Yoga Poseur

I started taking yoga classes last week, and already I've mastered tree pose, downward facing dog, cat and cow, warrior, triangle, and ... liar's pose. Yes, I'm totally lying. I fall a lot, I wobble, and I don't flow from position to position. Instead, I do my own version of yoga, which I like to call "shuffle and plunk." So far the only pose I've actually done right is the corpse pose, flat on my back -- and during this morning's class, I even felt shifty and off-balance doing that one, because I couldn't get my butt to flatten out evenly underneath me. Over the years, I've tried to find an exercise and fitness routine I like. Swimming is okay, but it's limited to just a few locations. (If I had a pool in my living room, I'd swim all the time.) Walking is boring. Running just hurts. I actually like going up and down stairs, but I live in a one-level house -- so I've been marching up and down a hillside flight of steps in the park a lot lately. I realized this summer, though, that I really needed to find some sort of routine I can maintain long-term. I went through a couple of mid-level traumas -- a court case and a family illness -- and I reacted by packing on the pounds. In fact, I gained 20 pounds in just a few weeks. I wish that extra weight was in my backside, so I could say that my problems are all behind me, but it's all front and center, in my stomach. And if you've ever seen me in person, you know that an additional 20 pounds is the last thing I needed to add to my already ample figure. At around the same time, though, a yoga studio opened a mile from my house. I took it as a sign. It's hard to pretend there's nothing I can do about my health and weight when there's a crew of yoga teachers practically breathing down my neck. So I signed up, and I've committed (to myself) to go regularly until Christmas, at least. The classes I've taken so far have all been vinyasa yoga, a streamlined, flowing yoga in which we're supposed to move from one pose to another as we inhale or exhale. It's very physical; the instructor I signed up with is in his early 20s, and he's slim and muscular. It's an open-level class, so he told me I could come, but it's not a beginner's class, so he doesn't slow down much to explain the poses or make adjustments. Really, I just keep up the best I can. Next week I'll get into the groove with an actual beginner's class. I'm hoping to get help with some of the side stretches and twisting bends; not surprisingly, my new stomach gets in the way of the vinyasa moves I've tried in class so far. I also stopped by amazon.com this morning and ordered a book called Megayoga, which illustrates adjustments and modifications for bodies like mine. In the meantime, I think I'll work on perfecting my corpse pose some more. I'm pretty sure that with just a little practice, I'll have it down cold.