No yoga today

I got there at 6am for my yoga class. I knew I wouldn't be seeing our normal teacher. She's gone for three weeks.

The substitute soon informed us that this was not a yoga class today. I am not a yoga instructor, she said. And I don't know that much about yoga, actually. This is pilates today.

Well, what would you have done? Put in ANY instructor or cancelled the class? And pilates has the advantage of at least being a mat class and not requiring supportive footwear. An easy swap.

And it's no secret that Pilates was invented based on some strains of yoga. There's a lot of overlap.

I was fine with it. Truly. The people around me didn't look so sure. The guy next to me said he'd never done it but he didn't think you could do pilates without the special machines. I assured him we could even though I think I've maybe done one actual pilates class in my life. I have done pilates on a DVD several times. And then well, Steffanie's yoga class often had pilates built in. She's sneaky that way.

It was hard. You start with intense ab work. I sorta knew it was coming, but it's my weak area, ok? After the first two moves, the guy next to me stopped, put on his shoes and socks, and was about to roll up his mat to leave. By then we'd switched to something that looked a bit easier to him, I guess. So he made some comment like, "ok, I'll try," took off his socks and shoes again, and went for it.

I was going to lose respect for him if he left after 3 minutes of a pilates class. So good for him for staying.

I liked it. It was sometimes awkward and often really really hard, but it worked me out and made me sweat without getting my heartrate up. If that makes sense. I'd do it again. But I'm hoping for yoga again next week.