Sunday, September 23, 2007

voyeur or researcher?

I believe that I am one of the few American heterosexual men that does yoga and enjoys it. To further this statement, I do yoga at home, not even at a place to pick up chicks. Does that work? I have never picked up a girl from the gym. Might have to give that one a shot. Couldn't hurt right? I digress. Since I have 200 cable channels, occasionally I like to watch a channel that I don't normally. Recently I have been watching more of FitTV. One program in particular: Namaste Yoga. For those of you who haven't experienced this revelation, I will attempt to enlighten you.

Namaste Yoga is a program which features three women doing 30 minutes of commercial-free yoga. They are obviously doing it in front of a green screen because the scenery changes every 15 seconds and ranges from forest to shipping yards to mountain scenes. Every episode focuses on different regions of the body and as such, different poses. In accordance with some unspoken rule, these women all wear spandex to perform their poses. Yes, they are all very fit and very cute. Three women, spandex, yoga. Those words in one sentence should clue you in to why I started watching the show. And no, it isn't on at 2:30 AM on a random Tuesday, it's not some soft core porn. It is on regularly during daytime hours daily.

Yes, I am an oversexed repressed American male with a recent amount of free time to watch television during the daytime. And yes, I started watching the show because it is the closest thing to soft core porn on cable during daylight hours without having to pay $7.95 for a "movie." My interest in the show changed and became something complex and different. Now I can watch the show and pick up new yoga moves without oogling over the hot women. The show also has an inherent Zen quality to it. The music, the voice-over, the yoga... it's almost transcendent. The other day I thought I was having a Zen "religious experience." Well, as close to a religious experience that you can have watching television at 3 PM.

I realize I did a horrible, half-hearted job at explaining that, but there are two reasons for that. One, I have to go make a phone call and don't want to lose my train of thought. Two, it is hard to explain a phenomenon that gives you a meditative calm. The closest thing to meditative calm that I get, other than meditating, is running long. Your thoughts escape you and your head is filled with abundance and absence at the same time. You feel tired and refreshed when you are finished. Not unlike good sex. That is another post for another day. In the mean time, watch more FitTV and experience the joy of vicarious yoga.

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