Chapter 282: Two Amateurs
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
"Yoga?" Feng Zhu had a surprised look on his face, as expected.
Modern citizens would find yoga familiar. As long as there was a gym, there would be yoga class. Females are the major participates, as few men would practice yoga.
Many domestic people considered practicing yoga as a trend-chasing activity. They practiced so that they could post the picture on their social media and get attention, not for pure exercise.
Actually, practicing yoga had many advantages. It was, after all, a kind of sport, and it had its strength. From a physiology perspective, it could improve circulation, the immune system, and strength, as well as balance. It also helped with reducing muscle aches. Besides, practicing yoga could increase flexibility, as the old saying goes: the more flexible your body is, the longer you are going to live.
Practicing yoga also helped reduce stress and allowed people to better maintain a calm emotional state, and therefore, to be healthy and happy. But yoga seemed ridiculous, when compared with other professional training sessions.
As for the amount of exercise, yoga was much less than other aerobic exercise. Many people might feel tired after yoga training, but this kind of tiredness was different from that caused by a more exerting physical output. For a professional athlete, this tiredness was not tiring at all.
The effect of yoga on improving physical function was not as good as other specialized training sessions either. For instance, yoga could help with strength, but it was nothing compared with lifting weights, let alone the fact that professional athletes would practice in a more professional way, so they would choose more personalized exercises rather than yoga.
Therefore, when Feng Zhu heard "yoga", he thought he misheard, and his second reaction was to think that this was a joke. However, looking at Dai Li, he seemed to be serious.
Zhu Feng had to ask and make sure, "Coach Li, did I hear it wrong? Did you say 'yoga'?"
"That's right, yoga." Dai Li kept saying, "You may find it unbelievable, but I'm serious. My method is practicing yoga, more specifically, practicing yoga under my guide."
"Coach Li, I know I made a mistake before. I really regretted it. You don't really have to punish me in this way!" Feng Zhu said impatiently.
"This is not a punishment." Dai Li shook his head, "I meant it. But I won't force you to do that if you don't want to."
"Practice yoga? This is impossible! Of course I won't take it! How is this going to work?" Feng Zhu replied without hesitation.
"I suggest you think about it." Dai Li continued saying, "You have been trained to be more flexible for two years, but nothing has improved. Do you think it's going to work out one day, magically? You'd better try something new rather than waiting."
"But that's yoga! It's not going to work," Feng Zhu argued.
"How could you know it won't benefit your flexibility, if you don't give it a shot?" Dai Li argued back.
Feng Zhu was speechless. He kept silent for a while.
Dai Li continued saying, "Surely you could choose to ignore my advice and repeat your old tricks, those moves that are not going to help, even if you practice for all your life. Or, you could take my advice and practice yoga. If it works, your flexibility will be improved, and you may possibly be selected by the national team."
"Stay where you are, or take the challenge and do something different. It's your own choice." Dai Li paused, turned around and said at the same time, "Take your time, think about it. If you want to practice yoga, come to me."
There was a struggling look on Feng Zhu's face. Feng Zhu still couldn't buy it. He didn't believe that yoga would be more effective than what he had done before.
However, he had to admit that Dai Li's words made some sense. If he continued what he was doing, he would achieve nothing. But a slight change could make some difference, even it sounded unreasonable.
Finally, Feng Zhu thought it through and made his decision. He ran to the outside, taking big strides.
"Coach Li, wait for me!" Feng Zhu shouted. "I believe in you, I will try yoga."
…
Dai Li himself had never learned yoga before either. He was just copying the actions on the system. His movement was not smooth at all, and was even a bit rusty, to be honest.
Yoga was different from slimming exercises. The latter were kind of like setting up exercises to radio music, which had been practiced by Dai Li for years since primary school. You could simply master it, as long as you practiced it for a couple of times.
But yoga was new to Dai Li, and that was why he was rusty. Feng Zhu just looked at Dai Li and imitated every move he made.
Soon Feng Zhu came to realize that Dai Li didn't do the whole set in a smooth way. "Coach Li didn't look professional at all. He seems to be an amateur at yoga. Is he really qualified in teaching others? Or is he just messing around with me?" Feng Zhu had so many questions.
The good thing was that Feng Zhu had never practiced yoga before, hence, as a starter himself, he had no right to judge. So he held his words back and kept doing what Dai Li was doing.
Dai Li felt awkward as well.
"Yoga's movements are way harder than slimming exercises. I made a fool of myself. I would have practiced several days ahead, if only I had known this was going to happen, so I would be smoother. I am a coach, so how can I convince my athletes, if I can't do the movement right myself?"
Although Dai Li performed badly, he felt confident about the effect yoga could have, because the system never failed him.
"What we had practiced all worked out immediately. I hope this could work at once as well! As long as it worked immediately, even only a little effect could make Feng Zhu believe in it," Dai Li prayed silently.
The yoga motions weren't difficult, and didn't involve any stunt, such as lifting the legs above the head. However, it took Dai Li an hour to accomplish the whole set.
Dai Li was unfamiliar with the motions, so you couldn't blame him. Finally, after they finished the last move, Dai Li stood up.
"What do you feel?" he asked Feng Zhu immediately.
"What do I feel?" Feng Zhu shook his body. "I didn't feel anything special!"
"Nothing?" Dai Li seemed disappointed. He said, more like self-comforting, "It takes more than 1 or two days for the training to be effective. We still have plenty of time! It's pretty late, let's call it a day. We will see each other tomorrow and continue our practice!"