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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be annoyed with these yoga people

191 replies

ApocalypseNowt · 19/02/2017 09:21

Ok, so the other day I went to a beginner's yoga class.

It was at this lovely yoga centre in a converted church....beautiful place and I'd heard lots of good things about it.

Anyway the yoga man teaching the class is up on the stage bit doing his thing and we all start copying him. Well, at a conservative estimate I'd say that more than three quarters of the class were sodding yoga gurus! They were flawless, bendy, did all the 'hard' versions of the poses without breaking a sweat!

These people could have folded themselves into an overhead locker had they a mind to.

The class had a couple of helpers that kept coming over to people me to help adjust poses, etc. Majority of people needed no help whatsoever. They could have run the class to be honest.

AIBU to expect there to be mainly beginners at a BEGINNERS yoga class?

I appreciate there will be some variance between people who have never done it before and people who are progressing but really, most of the ones here could and should feck off to intermediate or advanced hero superstar level.

It just doesn't seem very yoga-minded to keep to a beginners class when you're clearly way past that level.

Rant over...!

OP posts:
LucklessMonster · 19/02/2017 12:16

YANBU and ignore the people yogasplaining to you. It's a beginners' class and should be filled with beginners. Clue's in the fucking title.

VirgilsStaff · 19/02/2017 12:55

But feeling uncomfortable embarrassed and sweaty is part of the journey. It's the first step.

And I'm really disliking all the slagging off of classes where people know each other (how awful) and can do the exercises (how mean of them).

Should people behave like strangers just to save your feelings? It's easy enough to smile and say Hello to fellow classmates. Goodness, you might even get to know them (how awful).

NoFuckingRoomOnMyBroom · 19/02/2017 12:55

I'd find it demotivating too OP, YANBU. I keep toying with the idea of yoga but it's the thought that the class would be as you describe that puts me off.

wantoscreamatwashingpile · 19/02/2017 13:05

I completely understand, I went to a 'beginners' sort of outdoor class a few years ago - it was not a beginner's!! I enjoyed parts of it, but loads of them went to the gym a few times a week, had done marathons etc - which was fine, I'd just stay at the back! But then there was this older woman who kept goading me and saying how I should be more fit than I was at my age and how she was much fitter than me and had a daughter my age. I stopped going after that and have been put off since.

I'd like a class where everyone's a bit shit (like me!) And we could learn to be less shit together haha, but realistically I don't know if I'd find that

Original poster
ApocalypseNowt · 19/02/2017 13:17

Why are you looking around at other people?

Because I'm human and a nosey bitch. Also it's natural to look around.....if I turned up for driving lessons and everyone else was slamming out donuts in the carpark I'd look too.

I'm not angry at all I promise. I do enjoy a good grump though which is what I'm doing here.

Should people behave like strangers just to save your feelings?

That would be perfect. TIA.

Trills that video could have been filmed at the class I went to.

I would also add that any yoga class that advertises as beginners and has a teacher on a stage is probably not the real thing. More likely an ex-aerobics instructor who's taken a 6 week course.

I really don't think so. The place i went to is vair vair authentic. Bendiest person in the world on stage thing. Calm floaty helpers pretty much my personal assistants on stage dotted around the hall.

I shall maybe try and find another class or look online as suggested.

However I still maintain that if you can give yourself a pedicure with your teeth you don't belong in a beginner's yoga class.... Wink

OP posts:
Original poster
ApocalypseNowt · 19/02/2017 13:18

I'd like a class where everyone's a bit shit (like me!) And we could learn to be less shit together haha, but realistically I don't know if I'd find that

^^ Yes to this! This is what I want!

OP posts:
Reow · 19/02/2017 13:19

Never compare yourself to other people in yoga, it's your journey! How they're doing doesn't matter!

Some people spend years in beginners. I spent 2 years in beginners and have been 2 years in intermediate. It's not a fast progression with yoga, and it's never a competition. I'm sure people are not looking at you thinking you're behind them. They were all in the exact same place as you once, and in time you'll be where they are.

TheWoodlander · 19/02/2017 13:31

Try a different yoga class - yoga is fab, I took it up in my late 30's and never looked back. I love it - and yes, at the beginning you do totally look around at what everyone else is doing, but once you're a bit more practised, it really is an inward thing. You just think about what your're doing.

i have a lovely yoga teacher, she says we leave the ego at the door, etc etc. It's great. Keep at it!

Trills · 19/02/2017 14:04

I didn't enjoy yoga.

I did it once a week for about 3 months (signed up with friends, peer pressure kept me going that long). I then made a clear and informed decision that it's not for me.

Just offering this up in contrast to so many people saying how wonderful it is. Not everyone likes it. You might not. And it's OK to like it or not like it.

BenLinusatemyhomework · 19/02/2017 14:12

I was that annoying person 20 years ago. Me and my boyfriend were trained dancers and started going to an evening begginer yoga class (we went to begginers because we'd never done it before and thought it best to start at the basics).

