A Little Flexibility (open)

The temperature in the second story studio wasn't as chilly as a gym would have been but it was cool enough to notice when sitting quietly on a yoga mat with no shirt. That was good though. By the time they'd been moving for five minutes or so, the people in his class would warm themselves up.

This wasn't his first class here but it was the largest so far. As word got out more and more people had showed up. The room was large, covering the entire square footage of the building, and it was about a third full. Maybe fifteen people, men and women of mixed ages and body types. A typical beginner yoga class. He ignored the fact that a good number of the women appeared to be young and... interested. It happened. Apparently, there was a shortage of young male yoga instructors. Inevitably, he lost a little business when they realized he was neither interested nor straight.

The speakers were already playing a soft CD of acoustic guitar mixed with outdoor noises. Alex was at the front of the room, slowly moving through various easy stretches. He greeted each student as he or she walked in, stashed their belongings, and took a mat out to the floor. Most of them followed his lead and joined in as he watched the clock and continued to rotate through his warmups.

When it was seven on the dot, without saying anything, Alex pulled himself back into a sitting position, legs crossed, hands resting on his thighs. He waited for everyone to have assumed the same position and then greeted them once again, bowing from the waist.

There were some new faces here so he briefly described the pranayama, the basic breathing that they all needed to learn.

"Take a slow, deep breath in through your nose. Fill up your abdomen, then your chest, without straining or heaving," he directed, keeping his voice mellow. No one wanted to be barked at in a yoga class. "Breathe out through your mouth, picturing a wave. In, filling up, and out, releasing."

He watched them all for a few moments. Satisfied that they were all doing it more or less properly he moved on. It would become second nature to them in time, if they continued to practice.

"Remember, yoga isn't meant to hurt," he warned mildly. "You should feel a stretch where I show you but if anything hurts or feels strained you should stop and take an alternate pose. I'll demonstrate those as well."

With that gentle reminder he began to take them slowly through each element of a sun salutation, starting in mountain pose. It was an easy vinyasa to learn. They did each asana separately and then, when everyone seemed to have them down, he had them slowly link them along with the corresponding proper breath patterns as they worked through.