I’m interested in trying out yoga to become more flexible and fit. I am not interested in doing any sort of things with my chakras or energies or what-have-you, because I’m closed-minded and that’s that.
Are there styles or programs out there which you’ve tried that focus just on the physical aspects?
I’m in the Seattle area, specifically eastside.
Well, I mean, when you use the phrase “chakras” and “energies” to belittle a very ancient practice…I think you’re already coming in to the whole deal with a closed mind…but
Try any yoga at a local gym. But the type I would recommend would probably be Iyengar because the core focus of Iyengar is to gradually increase flexibility. Ashtanga would probably be too strenuous for you.
However, you’re not going to get away from the breathing exercises and meditation stuff they do at the end. If lying in a darkened room while some stupid whale songs are on and some American hippie with curly hair badly mispronounces Indian words is offensive to you…you’re probably better off going straight to pilates (combines ballet, yoga, stretching exercises and was created after the 40s to rehabilitate people with war injuries).
Sorry, I do not mean to offend or belittle. It’s just the simplest way I see to explain what I want and don’t want to get out of yoga. If it turns out that yoga is inseperable from these other aspects, then perhaps yoga just isn’t for me.
I will look into Iyengar and Pilates, thank you for the suggestions.
I’m simple simple simplifying like crazy here but yoga boils down to mind + body. You do not have to take it spiritually if you want to and I would not classify gym yoga as spirital in the least (keep in mind that I’m both Indian and a practicing Hindu…gym yoga hippies make me laugh) but if that’s what you read into the whole systematic breathing + meditation stuff-it’s probably not for you. I do cardio + weights for my fitness. I do yoga because it beats my (these days mildish) depression.
Iyengar is really great for flexibility.
Pilates took all of yoga’s breathing techniques but you won’t have to put up with the sanskrit name for each type of breath and I don’t really ever remember them making us lie down at the end with any whale music.
Sounds like you want circus training.
They have schools for that in Sarasota Florida.
You may have to give up on Starbucks, though, as they tend to be food fitness buffs.
Most yoga offered through a gym is focused on the physical. If you have any doubts, you can always ask the instructor. They are usually interested in helping you finding a class that is a good fit for you.
I notice that the OP hasn’t specifically said anything about breathing, concentration, and mediation. These aspects of yoga can be approached from a very unmystical, chakra-free perspective, and really are quite helpful with relaxation and stress relief. It can’t really be completely untangled from the physical part. You can’t do the good core-strengthening poses without balance, and you can’t have balance without concentration. You can’t get the full benefit of the stretching without relaxing.
Some of the benefits I’ve gotten from yoga are physical: my hamstrings are loose, my balance is greatly improved, and I can stand with my arms extended straight over my head, like, forever. (I’m sure this will come in handy some day, perhaps if I ever get held up by an armed robber.) Some of the benefits are tied to relaxation and meditation. I can relax my body to the point that I can comfortably sleep a-n-y-w-h-e-r-e: hardwood floors, airline seats . . . Haven’t tried it standing up yet . . . or with my arms held straight over my head for that matter . . . I don’t have any delusions that I’m a yogi, but westernized secularized sanitized trivialized yoga is doin’ good things for me.
Pilates tends to have good stretches and while it does involve concentration & some level of mind-body connection, it isn’t the same level as yoga.
I’m also in the Seattle area - and it’s been all about the teachers. There are some who are far more into the spritual side and some that are not. Sometimes, I’ve come across both types in the same studio. (I’m more like you. but strangely enough, the teachers I’ve liked best are the ones who are personally more spiritual, but in class they’re more about where I should put my hands and where I should be focusing (“look at the corner” focus as opposed to “look inside yourself” focus).
If you decide to go with pilates, I had an excellent pilates instructor who is now with the Balance Within studio in Redmond.
What I read into the post is that this is exactly what the OP does NOT want to have to deal with. The OP wants purely physical exercise-which is why I stressed that as “unmystical” as these things are as far as your regular gym yoga routine goes (I mean, as opposed to frocking off to some ashram in the woods to eat bugs and study under the tutelage of your “guru”), if you’re already approaching “yoga” with a sort of “freaky heathen shit” attitude then you’re likely to read “weird” into closing your left nostril and breathing in your pranayam and doing a sun pose and blahblahblah typical yoga vocabulary. Yoga does not separate the mind from the body…that’s what makes it yoga.
Which is probably why pilates is best for OP-though it’s a pity because most people love what Iyengar does for their flexibility.
I just thought that the OP sounded kind of a lot like me when I first started exploring yoga. I was very leery of the spiritual aspects of yoga, but once I started a class, I saw that the mental techniques of centering, breathing, and meditation can be taught completely separately from channeling energy flows and or balancing your chakras. That might not be obvious to someone who’s just first looking into yoga (and it certainly wasn’t to me.)
