Flying Poodles

Agility and Yoga

My daughter Stacia and I are taking a yoga class on Monday nights. The instructor comes highly recommended by a friend of mine who teaches yoga in Seattle; Stacia enjoys yoga a lot; I’ve been told by several physical therapists that it would help with my knee/back issues. So… yoga.

Class starts with calm breathing and settling into class. We sit with our eyes closed and focus on our breathing and try to release the stresses of the day and get mentally ready for class. This week the instructor asked, before the beginning breathing part, what we do to make sure we practice three times a week. Without even thinking, I said that I put an alert in my iPhone and consider it a vital part of my daily schedule. She was very pleased I was practicing three times a week… but very disappointed to discover it wasn’t yoga that I was practicing but instead dog agility.

Class moves through a series of exercises that yoga people call “poses” and I would call “muscle-straining positions that are incredibly difficult.” These are both strengthening and relaxing, and I do find I feel much better the next day, and I sleep well too. (This, from two whole classes.) Each position takes several minutes.

This has gotten me thinking about the wild contrast between agility and yoga. An entire agility run–sprints, front crosses, rear crosses, more sprints–happens as fast as possible. It’s all about strategy and memory and movement. Breathing doesn’t happen until after (and even then it’s difficult!). A single yoga position takes about three times as long–at least–as that, at a minimum. And breathing? Breathing is key and a focus of the activity.

I think I might try the breathing-focusing part before I run, at the next trial. It does clear the mind.