Sometimes sitting still requires the most self-discipline, but it’s in sitting still, that the body does some of its best work. On Sunday, I took the Yin Yang Yoga class with instructor Brian Friedman at In Balance Yoga and Pilates and experienced a different kind of workout that seemed counter intuitive to the feel-the-burn, no-pain-no-gain premise of exercise. As my Pilates Reformer Instructor Karen Burris likes to say “Exercise shouldn’t hurt; it should feel good.” In other words, you should be able to wake up the next morning and move all of your body parts without popping an ibuprofen pill.
I’ll admit that the Yin Yang Yoga class challenged my patience more than my physical stamina but precisely because this is a restorative practice meant to stretch the deep connective tissues. In Yin Yang Yoga, I did several poses all designed to stretch the spine, and connective tissues in the core and legs. Because each of the poses is held three minutes, the hour and a half class involves about a dozen poses.
We started off with the mermaid pose lying on my back with the arms and legs bent towards each other in the letter C. This was a great way to loosen up and get into the rest of the poses. At first, I felt frustrated by the slow pace of the class since I am used to Flow Yoga but as my body began to loosen up, I realized Yin Yang was just what I needed to supplement the more taxing aspects of my yoga practice. The body needs restorative stretches for greater mobility and stability just as the body needs cardio for a healthy heart and weight bearing exercises for bone density.
Yoga and Pilates are workouts that connect the mind and body where you leave class feeling exhilarated physically and restored mentally. As Shari Nein, owner of In Balance, says, “Exercise isn’t something to be endured. It’s to be enjoyed. It shouldn’t be a time to zone out like running on a treadmill.” The idea of No Pain No Gain is all wrong and it turns people off to exercise. Who wants to subject themselves to self-inflicted suffering? Why start an exercise program that only seems like a chore? Pilates and yoga dispel that myth by showing you a kinder, gentler way to work out the body for health and well-being.
I look forward to my yoga and Pilates classes as “me” time; I don’t think of either practice as an exercise class. At the end of my yoga practice, I reward myself with final rest-that 5 to 10 minutes of meditation guilt free where my mind lets go of the day’s stresses and I focus inward. My Pilates practice leaves me feeling flexible, strong and peaceful, not exhausted and angry.
During a recent private Pilates Reformer class with Karen Burris, we started talking about this concept that the body needs to suffer in order to gain the benefits of exercise. She says that in a classic Pilates class, most repetitions are no more than 10 to 12, but if you are doing them correctly with controlled good form, they are effective and you will see results. After years of buying into the No Pain No Gain philosophy of exercise, eroding away my cartilage on the treadmill, Stairmaster, and in aerobics class, I reject the notion that exercise has to hurt to work. I still desire a lean, toned body, but I’ve discovered a better way to get those results-in the yoga and Pilates studio instead of a gym.
