I recently attended my first yoga class and it was awesome.

The class that I attended was called “Hip-Hop Yoga” and was held on a Tuesday night at 8:00 p.m. in the yoga studio at the Raintree Athletic Center (RAC). As someone who had never done yoga before, I was a little nervous to see what would happen. The class was supposed to be pretty physical by yoga standards and featured background music that was a mix of Beyonce, the Weeknd, and some Drake.

The class started with a child’s pose and some guided breathing. We talked a little about positive energy and kind words, then really got into the poses. The class began with some upward and downward dogs that transitioned into a standing swan dive and some serious hamstring work. After that we did something like a superman with our hands by our ears using our feet to anchor us to the ground. This intro wasn’t overwhelmingly complicated and would make anyone brand new to yoga feel very comfortable. There was nothing crazy and everyone around you for reference made the poses simple.

The next part got a lot more physically challenging as we spent a lot of time in a semi-squat and standing lunge. The poses were variations of “warrior” and the “chair pose” which were heavier work on the hips and glutes. This was where they started to get me. Having lifted weights an hour or so before this session, my quads and butt were already toast. Add that to the 90 degree temp of the room and I was hurting a little. The point of the class is more of a warrior style of yoga that requires more strength than traditional yoga, but either way this was rough.

Relief came as we went back to more relaxed stretching of the hips and lower back. Still some variation from the chair pose, but much friendlier to my depleted legs. After several poses to open up the legs and back, we did some more planking with a little ab work. Nothing crazy, just a few pikes with a towel under your feet to make them slide. This killed the older people in the class. One guy just melted down in his little puddle and groaned while we were doing them, but I can’t imagine they’d be too difficult for someone in high school. After that, some final poses that opened up the back, and some more guided breathing to finish up the class at around an hour and ten minutes.

The whole thing was awesome. I felt like I worked hard enough to deserve a donut and talk about a fit lifestyle but not so hard that I didn’t feel good. Admittedly, I sweat. A lot. As did most of the people in there. If getting a little gross isn’t okay with you, then you should stay out, because you’re going to be sweaty when you’re done.

I didn’t experience any soreness the next day, which is surprising considering the exercises I did before the class. I think it really helped me to mediate the next-day discomfort of a hard workout.

The instructor was very nice and helped everyone get into the positions she was guiding us through. Most of the people in the class were much more experienced yogis, but there were a few other people (like myself) without much experience who she was very helpful with, never pushing us into something we weren’t capable of.

If presented with another opportunity, I’d love to get some more classes, but hopefully at a normal temperature. I have to say it was a resounding success. Namaste.