Hey Pearls...
Your story sounds similar to how mine began (yoga and bellydance drew me in, totally).
Yoga is SUPER intimidating because all you tend to see at yoga classes and on Yoga DVDs and such are these super skinny bendy pretzel people! But, Yoga is totally do-able and accessible at any size.
I only recently went to my first in-person class a few months ago, though I'd been practicing yoga quite regularly for several years prior (and getting pretty darn flexible and strong doing it!) and even then, even with years of my own personal practice under my belt, being the only fat girl in the room was really intimidating and made me feel very self conscious...
Until....
I realized that even though I easily weighed an extra 50-80lbs more than any other girl in that room, my poses were confident, flexible and strong because despite all the media that is really badly misfocused, yoga is VERY accessible at ANY size or fitness level and trust me - size/shape has little to do with how flexible you are or *can be* over time.
Progress in yoga comes slowly in some poses and quicker in others but it comes steadily and surely for everyone. It's the one 'exercise' I can do where I physically feel and see results very quickly, if not in the way my body 'appears' right away, than in my posture, self-confidence, physical well being, etc.
Anyway, your post really struck a chord with me because had my first experience with yoga been a class, I would have gone home in tears and never tried it again. I got lucky that I tried it on my own first.
That said... I can recommend a few great resources if you want to give yoga a try without being so intimidated, in your own living room:
I actually began with an [ame="http://www.amazon.com/AM-PM-Yoga-Beginners-VHS/dp/094567189X"]old AM/PM Yoga for beginners set with Rodney Yee and Patricia Walden[/ame]. This was a dual VHS set (LOL) that had an AM tape and a PM tape. I'd do the AM one (about 20 mins) after stumbling out of bed, still in my jammies, in my living room in the dark with just the glow of the TV for light. And I'd do the PM one (about 15 mins I believe) just before bed. That was how I first began to get to know yoga. These were very simple and gentle and got me 'started'.
I moved on to other DVDs like [ame="http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0001GH7V8/ref=oss_product"]This DVD [/ame](Yoga Conditioning for Weight Loss) is one I found after trying several others and really liked because this dvd features four different instructors doing the poses simultaneousely, each with slightly different body shapes showing you four different ways you can do/modify the pose.
And more.
But I got bored with the repetitiveness.
Once I got used to the DVDs, I had heard about some free yoga classes on podcasts. I wasn't sure I could follow along just listening without a visual cue on the TV, so I tried my usual DVDs a few times while facing away from the TV and found it wasn't so hard.... so I downloaded some podcasts and started doing those.
This one I discovered first:
Hillary's Yoga Podcast
And through her, I discovered
Elsie's Yoga Kula (podcast)
And after having done them all multiple times (the one hour classes), I started browsing around and found
Faith Hunter's All The Way Live Yoga podcast
These three instructors offer their classes free on their websites and all are featured free on iTunes, too!
In all three, they say in the podcast description what 'level' the class is. beginner is level 1 but the podcasts are slightly more advanced if you haven't had much experience with yoga poses to start with.
As of today, my favourites now are Elsie and Faith's podcasts. My coworker and I try to do yoga during our lunch break at work a minimum of three days a week, with one of those being a class we go to, together. I'm still a little intimidated in the classes but found the in person teaching/adjusting has just grown my practice.
Anyway, I've gone on for way too long. Basically, if you're drawn to yoga I recommend trying a simple DVD to start out with and get to know how yoga feels in your body when you start simply and gently. Get some bricks and a strap for help modifying poses where you're less flexible. I got a kit that had a mat, two bricks, and a strap when I was brand new that cost me like $30 at a kiosk in a mall (Zensation brand) and that mat still is one of the best I've ever owned. In hindsight what I found is that the biggest 'barrier' to doing yoga in a bigger body is that our parts get in the way in different ways. The reality is that even super skinny people have to modify poses because they simply aren't that flexible. It's more about finding a good DVD, instructor, or podcast that helps to teach you different ways to modify a pose at different levels so that you get a stretch but aren't hurting yourself. And some poses are simply impractical for bigger bodies, but over time you can learn other poses that you can do in place of those that still work the same muscles or stretch you in similar ways.
as to Bellydance, I have really enjoyed bellydance workout DVDs too and found they really helped me in the beginning, also!
I've tried and owned most of the easy to find ones - and up here in Canada, there's a new fitness trend called
Bellyfit that is a fun workout that is very friendly to a variety of body shapes that blends dancing moves inspired by bellydance, some tribal dance, bhangra, and incorporates some toning and flexibility stuff inspired by yoga and pilates. They have a DVD that ships to the states too that you can order online. Could be fun for something else that's a bit different!
Quote:
Originally Posted by PearlsNLace
I went to a yoga class today. And left, 1/3 of the way through it, feeling so fat, so slow, so akward, so stiff. I left, literally, crying to my car. UGH.
VERY FRUSTRATING.
I went home and worked with a belly dancing tape, in the privacy of my home, no mirrors, just watching the video, and learning how my body FEELS, not condeming how it looks. It was an exhausting workout, and I felt empowered and hopefull.
I may stick to using the pool and treadmill at the gym for a while. If anyone has USED, and enjoyed, a video that is DESIGNED for big bodies, Id like to know about it.
Pearls
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