I naturally have tight hamstrings and am inflexible. Since I started cycling 10 months ago, that tendency has only gotten worse. I was doing yoga at the Y at the time, but it didn't seem like the greatest class. So last summer, I got a membership to a fancy yoga studio, thinking I could go multiple times per week. But the classes were so crowded, you never got much individual feedback, I was getting nowhere and couldn't figure out if it was me or what the issue was. But I really wanted something to counter the hamstring tightness and also work on core & upper body strength, as a complementary activity/counterpoint to cycling.

So I decided to try a private yoga session. I sent out my basic story via email to a few candidate yoga instructors and I eventually scheduled with an instructor who is a former cyclist himself. The session was great. One hour, solid work, just the things that help me. It was a little more athletic than a lot of yoga classes, a little more like a personal trainer session than a typical yoga class. My intrustructor is something akin to a kindly drill sergeant ("just" 10 more seconds?!, you're killing me dude!). I signed up for a 7-session package.

Just today I finished the 7th week and I've gotten farther than I did in 6 months at the crowded yoga studio. I only do one yoga session per week and I don't practice at all the rest of the week (too much time cycling, lol), so I'm a little surprised to at the progress- more so in upper body & core strength than in flexibility. I've re-upped to another 5 weeks. I'm not sure how much more of this I can afford but I'm semi-addicted to it now.

I don't hear much discussion here about yoga, Ive even had a few passing comments suggesting I shouldn't do yoga in favor of more cycling. When I had my fitting, the fitter (who is involved with a fair number of elite performance cyclists) asked what else I did- when I said yoga, his reply was "good". Not that it really matters what anybody else thinks, I'm definitely sticking with the yoga. But why no love here for yoga? Is it because y'all are mostly menfolk and prefer to lift weights and just stretch on your own? Or do people do yoga but it just doesn't come up because this is a cycling forum?

H