Personal Narrative: My Fitness Background

My fitness background is fairly limited. I have never enjoyed physical activity. In high school, I needed two years of physical education. I participated in the school marching band for four years. Since being in college, I have tried on several occasions to start and maintain a workout regime. Typically I start strong for a week or two. Recently I have been making an effort to workout at least once a week with my mom, outside of taking this yoga class. My usual workout consists of walking on a treadmill for 20 minutes, riding the bike for 10 minutes, 3 reps of 10 back curls, 3 reps of 10 crunches and 3 reps of 10 abdominal rows.

During the spring semester of my freshman year of college, I attend physical therapy for approximately four months.

My physical therapist worked to strengthen my ankles from a previously sprained ankle (I did not take care of this injury properly back in high school) and Achilles tendonitis in both of my ankles. This makes it extremely painful to sit on or put a excessive amount of pressure on one foot at a time. There are days when my ankles are stronger than others.

First, signing up for this class started out as a comical joke to remain a full-time student through ASU, since I only needed a two credit class. I began realizing the potential benefits of yoga after my diagnosis of general anxiety. Yoga appeared to be a common alternative or pairing to medications to treat anxiety. I naturally tend to get stressed out quickly, therefore through this class I hope to gain techniques to assist in calming myself in the heat of a stressful situation. Stress and anxiety are essentially synonyms in my daily life. I hope to gain methods of managing my stress level in the situations where I would probably break down. Ultimately, I these this class will teach me to manage my stress levels and, as a result, my anxiety.