Yoga-At-Home

My Studly Hubby showed some fleeting interest in yoga so I dragged him into doing some with me last weekend. Normally on Sundays I try to go to a yoga class. The Studly Hubby is not into the class - mainly because it's 105F. This is understandable. As I wasn't feeling completely better yet, I was easily convinced that it might be a better situation for us both to just go through all the moves we do in class at home. I used to teach a stretch class, and have been to quite a few yoga classes, so I feel like I'm able to take us through the moves (although I'm not nearly as good at talking us through the poses as they are in my classes, I am very willing to admit). I'm normally pretty unmotivated when it comes to doing it on my own, but with the Studly Hubby there it was more motivating and more fun. He and I were both totally sore the next day and pleased with ourselves so decided to repeat the process again this week. Here are some pros and cons that I've found to doing yoga-at-home.

Pro:
You have no mirrors, no one else looking at you, and plenty of room to fall down.
Con:
No mirrors, no one else looking at you, and plenty of room to fall down means you don't try quite as hard.

Pro:
You can schedule it for whenever you want.
Con:
You may not actually get it scheduled.

Pro:
You can get in extra bonding time with your Studly Hubby.
Con:
Staring at your spouse while doing painful yoga poses may not be a pleasant bonding experience.

Pro:
You save a lot of money that you would have spent on class.
Con:
You immediately spend that money "rewarding" yourself with candy and chocolate (or at least I do, and I'm SURE the rest of you do too).

Pro:
If you feel crappy, hungry, thirsty, or have some injuries, you can modify your routine accordingly (this is a major pro)
Con:
You can easily convince yourself that you feel too crappy, hungry, or thirsty... or might get injured... so shouldn't do the next five things you normally would do in class - and hence, you let yourself slack around a lot more.

So as you can see I still fully understand the merits of a yoga class but there are definitely some good things to be said for our new at-home strategy. I think we're going to keep trying it for now, and maybe we'll even stay motivated and get a little stronger and more flexible while we're at it! I think yoga is a perfect complement to running.