Dan's Blog

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have noticed that I’ve been posting a lot of sketches of people doing yoga poses recently. They’re great for practicing anatomy while also keeping the fluid gesture of a dynamic pose.

Part of the reason for this interest in yoga is that I’ve been getting into yoga myself for the last few months, and I recently achieved 100 days in a row with a yoga workout.

I’ve been interested in yoga since I bought a book called 15 Minute Yoga many years ago, and started to dabble in it, but I never developed anything like a consistent practice.

I went to a few classes when I was a member of a gym, and then practiced very sporadically until last year when I started the Men’s 30 day yoga challenge on doyouyoga.com

I was midway through that when I went to Whistler last year, and got talking to a colleague of mine who introduced me to Dylan Werner’s classes on codyapp.com

Once I’d finished the 30 day challenge, I signed up for Dylan’s Yoga Strength Basics for Beginners class, and I’ve been doing it every day since then, working my way through Yoga Strength Basics, True Strength Fundamentals, True Strength Builder 1&2, and FlyStrong, with an occasional day of True Flexibility or just some basic stretching and sun salutations.

I’m always interested in what makes people able to stick to a new habit when they have never been able to in the past. I previously wrote about how I developed a running habit a few years ago (although I’ve been running less frequently since I started daily yoga). In this case I think it was just finding a style of yoga practice that really suited me. The classes are very much strength based, and more focussed on building the required strength and flexibility rather than just practicing yoga poses, although there is plenty of that too.

I also think about what motivates people to do whatever kind of exercise they do. I’ve never found any enjoyment from going to the gym (I think running on a treadmill is a special kind of self-torture) and lifting weights is often more about making your body look a certain way rather than anything to do with health.

I think yoga is the perfect exercise for me. It’s enjoyable to do, and it builds both strength and flexibility throughout your whole body. I’ve discovered that my main motivation around exercise is around keeping my body mobile, so that it continues to work in the way I want it to as I get older. If it makes my body look better too, well I’ll take that as a bonus 🙂

Since I started, my strength has improved a lot, and that happens pretty quickly. Flexibility takes a LOT longer, and although I am seeing some improvement, it’s very gradual and there’s still a long way to go. Maybe one day I’ll post some before and after pictures (once I can get my foot behind my head 😀 )

If you want to check out the yoga classes I mentioned (or any of the other classes available on codyapp.com) use this link and you’ll get 50% off your first plan. (Full disclosure – I will also get 50% off my next plan for referring you). If you do sign up, let me know what you think.