Bend and stretch, reach for the stars
It was Romper Room that introduced a generation of children to Yoga. Of course they didn’t call it yoga then, they said it was “bend and stretch”. Children might think it was yoghurt and get all confused. But I now know that yoga is what it was.
Last night I revisited my childhood. I went to my first yoga class. There were about forty other students, two of which were male. Kirsten’s theory is that this is because men are competitive and feel that they must progress up a level each term, whilst women are not compelled to follow, and are happy to stay at a comfortable level. There were very few of us newbies, so perhaps she has a point. Or perhaps, as I observed, it is because yoga is for chicks.
OK, I admit that that was written with tongue in cheek (mouse in cheek?), but there is an element of truth to it. This was a very gentle exercise. No sweat, no panting. Just bending and stretching. I was there for two hours and I came out relaxed, but not tired or feeling as if I had exercised. Luckily I still have kickboxing for that…
It always comes back to kickboxing, so here it is. To be honest, whilst at yoga I wasn’t being all hippy and at one with things. I was thinking how these postures could be useful for kickboxing. I don’t mean that I will invent a ‘Yoga Style’ of kickboxing, I mean that the stretches and balancing will make me more flexible, and so will improve my kickboxing. But then again…perhaps I have stumbled on the path that will lead me to the fabled Shaolin Buddha Finger.