Editor’s note: everyone seems to be doing it — yoga that is. But what goes into the process of yoga-ing? Who are the students who yoga, and how, and where? Staff writer Alexis Leima decided to find out.

Yoga is the next big thing — or the old big thing, or some big thing — right?

So, ignoring expectations of a cheesy, incense-filled hour of humming, I went to my first class.

At first I felt extremely out of place, as Rubber Soul’s single narrow room was packed wall-to-wall. Turns out, this isn’t uncommon for yoga first-timers.

“The first class I ever took I felt amazingly awkward,” said Michael Black, Hatha yoga instructor from Athens. “Because when you’re in a room full of people that you don’t know and you’re putting your body in these really weird positions that you’re not used to, it’s going to seem weird. That’s just part of it. But then after that class I felt absolutely, ecstatically amazing.”

Black’s class did that for me, though his class was more difficult than expected.

While Hatha forms one branch of yoga, each class differs depending on the teacher’s preference.

“I teach a pretty vigorous class but I think that anyone can start out taking it,” Black said. “It’s just kind of what you’re used to in terms of physical activity. If you’re really active and you run and bike a lot and things like that you might really enjoy my class.”

Although full participation is not required, Black doesn’t really see the sense in that.

“A lot of people come in the doors saying, ‘Oh, I want to sit in the back of the class and I might not do everything,’” he said. “That’s fine, but it’s kind of a weird thing to do.”

This also holds true with the chanting, followed by three ohms opening and closing Black’s class.

“Personally, I love chanting,” he said. “Like, it makes me feel really amazing after I do it, or even while I’m doing it. It’s a really awkward thing to get people to do at first because people aren’t used to singing in public.”

Although the chanting and other aspects of yoga seem spiritually specific, Black leaves that out of his class.

“There’s some teachers who are really spiritually suggestive, kind of directing their thoughts in a way that’s pretty spiritual, and a lot of spiritual language and things like that,” Black said. “It’s kind of hard to relate to people in that sense for me. Spirituality is such a personal thing, I feel like doing yoga and starting on that basic health, kind of leads to that eventually, but not everyone’s into that.”

Rhett Crowe, the yoga instructor of my next foray, at Studio in Athens, agreed with Black.

“Yoga is very individual if nothing else,” Crowe said. “Some people are afraid that a yoga teacher is going to try to convert them to some weird mystical religion. Which, there is a spiritual aspect to yoga, but it has to do more with that there is a power greater than you. I don’t care what that power is, what you call it.

There are several types of yoga for several types of people, but a common theme of connection — of mind and body, together — unites them all. EVAN STICHLER/Staff

Also like Black, Crowe leaves room for individuality in her classroom, which is geared more toward the injured or elderly.

“You pick and choose whatever you like,” she said. “If all you like is doing downward dog than walk away with downward dog and leave the rest at the mat, you know. It’s not an all-or-nothing proposition.”

Crowe modified one portion of the class for a woman with a knee condition, showing the shift in focus from poses to meditation.

“Really and truly yoga started 5,000 years ago, but they didn’t start the poses 5,000 years ago,” she said. “The only reason they invented the poses was for the original use for yoga, which was meditation.”

For yoga, this involves focusing your thoughts on yourself in this moment.

“Are you making a grocery list in your head right now? If you are, you aren’t doing yoga, I don’t care what your pose looks like,” Crowe said. “Being and noticing exactly what you’re doing the second you’re doing it, that’s yoga.”

During the final reflection time in her class, she noted that having thoughts was only natural, but it is your choice whether or not to turn one of them into a story.

Even my next class in a 90  degree room, taught by Debi Garrett, co-owner of 5 Points Yoga, had this same underlying concentration factor.

“It’s to bring it into more of the way yoga is — it’s the yoking or union of the mind and the body,” Garrett said.

Surprisingly, though, the power Vinyasa Flow class, the most intense of the three, made it easy to concentrate on my body.

“Power Vinyasa just means breath with movement — so it’s a lot of movement,” Garrett said. “We [don’t] hold poses for a very long time … The Power just adds intensity, just makes it a little more physically challenging. And of course I heat my room, which makes it a little more intense.”

A little. The room was hot, but not standard for this type of yoga.

“I prefer it for myself,” Garrett said. “I feel like it helps me get my muscles more open and I also like the sweat because I feel like it’s a good detoxification, I feel more cleansed. I don’t like the more intense heats. Like some classes you’ll see at 100 or 105 degrees.”

Bikram yoga reaches those temperatures, but whatever intensity lacked was more than made up for in the “power” and momentum of Garrett’s class.

This however, is also not for everyone, Garrett said — especially not those seeking a calmer meditative or stretching based class.

For some, not getting out that extra energy makes it nearly impossible to focus on and relax their bodies.

“Somebody who is really energetic, type-A and athletic, if I had them come into a slow yoga class and just stretch for an hour and 15 minutes, they would be out of their minds,” Garrett said.

This also extends to the dangers of people who aren’t physically active taking the class as their first.

“Quite honestly, anything done not properly or safely can wreck your body,” Garrett said. “Matter of fact, there’s a lot more injuries in sports with running than there are in yoga. I think the reason that yoga is all of a sudden being pointed out is because it’s grown so fast and there are a lot of people that might walk into a class like power yoga, even though I think I teach a pretty safe class, have never done it and they have no idea what they’re doing.”

Recommendations seem to point to finding a good teacher and starting with an easier class.

Bad habits are easily formed on those all too accessible Netflix videos.

“I love yoga DVD’s,” Crowe said. “But I always tell people to go to a real class first with a teacher because they’ll teach you the basics, the 12 basic poses – a good teacher will at least … And if you’re just learning from a DVD, hell, you don’t know where your body is in space, you can’t see it.”

On top of finding a good teacher, if something feels wrong or hurts, use common sense and stop.

“It’s not necessary to try to do every single thing,” Garrett said, “especially if you’re new to yoga.”

But as to what type and what variation of yoga fits best, it really all just depends on the person and where they are in life.

“It all heals,” Crowe said. “And then there’s a theory that you do different aspects of the physical with the different stages of your life. So when you’re younger, you do more of the poses, you’re very physically active. And then as you move into what’s called the house-holder stage, that’s when you’re like getting married and doing your career and all that kind of stuff, that’s more … breathing practices. And then as you move into your later stages of life when you’re done with all that, you start leaning just naturally towards meditation. But you should have all three, and one will take precedence.”