As dancers we were very bendy and could, superficially do all the moves however, we had the best teacher. She was in her seventies and a grumpy, kick ass yogi and deeply, deeply unimpressed with our bendiness. She would haul our arses over the coals because "yoga was not about pretty shapes, or acrobatics but about internally finding space" and if you were not doing that, then you weren't doing yoga. She totally forced me to focus really internally and I loooooved her classes, my boyfriend not so much (but he was an egotistical twat, so there you have it).

Anyway, 20years later I'm returning to yoga after a long hiatus and now i am middle aged, obese with dodgy hips and knees. I can't step into a lunge anymore due to my gorgeous overhang belly and matronly bossom and I "oof, oof" my way through the asanas - why am I telling you all this?

To remind you that karma's a bitch and Smug McSnuggington's will get theirs (I did Wink).

stubbornstains · 19/02/2017 14:19

You should do what I do. The yoga class that is most convenient for me to attend, in terms of time and location, is in a nearby village renowned for its elderly demographic. You would not BELIEVE how taut, supple and generally fabulous I am compared to all my classmates! who are all pensioners

Iris65 · 19/02/2017 14:22

Those 'smug mcsmuggintons' are more than likely just doing their yoga and are completely oblivious to what others are doing. Wink
No one is forcing you to look. I do a lot of yoga, my choice, my practice.

VirgilsStaff · 19/02/2017 14:30

If you want to do it, just do it. Everyone in every class started once. They just did it. You're overthinking the whole thing.

Starting can be scary, but if it puts you off, you don't want to do it enough.

I never notice anyone in various classes I do, except if I've lost the moves and need to follow someone. We all do it!

You're overestimating the skill of others, and underestimating yourself.

Dafspunk · 19/02/2017 14:34

My yogi corrected my savasana - yes, I cannot even lie flat on the floor correctly Confused

VirgilsStaff · 19/02/2017 14:36

That's my favourite bit. I had a teacher who joked that you only ever do the Corpse pose perfectly once (black joke)

Katy07 · 19/02/2017 14:39

I wouldn't like it either. The whole idea of a beginners class is that you look like idiots together and (hopefully) improve together. Not that most people look fantastic while a couple feel like total losers and give up.

PoorYorick · 19/02/2017 17:31

If you quit a class because others there are better than you, you don't deserve to improve.

MewlingQuim · 19/02/2017 17:45

Maybe its like my yoga centre where the intermediate class is a HUGE jump up from beginners. The advanced group appear to have no skeleton, just rubber Shock

Or maybe this weeks class focussed on poses that this group happened to be better at, next week may be different poses and they all wobble and fall in a heap. I have flexible hips and can do all the toe touching poses easily, so you may think I've been doing yoga for ages, but anything involving shoulder flexibility and I am an obvious novice.

After a few weeks new people will be joining and wondering how they will ever be as good as you, OP.

stopfuckingshoutingatme · 19/02/2017 17:48

This / sadly - is why I don't do yoga anymore

I feel pressured , try to hard and really hurt myself last time 😡

PoorYorick · 19/02/2017 17:52

If you compare yourself to others (ie, feel competitive), you've missed the point of yoga. Every instructor I've had stresses that it's not competitive and not to worry about others.

I joined a beginner class once for something that I had been teaching myself for a while. I wasn't a dead beginner like most but I still learned more, improved my form and got myself ready for the intermediate class. If anyone had told me I shouldn't be there because I was a few steps ahead of the total novices, I'd have laughed and wondered why they were focusing on me instead of their own progress.

Chesntoots · 19/02/2017 18:09

I love going to my classes and am really quite bendy BUT I really struggle with the relaxation and the inward thinking thing. So on the surface I look like I am a bit yogatastic, but inside I'm not doing "real yoga".

I've been doing it for years and still can't relax and I quite envy those that might not be as bendy as me but have got the inner focus.

FWIW I do look at other people, but that's because I have the attention span of a goldfish!

Original poster
ApocalypseNowt · 19/02/2017 19:49

I have the attention span of a goldfish!

Me too! Maybe yoga will improve this.....

OP posts:
PoorYorick · 19/02/2017 20:56

It will, if you own it, find your centre and focus on yourself.

SomewhatIdiosyncratic · 19/02/2017 21:15

I did yoga for a number of years and still intermittently dabble at home. The only way I'll ever fold up in a locker is with the help of Sweeny Todd. Beginners tends to be a bit slow and repetitive, and my body won't cooperate with anything ambitious like touching my toes so I can't really move on to intermediate.

A sad legacy I have from my years of yoga is observing that many people considerably more bendy than me are actually doing it really badly with poor alignment Grin (While feeling bitterly jealous and unyoga-y)

PoorYorick · 19/02/2017 21:27

If you're not advanced or knowledgeable in the skill you're learning, you're probably not a good judge of how advanced others are anyway. I know I impressed the dead beginners in the beginner class I took for something I'd been self teaching beforehand. But the truth is I was nowhere near as far ahead, or as advanced, as they thought I was. I was definitely not ready for the intermediate at that point. It's easy to mislead someone who's completely new to something.

But if of course you'll never realise this, or improve to a new level, or indeed get anything at all out of a class if you quit or complain to the instructor because there are others there who are more advanced than you. Especially in something as non competitive and self focused as yoga.