Any of you guys do yoga?

Sorry if this has been discussed before. I tried searching, but it wouldn't work correctly.

I'm interested in doing yoga maybe once a week or so to improve my flexibility. Anyone hear have any advice?

Do you take lessons at a studio? Is it offered at your gym? Is this something I can do on my own, or is an instructor really necessary?

Thanks

The gym I go to offers yoga classes but i've never went to one. I'm sure it wouldn't be a bad thing to do.. but at the same time stretching yourself for a good 5-10 minutes before a work out is sufficient enough unless you want to be super flexible.

I do

And Sensi you got it wrong there, you need to stretch after the workout to maintain your flexibility. Stretching before a workout just warms up your muscles and if you stretch too long it will only lower your results. So you want to stretch afterwards.
And stretching afterwards only keeps your flexibility at the level it was before your work out, if you seriously want to increase your flexibility then you need to stretch everyday or do stretching excercises (yoga).

My girlfriend teaches yoga and pilates so I don't have to go far for instructions.

And techodonut you can do yoga by yourself just fine, first you need to learn the moves though!

i went with my sister to her yoga class once.

lots of babes at nice angles

huge distraction

was sore in places i've never been sore before though

Well I want to start mixing up my exercises. I've been running A LOT lately, and, as a result, injured myself a little bit. I figured yoga would be a good compliment to what I'm already doing. There's a studio near my house (my gym doesn't offer classes that are convenient for me), so I am going to do some research.

Yoga is pretty helpful for flexibility and stretching, but you can get pretty flexible other ways...

Just make sure you warm up properly before running (not tons of static stretching, more dynamic stuff), then cool down when you're done and do lots of static stretching then. Don't hold anything for less than about 25 seconds or it won't do much of anything.

It will help make you more flexible, without being able to bend your leg over your head and touch your ass again.

Yoga is pretty helpful for flexibility and stretching, but you can get pretty flexible other ways...

Just make sure you warm up properly before running (not tons of static stretching, more dynamic stuff), then cool down when you're done and do lots of static stretching then. Don't hold anything for less than about 25 seconds or it won't do much of anything.

It will help make you more flexible, without being able to bend your leg over your head and touch your ass again.

Right, I know not to stretch cold muscles, if possible.

I'm just looking for something different to add to my routine here.

Unfortunately, I need to cut back on the running (foot problems) for a while, and am looking for other things. I start swimming, which is awesome BTW.

i do P90X and one of the workouts is fully dedicated to yoga. most of it you can't do at first but once you get into it more and more it gets easier and easier. i admit i still can't shove my head up my ass though. still working on that :P