Which came first?

I have a confession to make...I have started taking yoga. Those of you who SUBSCRIBE to Diversions and Diatribes know that I swore off hot yoga after a near death experience, so you're probably rather surprised to hear of a second venture into the world of oddly-named contortions. However, I am researching a phenomenon of the exercise world that I've been pondering for quite some time now - does yoga make you a string bean or do string bean people have a tendency to do yoga? I'm telling you this keeps me up at night.

You see these skinny folks walking down the street and you wonder if those yoga mats strapped to their backs are the secret to their slim frame. I mean, I've never seen one on a treadmill (or in a steakhouse for that matter) so I just had to figure out what all the hype was about. I mean, if you can't feed 'em, join 'em, right?

Now I will grant you that holding yourself in an upside-down pike position for extended periods of time does provide a great deal of resistence and you can see how your arms might get a workout. Of course the next morning when muscles you didn't know existed are knotted so tightly you can barely get out of bed, well that's also a hint that yoga is a full body excercise. So it's clear that yoga is doing something for you, it's just not so clear what that is. I mean, you're not really sweating so you leave feeling limber but no thinner, which begs the question..what's the point? Do you think that I would haul my bunnies off the couch to trudge away on an excersie machine if I had 12% body fat? HELL NO! Ya'll know I'd be munching nachos at the bar, which probably explains the necessity of my burning a few calories, but whatever.

I will say the classes can be relaxing, though I'm still unclear about the group chanting thing. I think it's supposed to be some sort of energy channeling or some such, but it sounds more like the mating call of a herd of buffalo. However, since I have found no evidence to the contrary, I shall continue to take these classes until I have proven that yoga makes you thin, or until I am hospitalized for multiple hernias.