My 1st Yoga Class 🫣

Dec 12, 2025
2 min read

In a world obsessed with high-intensity workouts, what if the key to true transformation lies in doing less? My early yoga disasters taught me just that.

As you may have seen from my latest REEL, my first few yoga classes were a total disaster. As I wrote about in my book, my first class was with a lovely teacher called Jessica Stretch. She was clearly born to teach yoga, and it went well. I mastered the arm balance and felt pretty good.

Then came my first class at a studio, and it was a disaster. The environment and teaching made me feel like I was supposed to be good at yoga, and because I was a man with hamstrings as tight as guitar strings, it took months before I was drawn back into another class.

The truth (and I learned this the hard way) is that yoga requires a different kind of effort than most forms of exercise. In some cases, the more effort you apply, the worse yoga can feel. This is what I call the physical yoga paradox (see below for more detail). For the average person (and that was def me) more effort equaled more soreness and a feeling of inadequacy. The real magic happens when you stop trying too hard (as weird as that sounds) and just keep showing up.

It is a subject for a future reel, but essentially, you cannot (generally speaking) relax the brain and nervous system by doing yoga. You do yoga by relaxing the brain and nervous system 🙄 🧠

So, I suppose what I am saying is that if you feel like yoga is too hard or that getting more flexible feels impossible, you are like me (and many others according to the data) who benefit most from relaxing a little more and breathing a little less and calmer. Then, trust the science that all will fall into place. If you thrive on intensity, you can push to your extremes, and you will likely be just fine.

In the quiet persistence of the yoga, i'm confident that true change emerges not from force, but from letting go (yogis call it surrender) reminding us that in yoga, as in life, harmony tends to unfold when we let go.

My concept of a "yoga physical paradox" (where excessive effort can worsen the experience) is driven by my experience and science. Research indicates that forcing yoga poses increases the risk of musculoskeletal injuries, particularly in beginners or those with preconditions like tight muscles or low flexibility. For instance, a systematic review of adverse events associated with yoga found that forceful practices can lead to injuries in the musculoskeletal system (35.5% of reported cases), nervous system (18.4%), or eyes (11.8%), often due to overexertion. Beginners are advised to avoid extreme efforts to prevent soreness and feelings of inadequacy, as gradual practice promotes safer flexibility gains. Conversely, yoga's benefits emerge from consistent, relaxed participation, which reduces stress hormones like cortisol and enhances endorphin production, leading to improved well-being.