120 Hours of Yoga

Day 31, Hour 25 of 120 Hours of Yoga Every time I walk into the yoga building, my routine is the same: check-in to class, leave my flip-flops on the floor near the shoe bins, walk into the studio and settle into my spot until class starts. Most of my time there is spent in silence. I might say hello to the instructor as I walk in, or tell them I checked-in using the app, but that's all. I hear other students chatting outside the yoga studio door as they arrive. Clearly some know each other, or attend class with a friend or a partner. I'm here by myself. When I walked in to Modo for hour 25 of my 120 hour yoga challenge, Austin was standing behind the desk. We engaged in conversation. Not just "hello, how are you, see you in there", but actual conversation. We chatted for maybe 5 minutes. We ended the conversation with "see you in the studio" and then I placed my flip-flops where I always do. If you've read my past blog entries, you'll know that I alw...

Day 28, Hour 22 of 120 Hours of Yoga I attended yoga twice today: 6am and 6pm. This is the second time that I've done 2 classes in one day and I like the challenge. Because this is a hot-yoga studio, I'm careful to drink a ton of water, especially on the days that I practice twice. The studio has an app that allows you to schedule classes from your phone, and check-in to class up to 30 minutes before class starts. "Contactless check-in" helps things flow more smoothly especially when a lot of people are coming in for class at the same time, where the lobby can get a bit congested as people wait in line to check-in at the front desk.  I installed the app and have used it to check in the last few days. As I approached the building for the evening class, about 25 minutes before class started, I opened the app on my phone and checked-in.  The studio is now allowing students to enter almost 30 minutes early, up from the recent 15, as long as the cleaning from the previous ...

Days 9-27, Hours 9-21 of 120 Hours of Yoga I've missed a few hours of yoga over the last couple of weeks. With my mom in town for my son's birthday, and extra obligations as his school year wraps up, I've missed about 7 days of yoga. I plan on making up the time by doubling up on classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays for a while. I should be caught up within a month.  Some exciting news about my progress: My balance is improving. It's amazing what balancing poses tell you about yourself! I'm stronger in some poses than I would have expected, and not as strong in poses I would have thought I'd be stronger in. Some of my favorite instructors give suggestions for micro-adjustments that really help me to try and move into a better pose. Squeeze your shoulder blades together during eagle pose. Keep your knees parallel while sitting back and twisting your torso to one side, reaching elbow towards opposite thigh. Reach back foot toward the back of the room during toppling-...

Day 8, Hour 8 of 120 Hours of Yoga I arrived at my usual time, about 30 minutes early, and waited in my car until 15 minutes before class started. The weather was gorgeous, and so I decided to join a small group of people standing outside, waiting for the doors to open. Everyone stood together, heads down, scrolling through their phones. 10 minutes before class .. 5 minutes before class .. the doors were still locked. A woman who was inside prepping food in the Seed Cafe finally unlocked the doors, apologizing and explaining there was a misunderstanding of who was supposed to teach that morning, but that "Phil was on his way". Phil is a co-owner of the yoga studio, and a DJ. I've been to 2 yoga classes over the last few years where the instructor played really loud music. One of these classes was at LifeTime Fitness, where I felt completely bifurcated expecting a meditative yoga class, but was instead drowned in an environment of flashing lights and loud music one might e...

Days 2-7, Hours 2-7 of 120 Hours of Yoga To my surprise I returned to Modo Yoga after Day 1. For an entire week I've showed up every single day for 1 hour of hot yoga. Day 1 has made me careful to not arrive more than 15 minutes before class starts. Sometimes I even wait for some other patron to enter the building first to absorb any punches of frustration that might come with clients arriving even 3 minutes too early (refer to Day 1 post for more info on that). As far as I can tell, what happened on Day 1 has not repeated itself this week, although over these last 6 days the classes have been led by 5 different yoga instructors. Each of them has been incredible in their own way. Thanks to Austin, KJ, Emma, Natalie, and Dave, I keep coming back. I'm still choosing to set up my mat in the far back corner of the room. I cannot see myself ever setting up in the front row, directly in front of the mirror, with 4 rows of mats and 4 rows of eyes behind me. I like the back corner beca...

Day 1, Hour 1 of 120 Hours of Yoga Starting yoga today. I'm not totally new to yoga. But most of my physical activity in the last 4 decades has been running, weight lifting, triathlons, and other push/pull/compete/race types of sports. 4 decades of this has caught up with me. Left shoulder pain, hip tightness, etc.  I've decided to make my new venture a challenge: 120 hours of yoga in 120 days. Initially the plan was to do one hour each day, but there are some days I won't be able to go, so I'll double up some days to make up for the missed ones. I really like hot yoga. I've tried Bikram and a couple other hot yoga studios. So I've committed to a 4-month unlimited membership at the hot yoga studio near my house: Modo Yoga. Day 1 / hour 1 starts today!  Things are just starting to open up here in Minneapolis after COVID. Masks are still required in restaurants and gyms. Modo has a vegan cafe connected to it (Seed Cafe) and they are just starting to offer limited ...