For the last few years, I’ve tried to incorporate yoga into my workouts at least once (if not twice) a week. It’s a great complement to lifting since lifting contracts the muscles and yoga stretches them out. At first, I hated it. I forced myself to go. I wasn’t bendy and it made my head feel weird afterwards. Kinda headachy and kinda floaty, but not a pleasurable feeling.
I participated in a New Year challenge at a local hot yoga studio 2 years ago, and something in me changed. Being forced to relax a specific number of times a week made me realize that it wasn’t such a bad thing for a Type A personality. I had to go since I’m not usually one to back out of a challenge. In fact without being forced into it, I probably wouldn’t relax half the time.
Like many things though, it was hard to fit classes at the studio into my schedule. They had a class and I was busy, and vice versa. So I had to cancel my membership since it was pretty much going unused after the challenge ended. Shortly after that, I found online classes through YogaDownload.com. I started out taking their free classes to make sure that it was something that I enjoyed and that worked for me.
I took quite a few of the free ones and then bit the bullet and signed up for a membership during National Yoga Month. Last year they did a Meditation Challenge where you were given a meditation class to take daily for a certain number of days. Of course I signed up and faithfully did about… oh 4 classes, and then completely bailed out.
Hey, I admit it. I can be force to bend, I can be forced to relax, but I can’t be forced to meditate. Nope. Next month YogaDownload is having a 21 day Yoga Bootcamp and Detox Challenge. Once again, I’m accepting the yoga torch for the challenge and I hope to do 21 days of it. I can’t say for sure that I’ll do all 21 days but I’ll give it a try since meditating isn’t a requirement. I’m only doing the bootcamp portion and not the detox part.
The challenge starts on 4/1 and runs through 4/21. There’s a Facebook group to go along with it, and it’s $10 to purchase a discounted Month Elite Membership (regularly $18) so you can stream and/or download every class from the challenge with discount code BootCamp14. If you’re already a member, the classes are included with your subscription.
They also have other membership options as well as a nice collection of free classes to do just for the heck of it. If you join in the Bootcamp, let me know so we can motivate each other and see how we’re doing. The details say that there are specially chosen classes for the Bootcamp but you can do others in their place. I might have to pick a shorter class on some of the days depending on my schedule but hopefully I’ll be feeling accomplished and relaxed on 4/22.
Disclaimer: I’ve been a member with YogaDownload.com since 2012 when I joined and I do their classes several times a week. I wasn’t asked to do the Bootcamp nor am I being compensated in anyway for posting about it or participating in it. I personally just wanted to join in and it’s included with the membership that I have. The links in this post are affiliate links and I get a portion of your $10 monthly fee if you join through the link. You are welcome to join on your own without clicking on my links or participate in the free classes without obligation.
As much as it pains me to admit this, my mother (a yoga teacher) is right. Yoga can actually be fun and something that I enjoy. Phew, I’ll deny saying that if my mother ever asks. We’ll keep that just between you and me. Shhhhh! 😉
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