really feel like it. A couple of times going through a move you could feel yourself tire a little – but it wasn’t the same feeling as if you were running a mile. Again like the tai chi, it was very low impact, and very rewarding.
When we cooled off with a relax session – lying in the dark with soothing music on and stretching and releasing our muscles – I found myself falling asleep I felt so relaxed.
Vicki, the instructor, has been trained by the British Wheel of Yoga and specialises in teaching sports people.
She told me after the session that she first took up yoga after a car accident in her late 20s when she damaged her shoulder and hip.
Previously she had been a very active rower and windsurfer.
She said: “I remember my first class so well. After the activities I had been involved in I found yoga to be slow and boring. I brought the average age of the class down to 65!
“But there was me – a physical wreck surrounded by these amazing bodies that could move more freely than me and were at least twice my age. That was it for me – I wanted to know how it felt to touch my toes!”
I personally still do.
But I will treasure the Little Book of Yoga that she gave me at the end of the class to have a practice with.
My toes won’t know what’s hit them.