Yoga Was NOT Made for Fat People

So today was interesting. Normally I workout with my trainer but he had better plans so I went to the lady gym instead (don't worry, I made up my session with him earlier this week). I took a Zumba class and stayed for yoga (same instructor).

I have had this instructor before for Zumba and turbo kick boxing and she is little and spunky and sweet. Today I learned she is also a super, bendy pretzel girl. OMG! She did moves NO ONE in the class had any hopes of trying. We are talking standing on one leg, the other leg trying to touch your nose (in standing position mind you) while your arms were wrapped around your back. I, my friends, stood and stuck one leg out. That is about as flexible and balanced as I am.

The other lady gym has a real mellow instructor for yoga who does not try such foolishness. For that, I appreciate her. So I wanted to quit and walkout but things got better, so I stayed. Fast forward to the end of class where we tried to reverse our blood flow. This involved laying on the back of our head with our legs slung over our bodies and trying to touch our toes to the floor above our heads (kind of like a closing letter 'c'). This is where I determined (not sure why it took me so long) that yoga was not made for fat people.

I am a very stiff, muscular person so it is not easy for me anyway but add some fat to that position and it is hard to breath. I could breath fine today but if I had done that 80 pounds ago, someone would have had to unroll me just so I could catch my breathe - that I am sure of.

So I will wait for the Tuesday night class from now on (I only do it for the additional stretching, my muscles are real bad about that). Yoga at home might be an even better idea.

Did I ever bitch on here about my right knee cap hurting? Not when I exercise, but later in the day when I am walking around my house. Advil did nothing for it. My trainer loves to roll, punch and hurt my muscles. Everyday he'll say "what hurts?" and then torture ensues. We have talked about the knee cap before and he swore it was my quad muscle up by my hip (I thought he was bat-shit crazy, but I kept that to myself).

So Friday, since it was the only thing hurting, he decided to really work on that muscle (he has been working on it for weeks but it still hurt - hence the bat-shit crazy). He found a lump (muscle knot I guess) like a bar of soap and told me to just have a high pain tolerance for the day. After about 5 minutes of extreme pain from him pushing on it, it popped.

Not kidding. A serious pop in my leg that had me rolling and then up and running away from him as fast as I could. He was proud. I was mortified thinking he popped a muscle. We stretched alot and worked out. Can I tell you.....I have had NO knee pain since. It is amazing. I swam for about two hours tonight and made myself a little workout in the pool. It was delightful with no pain and being 80 pounds lighter than last summer.

The moral of the story is, sometimes it pays to let the professionals do their job. Unless they are trying to get you to bend yourself into a pretzel.