I’m writing this right after doing a 45 minute yoga session, so I’m feeling great. Yoga is kind of a new thing for me. I had dabbled with it here and there in the past, but really just fooling around for one afternoon, then another three years later. I never really did yoga.

Being fitness minded and having too much stress in my life, I decided to buy some beginner yoga DVDs from Amazon. I did that a couple of weeks ago (maybe 3), and I’ve been doing various routines about 4 or 5 times per week. It’s such a change from my normal workout routines, which I still do, but that makes it no less effective.

Most of my workouts are intense — heavy weight lifting and hard-driving cardio. My muscles burn and heart races. I like this kind of exercise, and have for years. But I also understand the importance of stillness. I’ve studied martial arts over the years, and being calm and centered is a part of that.

Yoga is helping me in ways that are complimentary to my normal fitness routines. In addition to that, it’s balancing out the focused effort of weight training with the surrender of these yoga poses. Even the instructor says that the poses are about “balancing effort with surrender.” I like to think of it as effort at the gym and surrender at home on my yoga mat.

I recommend yoga. After I’m done with a 15 minute routine or a 45 minute one, the result is generally the same. I feel awesome. Tension just kind of falls off my shoulders and leaks out of my ears (I guess), and my spine feels brand new. Seriously. My back used to pop all the time. I would stretch and my back would pop. I would twist or bend over, and my back would pop. Now, it barely pops at all.

If you’ve never done yoga before, and you don’t have or don’t care for classes (I never cared for classes of any kind, ever), then get these DVDs I picked up. They’re a great introduction to the movements without getting too much into everything else.

On Amazon (this is not an affiliate link, just a regular one): Yoga DVD Set