I thought yoga looked easy

For years I wanted to try yoga. It looked relatively easy and I'm not in awful shape. I try to walk 3-4 miles no less than 3 days a week. A friend of mine asked me to join her at yoga and I acquiesced. It seemed harmless and stretching as exercise is my kind of exertion. Anyone with any experience with yoga is now laughing and quite possibly has tears running down their face. I get to my yoga experience with the token yoga garb-Yoga pants, fitted longer shirt, and feet scrubbed and ready for exposure. I even went out and bought myself a cute yoga mat to finish off the gear list. I throw down my mat, check out the people around me to see who I was up against, and sit there and wait. The instructor shows up and starts handing out blocks and straps and puts on zen music to get us in the mood for the upcoming "stretching" we will be doing. As class starts we begin with stretching and I actually believe that this will be a piece of cake. Down-ward dog not bad....then she has us planking, lowering into cobra something, and all kinds of new terms I'm not familiar with. As my arms shake, my abs scream, and my ankles wonder where I am, I soon realize that Yoga is NOT easy. Far from it! The lady next to me and her retired husband are going through the positions as I retire to child's pose to catch my breath and re-evaluate the situation. I know I am in over my head and don't want to be a quivering pile of jello at the end of class. I was attempting to do every pose like I'd been doing yoga for years...I needed to slow down and not compete with my fellow yogis. The day after my first class my shoulders hurt, my abs, my very tiny biceps, and muscles in my back that I'm pretty sure I never knew existed. I now have a dozen classes under my belt and feel stronger each time I go. I'm glad I began this journey and never would have thought yoga was the work out that it is.