Yoga Humbled Me At 40

This episode explores how yoga transforms strength, mobility, stress, sleep, and self‑confidence at midlife. Ever think “intermediate” means safe, then realize your back disagrees halfway through downward dog? We dive into a first-hand, funny-raw journey of trying yoga after 40, from spin class misadventures to a 30-minute mat session that felt like an hour-long workout. You’ll hear exactly where pride met reality, why sweat showed up before the flow did, and what that sharp mid-back zinger taught us about aging, flexibility, and the difference between gym strength and yoga strength.
 
 We get practical about what changes after 40: tighter connective tissue, slower recovery, and nervous systems that need more coaxing than pushing. Then we map a better path forward—beginner classes on purpose, props as allies, breath as the driver, and small, repeatable wins that rebuild trust between mind and body. Expect clear tips you can try today: child’s pose, cat-cow, supported low lunges, gentle isometrics, and longer exhales to unlock guarded ranges. Plus, we talk recovery habits that compound progress, from post-class walking to sleep and heat for stiffness.
 
 If you’ve been humbled by a class or you’re eyeing the mat with equal parts hope and fear, this story will make you laugh, nod, and maybe finally roll out that mat the right way. We’re setting a new baseline consistency over bravado, foundations over shortcuts, and real-life PRs like tying shoes without groans. Hit play, share your best beginner tips, and help a brother out: what moves, classes, or teachers made getting back into fitness after 40 actually stick? Subscribe, drop a review, and send your suggestions for future topics and guests.

Family, friends, frenemies, pull up. This is your invitation to laugh, reflect, and speak your truth. No edits. No filters. Just grown-folk conversation. New episodes every week. Your comments shape the show. #unscriptedafter40 #lifeafter40

Unscripted After 40 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/unscriptedafter40/

Unscripted After 40 X/Twitter - https://x.com/unscriptedaft40?s=21

Unscripted After 40 YouTube - https://youtube.com/@unscriptedafter40?si=lXucdhDvX_FX2R4y

