The Yoga Debacle

I love introducing people to the things I love. Really, really love it. If I can get you to do what I do then that means I have someone to discuss it with who actually understands what I am talking about. I mean, when was the last time you tried talking to a bunch of PTA moms about your K/D ratio? On the flip side I also love introducing my gamer and geek friends to a few "normal" things. 

A couple of weeks ago one of my close friends ( I will name her Miss Missing for future reference purposes) and I were talking about losing weight and getting more flexible so that we can fight better on the Amtgard field. We want to be able to kick some of the guys butts. The drawback to our plan was that we both have some slight health issues, hers being worse than mine. Light bulb moment comes upon me and I say "Hey Miss Missing, ever tried yoga?" Turns out she has never done it but has always wanted to try it out. I quickly extolled the virtues of it to her and we decided that she would stay the night at my place and we would try it the next morning. Before going to bed that night I gave her this warning, "Don't overextend yourself, take it slow and go at your own pace. Don't try to follow the lady on the video because she goes pretty fast on some parts and you won't be able to keep up with her." 

The next morning we get up and get our stuff together. I pop in the video and calmly explain a few of the moves and how she can adjust them a little to accommodate her problem areas so that she won't hurt herself.  The first 10 minutes are fine, we are hitting each pose on cue and she is feeling good about it. It is at this moment that the lady speeds up. Having been to several classes and done the video more than a few times, I am used to the set that we are going through. It is a very common stretch series. It starts in mountain pose and ends the same way. 

Like this video from 1:48 to 3:20 but extremely fast

So I am going along with this quite nicely and it takes me awhile before I realize that there isn't any movement where she is. I look over and she is standing there looking from me to the TV like the world just went wacko on her. I pause the video, look at her and ask "Issues?" That was about the time she broke. She went off on how people who do this must have a screw or two loose and that she thought yoga was supposed to be slow and why was this lady so fraking fast. I admit, all I did was sit back and laugh because, you know......I had warned her. I let her go off for a bit and when she calmed down I let her play with my hair (she likes how straight and fine it is and it let her get back at me with a few good yanks here and there) while we watched a few movies. 

We have decided that we will give this another go sometime. She claims to have a beginner DVD that we can use that might suit her better. I think we will just end up on the couch watching my Game of Thrones DVDs but that is just the way we roll baby.