But I guess only the OP can tell us what aspects of yoga the OP is interested in. 
Aspects I am interested in: flexibility, exercise, coordination, relaxation/stress relief.
Breathing, concentration and meditation - I’m perfectly OK with, and I understand
that they are interconnected with the benefits of yoga-type things.
The mechanisms of that interconnection is where I have a different belief than the teachings of yoga. I want to respect other’s choices, and so I want to find a place where I can get the most physical/mental benefit, while not having to purposfully ignore or lie when the instructor talks to me about what to do, or what is going on.
Thank you for the suggestions so far. I will also look into Balance Within.
Circus training would also be very interesting, but that will have to wait for a later time.
A crude analogy to my situation would be - I’m athiest, and I notice that the people at catholic church down the street have a fun social life. How can I too have a fun social life without being uncomfortable at mass?
I am not 100% against the mythical aspects, but I tend not to have faith in things without strong physical evidence. If months from now, yoga brings about a noticable change in me that I can’t explain physically, then I just might have to re-evaluate my view of things. I will be sure to update this thread when that happens.
Yeah, there ain’t no god in gym yoga, man. Just dirty hippies :). For real, unless you are going to some serious ashram or get some extremely new agey instructor (I am scared of these people, they’re always trying to hug me) 95% of the time it’s just a bit of whale music and the instructor re-adjusting you in Downward Dogg while your back leg trembles and a drop of sweat falls off your nose.
Enjoy!
I think you should be able to find a yoga class that offers what you’re looking for, Diddly. You may discover that those Catholics have plenty of atheist friends, and y’all can hang out and have a great time without discussing religion. My yoga instructor says right up front that he approaches things from a scientific, skeptical, secular, material point of view, and while he’s respectful toward those who are seeking the more spiritual side of yoga, he personally doesn’t subscribe to that side of things and suggests that they’d probably be happier in another class that will cater to what they’d like to learn. His day job is as a physician’s assistant, and he’s always giving examples of yoga poses and principles are eerily similar to hot “new” ideas in physical therapy, ergonomics, productivity research, etc. It cannot be denied that historical yoga practitioners perfected a lot of effective techniques that can be appreciated from the point of view of modern science. You probably won’t have to rethink your a materialistic worldview.
Mmmm . . . Downward Dog . . . That’s my favorite pose.
I like to call it Downward Doggy Style…
I remember being about 17 and having my (very crunchy) yoga instructor insist that the best thing for my slightly stuffy nose was to drink a glass of salt water through it, spit it out my mouth and follow up with a long piece of gauze :eek: . Right. That was it for me.
That, and the fact that I always fell dead asleep during the breathing practice sigh.
I liked Pilates, though…
I can’t do high impact exercise because I have a spinal condition which does not appreciate being bounced around.
The only Yoga class I ever went to was by my university’s Yoga society, and it was basically ALL the mystic stuff, and NONE of the physical stuff, so I switched to a Pilates/Callanetics class which was more me. It absolutely works, but I haven’t been for a while as I moved off campus and no longer live near enough to the free student gym to make going to the class worthwhile.
If you do go to a Pilates/Callanetics/Yoga class, my top tip is to either buy your own mat or a washable mat protector. Other peoples’ mats are not so nice to have an inch from your nose.
But . . . that’s the best part! It’s napping for fitness! My yoga class is 5 in the evening. EVERYBODY falls asleep during guided meditation. We compare notes in the locker room to see who lasted longest.
"I remember him saying something about a tree . . . "
"Trees? I don’t remember any trees . . . I must have been out by that point. "
“What? There weren’t any trees. It was all about a sunset. You must have dreamed about trees.”
My key recommendation is to keep trying until you find one you like. Yoga instructors and styles vary hugely, and many of them probably will not work for you at all. Please do not let a negative experience guide your future involvement with yoga; eventually you will find one that works for you.
I started out doing Iyengar at a Buddhist centre. Then I moved, and it took me many months of dealing with bitchy and often ignorant yoga instructors (“Well, if it isn’t all about your chakras than it isn’t YOGA!”) before I found another class that suited me.
If you hate it, please don’t take it as a reflection of the whole practice. Just go somewhere else.
I will echo the recommendation for Iyengar yoga. I have been studying Iyengar for a number of years, and there is very little spirituality in the classes (which I appreciate). We may chant three "om"s at the beginning of class or the teacher might say something about looking toward your heart or something like that, but it’s almost exclusively about the physical.
Perhaps I’ve just been fortunate, but in the 6 or so years I’ve been doing yoga I’ve never encountered an instructor who was so into the “mystical” aspects of yoga that I was uncomfortable, or annoyed. I stick to mainly ashtanga style yoga, so maybe that has something to do with it - but I’ve been in classes with probably ten different instructors and never had a problem.