Transcript

Welcome And Weekly Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:04

I'm telling you what happened to me this week right here. I need to go talk to a lawyer and see if I can get some compensation for elder abuse. These people trying to do me wrong. But um before I get started with my little story, welcome back to another episode of Unstripted After Fort the podcast. Okay. Um, as y'all know that y'all been listening to the podcast, you know, life at the 40 in these streets are hard. You know, it's rough out here in these streets. So what I've been trying to do this year right here is get in better shape. So what I decided to do is go to yoga class, okay? Now, before I get started, now I'm not gonna bash in yoga class because it I don't think it's all the yoga instructor's fault, but um someone should have gave me um I should have read a book or something. I I should look at the poses or something like that before you get started with yoga or something like that. Um I should have done pre-scratching before I got there because that's one of the things I went there for. You know, they told me if you go to yoga class and start getting into it, right? You get flexibility, better flexibility. You know, as you get older, your flexibility goes. Like I just want to be able to pick my arms up high, oh, and don't hear them crack the whole time I'm going up, you know. And I want to bend down, I want to be able to touch my toes again. I'm too small and I don't have a stomach, you know, that I should be able to touch my toes. I really have no excuse. My back bad, but that that's why I was going to yoga class, kind of, you know, work out some of these issues I have in my life, you know, after being at the 40 here. So they say it gives you better flexibility, right? And then it says it give you muscle strength. I I could use some muscle strength these days, you know. These days, I I went and, you know, try to pick up a chair. Now you put your chairs on the table when you're mopping and you take them down. That was a struggle. Uh I don't even know, I don't even think the chair was that heavy. But it was a little struggle taking that chair down. I that's why I'll say, you know, better flexibility and muzzle strength. You know, you I when I was in my 20s, I can go in the weight room and just lift the whole gym. I I'm not lifting the whole gym no more. I I'm even, I think I'm gonna start. I I've been messing with people by taking naps in the gym. I I'm starting to see why people start taking naps in the gym. You know, after you do a rep or something, the body be tired. You want to take a break. But okay, I'm rambling. Let me let me get the rambling face, okay? Like I say, so I need to go and see if I can file a lawsuit against elder abuse against your class. At least the instructor. At least, you know, they need to have on the door warning. There's an age limit for this class, and you might want to think about what class you want to join, okay? So my my local gym down the road there, they offer different classes and stuff. And I like to say, since I don't want to go in the gym and you know, pump weight all the time, I need to get some some cardiovascular endurance in my life. So um, I went to try to do a Roberts, and that's gonna be another episode. It it was tragic. Oh my god. Doing the Robots classes, that was a little too much. It is about like when I talk about TikTok challenges, they want you to do too much, you know, and then it's tiring. Oh my goodness. I don't know how they go left, right, left, right, up, down, down, up, left, right. I good lord. Oh, oh man. And and then the spin class was no better. I I don't know how many times you can turn that little button down in the spin class to get you going. So you know the wheel just it the friction, they they man, you know what? That that no. So a robots and the spin was out. Because I already had my tragedies with them. So I like, you know what? I'm gonna try something that is more manageable for me. So I did my research. And as doing research, I realized that, like I say, I was looking for flexibility and muscle strength, you know, and then you know, to kind of get your body, get your blood flowing back right, you know, so it can get some little aches and pains out your joints, you know, get some joint building. So I looked up and they say yoga class was the best thing for it. But I'm saying elder abuse, but I probably should have read what I get. And no more shit, let me see, where's my glasses at? Because I got glasses that I use. See, I can't even find them now. That's probably glasses. Are they in my head? No, they're not in my head. Okay, I wear glasses now because I'm old and my vision going bad. So I probably should have read the yoga brochure a little better and realized that at certain times during the day or in the evening, they got different classes. But you know, being the person I am, I figured that when I went to the class, they said intermediate, right? Intermediate mean to me that you're in the middle level, right? Like you're not quite the beginner, but you're not a pro yet, right? So that's what it means to me. I'm pretty sure that's what it means to ever out there too. Intermediate, right? Intermediate level. So that's what I figure I was, the intermediate level, okay? So as I went to the intermediate level, let me close my computer down. Everybody give me Tourette's back there. Um, I went to the intermediate level class. So I went in there, I look around, and I say, okay, you know what? This is part of the class I need to be in. Because everybody in the class look like they're around my age. So I'm like thinking, okay, I can do this. You know, it's an intermediate class. Everybody around my age, I'm pretty sure that if I am struggling a little bit, my peers will help me. I I was wrong. Okay, they they they they did not help me. I think they was on the struggle boss right along with me. They couldn't, they didn't laugh at me, but they didn't help me neither. So I'm thinking they probably was on the struggle boss with me, okay? So I heard of some of the the calls, the the downward doll, the backward flip, the the the the dolphin fin. Don't don't quote me on these things, okay? I'll I'll uh like I say it was my first yoga class, okay? Um and they were telling the move. So the instructor did the pose first, and then after the instructor did the pose, you were supposed to the pose. And God bless her soul, she did, okay. I will give her credit to that. She did take it slow and then gave us opportunity to kind of get in the position and then say, hey, okay, this is what you do. And she, while she was walking around making sure we was all good, I think it was maybe about 15 of us in the class, and it was her and an assistant instructor. So I'm pretty sure that's about the normal that they can handle 15 people, two people going slow, intermediate now, intermediate class for yoga, we we all should be good. Um, I I was not good. Um I I think about the I don't even know it was a warm-up scratches or we was into the actual yoga part of it, but there were some signs that my body gave me that I should not be in the intermediate class, that I should have gone to the beginner's class because oh, let me start back and say I never did yoga before. That that that's yeah, that that's never did yoga. So, but still, I should be in the intermediate class. I worked out before, right? I did a couple of flexes and bends and stuff before. It can't be that different. At least I thought, okay, like I said, I was wrong. Horribly wrong. But like I said, bless her heart. She did, she did went slow, and she taught us the moves first, because she did ask in the beginning, is this anyone's first time? I raised my hand. This