I haven't done yoga before, but I have done a few pilates classes, but i'd mainly signed up to the class to meet local mummies to be anyway.
It was £45 and that is for 4 x 1 hour sessions, so pretty steep but one of the few activities that is local.
I made the mistake of taking an afternoon nap and then it was a mad dash to make and consume my tea (for fear of feeling sick at the class) before grabbing my exercise ball and jumping in the car.
You have no idea just how hard it is to have a giant bouncy ball in your hands and not actually bounce it on the ground. I was almost feverish trying to control myself, knowing that I couldn't risk popping it!
I reach the venue, a sports injury clinic during the day, and am greeted by the instructor who appeared to be a women perhaps in her late 30's. She immediately guesses that I am Louise which makes me suspicious that there aren't actually many people attending and that turns out to be true.
I head upstairs and there are three chairs laid out in front of one of those stands with an enormous paper pad on it covered in writing.
There is already a women there, sitting on one of the chairs and filling out some paperwork that I notice is present on all of the chairs as well as a pink booklet.
I sit next to her and start filling out my questionnaire, feeling slightly frustrated that it seems at least part of the session will be spent "in the classroom". I ask her name and introduce myself. Her name is Andrea and she has an accent that I immediately think sounded Australian but it was different somehow so I'm thinking either New Zealand or maybe even South Africa. I didn't ask because I didn't want her to think it was that obvious. She seemed shy but friendly.
The questionnaire was pointless. What do we hope to achieve? What do we like about exercise? What do we dislike about exercise? Etc.
We'd already filled out a health questionnaire before attending so why we couldn't do it then I don't know.
The instructor appeared with another lady called Charl (or something. Short for Charlotte?) who also seemed nice but I immediately felt less compatible to her than I was to Andrea. She was just the sort with whitened teeth and orange skin and I'm not into that at all, I'm a bit more of a frumpy country girl.
The session finally began with us doing one of those god awful public introduction bits where we all take turns to say our name and how far along we are and things. Charl went first and revealed she was 27 weeks and then said something about pains down her side. Then it was me and even though I covered the same topics as Charl, the instructor still leaned in towards me as if she expected more so I elaborated and added that I was having a girl. I could sense Andrea looking forward to her turn so that she could reveal that she was just one day behind me and was also having a girl!
I might get my money's worth in the form of a pregnant local friend afterall.
I was surprised actually because Charl had the smallest bump which she seemed happy with for her figures sake and Andrea had the biggest. I'm terrible for bump envy - it's not fair!
The next 25 minutes were spent going through the stuff on the board and typically I found it all rather dull because of course I'd already read about all the stuff covered such as changes that occur during pregnancy and the hormones involved and good posture. How any expectant mum wouldn't have already made it their business to know all of it already, I don't know. We all looked equally bored anyway.
Finally, it was time for some yoga! After the warmup.
The warmup involved standing and rotating our arms and all that usual secondary school PE danncing around type stuff but unfortunately my overlooked post meal fatigue was kicking in and I started to feel really ill. Not sickness. It's like I can't breath and start getting hot and dizzy. I pushed through just willing it to end so I could sit on my ball for a bit and eventually that time came.
Now it was time for some yoga!
It basically involved sitting on the ball and attaining and maintaining a good posture while tensing our stomachs and then performing some movements such as pushing on leg out or lifting our arms or moving our pelvis back and forth.
We did a taster of each movement, the intention being for us to practice at home with the help of the pink booklet we received.
There were about 8 moves in total and then we did some stretches and it was time to go home.
I left with my new best friend Andrea and she asked for my full name so she could find me on facebook and I asked for hers and we parted ways.
I repeated her name over and over all the way home so I could add her and I eventually managed to find her, only to discover she has blocked messages and friend invites. So I had to wait for her to add me and I'm still waiting now but I doubt she'd remember my name tomorrow if she didn't bother tonight *sigh*.
I'm such a loner.
There is always next week I guess! As for if I get around to the yoga at home.. We'll see.
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