Last week, I took some vacation from work. No grand plans, just a little dolce far niente of the kind that I can only do when I am home and they are not.

I thought I might use the week to get back into running, which has been neglected during my travels. But I started out the week so tired and sore from a weird rib inflammation I’ve been dealing with for nearly a year. In its latest incarnation, I wake up every morning with sharp, shocky muscle pains all around my rib cage. The pain dissipates after I rise and take a few ibuprofen. Anyway, the last thing I’ve wanted to do is put on a constricting running bra, so I thought, “Hey, why not try to take a yoga class every day this week and see if that helps?”

I’m rich in yoga options here, because there are three studios I frequent, a fourth I’ve been meaning to try, and the gym, which offers a few classes. Nonetheless, by Tuesday I had already fallen short of my goal, because I couldn’t find a class that fit into my baby-entertaining, book-reading, movie-going schedule. And Friday when I checked out the new yoga studio, I found that they had switched to All Nutjob Programming and there was nary a yoga class on the schedule. (Seriously, click through and look at that program. “From Angels to Archetypes: The Magic and Mystery of SoulCollage”? “Intuitive Nutrition or Angel Readings”? How do these people stay in business? I am pretty sure that “New Agers” are not a protected class, so I am still free to make fun of them without endangering any future presidential campaign blogging gigs. Kucinich! Call me!)

I did manage four classes last week, and by Saturday I was feeling pretty great. On the Visual Analog Scale, on Monday morning I was inching up toward “Worst Pain Imaginable,” but by Saturday afternoon I was right down at “No Pain at All.” Of course it’s all been undone by the past two days spent in the house with a cranky sick baby avoiding the ice storm and attendant 40-, 50-, or 70-mph winds, depending on your weather source. But it was great while it lasted.

When I attended my first yoga class, I was shocked to see there was no mirror in the studio. Dance classes always have at least one large mirror in the front of the room, and sometimes side mirrors as well. The teacher and all the students face the mirror; the teacher demonstrates a move, and the students try to imitate it, checking their form against his or hers. The teacher uses his or her voice to help the students remember the combinations, trying to evoke muscle memory through auditory stimulation. In ballet class, this is done in a combination of French and nonsense syllables to fill out the rhythm; in other classes, the teachers provide or make up names from the steps. Occasionally the teacher will offer a verbal correction, but the majority of information about what you’re supposed to be doing is visual.

Yoga is very different. There’s no mirror, and participants frequently have their eyes closed or are in contorted positions where they can’t see the instructor. The majority of information that comes from the instructor is therefore verbal. He or she gives the names of the poses, usually in English and in Sanskrit, but then provides a wealth of additional information about how to perform the pose. For instance, this pose (standing up) can generate hundreds of words: “Ground your feet, spreading your toes out and then gripping the mat, then center your weight on your feet. Roll your thighs backward and tip your pelvis forward. Lengthen your side body…” and so on.

This constant narration probably drives some people crazy, but I think it’s fascinating because it’s so much more effective on my practice than just seeing and imitating. It’s amazing how being told to “breathe into the back” lessens the pain of one pose, or how hearing “draw everything inward” lets me do a frog stand.

Yoga is known as a spiritual practice, but for me it’s all biomechanics and linguistics. (Which sounds like an awesome double major.)

And if you want to do yoga at home, to address Julia’s question a few posts back, you can download one hour-long class a day from Yoga Today, or stream them live. Go here to choose a class. I’ll have to save RSS feeds and podcasts for another post.