is my first time. This is my first time. I was excited about being there, and we got it. I should have gone to the beginner's class. Because, like I say, she went slow. It just the moves that she was doing, my body was not cooperating. I think I heard um this week recently, like, you know, this comedian said that when he was in his 20s, his body and his mind was married together. They was one, they did things together. Like when he said go in his mind, his body went like that. But as soon as he hit his 40s, his mind and his body got a divorce. I I felt like today in your class, my mind and my body got a divorce. Because when I was trying to do some of those poses that she had us do, it was not working out for my body. And my mind was telling me no. And my body, no, my body was telling me no, but my mind was telling me yes, and they was not cooperating at all. So it was like a bad song. My mind's telling me yes, but my body, my body's telling me no. Baby, yeah, it was telling me no. And I tried my best, and I I was in it. So about I I guess 10 minutes into the class, I was sweating. I I mean like sweating good. Like, you can see drips of sweat come out there. And I'm thinking myself, I I even do, I wasn't really, in my mind, I wasn't really working out. But to my body, I I was, like I say, on the struggle bus. It was just sweat, beating down myself, you know that sweat? I got a bald head, so it came down from the top and it started going down through the middle here, and it just came on down. And it it was, I knew then, I should have knew then, I should have quit. Because she asked, is are you okay? And I told myself, like I said, my mind said I was okay. My body did not, my body was not okay. So I guess about 15 minutes in, as I was doing, like I say, she had me do uh, I think it was a downward doll. I guess you put your legs down for and press your body up. And when I pressed my body up in the middle of my back, there was a pain I never felt before in my life. But it was a pain that brought a tear to my eye. And I was like, oh Lord, oh Lord, help me, help me. I I call out the the big Jesus and baby Jesus. And I like, okay, I can't cry in front of these people. Because in the class, if I didn't mention it earlier, no, I know I didn't mention it earlier, it was only two other males in there with me. And I just can't cry in front of these people because my body gave up on me. So I suck my mind up to suck that tear back in and push on. Now, on mine now, like I said, it's 15 minutes in. I still had another whole 15 minutes to go. It was a 30-minute class. And we did a couple more poses, and thanks to the grace of God, I made it through. Okay? Now, on mine now, I went to the class to try to work on my flexibility. Apparently, I have zero flexibility, like none left. Because that class let me know, because yoga post me flexible, get you flexible in a flexible mind. It let me know at that point in my life that now my flexibility is gone. And that I'm gonna need some help. And I'm gonna go back to yoga class, but I'm gonna tell you, I'm not going back to the intermediate course. I I'm gonna go back to the beginners now. I think I need to just start over. Just just sometimes in life when you, you know, you take off more than what you can chew, you you just need to, you know, wipe your wounds off and start over. Because, like I said earlier, I'm not gonna sit here and bash your clay. I think it's a great thing. I think that what happened in my case, I, you know how you go to the grocery store and you're hungry and got too much food and start eating a lot? I bit off more than what I could chew. That's why I did. I bit off more than I could chew. I I so that's why now for my next class next week, I'm going to the beginner's class and I'm gonna take it slow and get some beginner thing. I'm gonna I'm hopefully they'll just do some neck rolls in the class, you know, like the old neck rolls, the shoulder rolls, and nothing too hard, and that the structure is just gonna show us the poses and then say, hey, go home and practice it like homework. That's why that's what I'm hoping my head. Because I don't know, like I said, it's gonna be my second yoga class, but um, I wasn't ready. I didn't know yoga was like that. So um, so for all those people out there that's over 40, and you know, you want to work with your flexibility and your muscle strength, yoga might be for you. Um, I just advise you if you never did it before, like me, like that was your first time doing yoga, um, go to the beginner's class. Um I I I don't know what it was about the end of me in the class. And like I said, I I I want to file for elder abuse for what that instructor did to me. But in reality, uh she did take her time. I I just wasn't ready for what was about to happen to me. And it was tragic how I felt leaving out there. I I I felt like I did a whole workout, like an hour-long workout after I did 30 minutes of yoga. And if you would have seen me walking back to my car, you would have thought that I was lifting something heavy, and all of it came out the backside. Because it, yeah, I my legs hurt. My legs are still hurting and my back and my arm. But I feel good. I think I think I feel good. That's what I'm gonna tell myself. My mind, you know, telling me I'm feeling good. So but my body. My body's telling me something different. So um this week, remember, go try yoga. Just go to the beginner's class and then get build up. I'm so I'm gonna lick my wounds this week, and then I'm gonna go back to your class next week, and then later on down the line, a couple months, I'm gonna update you on this yoga thing here, because like I said, um it was rough. It it was rough. Um so life out in these streets after 40, and you trying to get your muscle endurance and your flexibility back over 40, man. Do the research and start at beginners, man. Don't, don't, don't, don't do like I did. Don't go straight to the medium. So that's what I got for you this week. That's my tip for you, people that's you know, going into your 40s over your 40s. Life at the 40s, rough. When you're trying to get back straight, get back right, yoga class can help you. Just start at the beginning of the class, okay? So thank you for rocking with me again this week, right here. I hope that I help you a little bit. Please put some in the comments that y'all that actually want to do your class kind of help me. Help, help a brother out, help me out so I can get my flexibility back, my strength back. Because like I said, I think yoga the thing, but I need some guidance. I need some human guidance, okay? Like I say, thank you again for listening. All the old, all of you that's putting comments and topic suggestions, thank you for that. I'm gonna make sure I get to the numbers and get to your topics, and we're gonna roll through it and we're gonna get you there. And like I said, um, coming up in April, I'm gonna get guests on this show for y'all. So y'all can not just hear my beautiful voice, you get to hear some of my friends' beautiful voices, and we can get that roll. Because that's that's nothing I gave me the comments. My friends say, hey, Jay, when can I come on the podcast, buddy? And uh, like I said, I'll I was doing training. I'm I'm still unfortunately I still have a uh a job with the military and they require me to work. They just won't pay me for free. Sorry, bastards. They they should have just paid me for free, but they they don't. Okay. Comments, shares, topic suggestions, always welcome. So unstripped it the podcast. Well, let me say it right. Unstripped it after 40, the podcast. Unedit, unrehearse, talk with real people. Until next time, go to that beginner's class, okay? Don't go to the intermediate class. Trust me on this one.