By: Anne Ellyse Kania, Life Yoga 30 day challenger

For me, the decision to incorporate more yoga into my life was a little bittersweet because it meant sacrificing some of my other (beloved!) physical activities. I had this image in my head of my sad running shoes chasing after me while I flitted out the door with yoga mat in tow. I keep a really busy schedule between work, family, volunteering, chores, errands… and, well life. I can usually only reserve an hour or two for either a run, a gym session, or a yoga class. And as someone who is relatively athletic, the idea of trading in a hearty run or some weight lifting for sun salutations and savasana kind of makes me roll my eyes.

Don’t get me wrong, I really do appreciate the spiritual and healing powers of yoga. Sometimes there is nothing that I would rather do than retreat into a child’s pose and focus on my breath. Times when I reward myself with a nice deep “om”. But other times yoga can feel a little less than vigorous. Where is the sweat? What about high intensity intervals? Why aren’t my ears ringing with the pounding techno versions of 80’s love ballads?? And WHAT ABOUT MY TARGET HEART RATE?!

This was before I tried Melissa’s Led Ashtanga class. I was so relieved to find a yoga class that really challenged my whole body physically. The positions definitely condition your muscles, and the class moves at a faster pace to get your cardiovascular system going. I even broke a sweat!

Next I tried Lela’s Wednesday morning *Disco Sculpt* class. To say the least, I no longer consider myself to be “athletic”. This hour long class if FILLED with continuous repetitions that are designed to strengthen and condition EVERY part of you. Not to mention bursts of jumping jacks, high kicks, and (obviously) dancing! All this set to awesome dance music.

The Life schedule offers such a wide variety of class types that I no longer feel like I sacrificing my usual physical activity. There are many more difficult classes that give me that post-gym exhausted feeling, and there are restorative classes which help me recover from that exhaustion- and flow classes for somewhere in between.

My running shoes may feel a little neglected- but I think they were getting a little selfish with my time, anyway…