Why I Always Go Back To Yoga

I love lifting weights. It’s a pretty new interest of mine and something that I’d never tried before the start of the year, but now it’s my favourite part of my workout routine. I puff through the burpies and cardio, but when it comes to doing some reps with something real heavy? That’s the bit I love. I always thought that you had to be bouncing around like a five year old in order to get a real sweat on, but it’s the lifts that get me sweating in a real ‘trickle down your back’ kinda way. I tell myself that I love to sweat but it’s more of a coping mechanism for the fact that I perspire like my Dad and hold the title of Paul’s ‘Second Sweatiest PT Client’. So proud.

Sweating aside, all this lifting is fab but it does leave me wanting a nice stretch. Muscles can cramp up and sometimes I feel a little squished and all I want to do is lie around like a cat all day, chasing the sun and doing those long, drawn-out stretches. Sometimes I find myself rubbing my shoulder in a doorway Baloo-style. That’s when yoga comes back into play; the mat gets brought out and up comes good ol’ Yoga With Adriene on my phone and into downward dog I go.

In the past I’ve completed the 30 Days of Yoga challenge, but these days I get my sweat on from other activities, so it’s more the yin, deep-stretching side that I want to get out of my practice (I tend to use the ‘Stretchy Sunday’ video on Madeleine Shaw’s ‘Glow Guides’ app). I still can’t touch my toes and wobble my way through any balances, but it’s time-out, away from my phone and my hamstrings thank me for it.

I’m more of an at-home practice kinda gal because that way no one is around as I grunt and parp my way through warrior two, but last week I took part in a class as part of an Origins event that I was at. The lovely Sweaty Betty ambassador, Charlie Morgan, rocked up and guided the group through an hour-long, yin-heavy class. It was bloomin’ incredible. Now I actually haven’t been to that many classes, so I don’t have much to compare it to, but it was fab. It didn’t flow too fast, I could (kinda) keep up, there was a nice amount of sweat-inducing stuff, but it was the stretching at the end that was really dreamy.

Charlie had such a nice vibe about her (and an amazing jewellery collection) and as she taught she went around the class correcting where needed and gently pushing us deeper into stretches. At one point we were all in a twist on the floor and she came over, made herself into a human pretzel, eased my hips into the stretch and my back did a big, hearty click. It was incredible. I want to be clicked by Charlie more often, so I took her card, have stalked her down on social media and I think I might head to one of her retreats.  That’s how good that back click was. It felt like I’d been saving it up for years. So yes I’m back on the mat and I have a new back-clicking girl crush. Namaste people.

Photos by Lauren Shipley