In my vision of water yoga, I would be zen-like calm, a picture of pure tranquility, settled in the lotus position on the bottom of the Crystal Pool. The only thing niggling away at the corner of my imagination would be: Just how long do you have to hold your breath to do this water yoga stuff, anyway?
Luckily for me, real water yoga didn't involve putting your head under water, as the Iron Matron gang discovered when we showed up for our introductory session. More good fortune came my way when I discovered the lotus position wasn't even on the repertoire. No amount of soothing water is going to turn me into a flower blossom, not without a winch and pry bar.
Water yoga was the fourth of five drop-in type activities the Iron Matron and new friends Sandy Campbell, Jo-Anne Kern, Sue Emslie, Fran Harper and Deb Carnes have been experimenting with at the Crystal Pool and Fitness Centre. So far, we've dabbled in pole-dancing, fly-fishing and pole-walking. The grand finale of the series will be 50-plus boot camp in a couple of weeks.
When it came to water yoga, merely getting into bathing suits meant overcoming a mountainous obstacle for some of us, namely me. But really, other pool-goers were far more focused on their own body image than they were on critiquing my rolls and jiggles.
Our aqua yoga instructor for the evening was Kelly Webb, a live-wire who had discovered yoga when it helped her back and neck. A former millworker, she couldn't bend over for seven years, after wrecking herself doing things like taking three-storey falls. She has persevered and is now working as a personal trainer and aqua-fit leader with people who have all kinds of limitations -- un-supple 58-year-olds included.
When we spoke a few days after the session, and I told her I'd pulled something and had barely walked for two days, she apologized profusely. Water yoga, one of 50 or 60 different kinds of yoga that have evolved over the last 3,000 years, is supposed to be gentle on the body and soothing on the mind.
I'm not so sure about Buff Yoga, which Sue found listed in a local recreation guide. No worries about a bathing suit in that one, at least. Just joking. Before you all rush to sign up, "buff" refers to yoga muscle, not bare buns.
With water yoga, Kelly usually conducts her classes in the warmth of the Crystal kiddie pool, with dim lights and soft music adding to the ambience. For the Matron group, a little scheduling glitch meant we began in the main pool, and couldn't leave the other swimmers in the dark. As Fran said, the deeper water made it something like a cross between yoga and synchronized swimming, but we still started off with some deep breathing, slowing-down-the-day, de-stressing exercises.
The buoyancy of the water is a relaxation aid, and we stretched in poses such as the one-footed Tree and Warrior, although the chest-high water had our Warriors tipping and Trees floating away. Sue put in a valiant, but fruitless, effort trying not to smudge her makeup.
Before long, however, Kelly had us moved over to the cozy warmth of the shallow kiddie pool, which came complete with a tiny underwater mermaid flitting around our legs with incredible ease. Immersed in the tub-like temperature, our Warriors were meditative and our Trees were swaying, except when attempting to hold the positions long enough for the TC photographer to snap his shots. Kelly, in workout wear rather than a swimsuit, finally had to jump, fully clothed, into the pool to get all us novices pointed in the right direction at the same time.
To finish the session, Kelly threw out foam noodles. With one under our knees, and another holding up our shoulders and head, we floated into soft pleasure. As Deb put it, in an excerpt from one of her poems (see the rest on the Iron Matron blog):
Noodles under neck and knees.
Drifting, floating and relaxing
Imagining a soft sea breeze.
Sitting around later in the hot tub, we all decided this water yoga thing could be a keeper.
Jo-Anne said it was worth buying a new swimsuit, and Sandy remarked: "Maybe I'll take a few more yoga classes. ... That would beat being an old stiffy."
Stiff? You could say that again. But then Lotus flowers need water to thrive. I think water yoga is just the thing for late bloomers.
Want to bloom? E-mail Victoria Parks and Rec at: [email protected] or the Iron Matron at sepp@
tc.canwest.com or call the Crystal Pool at 361-0704.
