After 15 years of playing hockey and nearly as many skateboarding, I stepped into my first yoga class. Picture it. Yep, you’ve got it: Tight (hamstrings like steel girders), imbalanced (I checked countless people using only my right side), and unsure (this was yoga, not a contact sport, after all). Yes, I was exactly what you’d expect. So, it stands to reason that Edith Chan, the heralded athlete and spinning coach, would suffer the same fate. Come on . . . She’s been hunched over her bike for thousands of miles, jammed her joints by pounding the pavement as she ran, and tightened her back-body by swimming lap after lap. Well, rules are made to be broken and clichés are clichés for a reason, because Edith doesn’t fit any of the athletic stereotypes when it comes to yoga. Instead, she has the most natural, graceful, balanced practice that I have ever seen in a beginner.

We’ve all heard someone in class say, "I don’t feel anything." Right? And, in those moments you—like me—may have had the urge to drop a block on that person’s pinkie toe because you felt so, so much at that moment that you thought you were going to pass out.

On a purely surface level, Edith is that person. She has deep forward bends, liberated backbends, and integrated standing poses. And, what’s more, she’s so conditioned from her training that she makes her poses look effortless—the way they are designed to be. So, what does all this mean? What, then, are we going to "makeover?" On what level are we going to deepen Edith’s practice and use yoga to enhance her athletics?

Like all art forms, we will move from the gross to the subtle. Stones can always be polished and made smoother. Understanding can always become deeper and more refined. So, Edith just happens to begin her yoga journey in a flexible, integrated, and strong body. She still has an edge. And, she still has layers upon layers—like everyone—of physical and mental conditioning that yoga can help reveal and address.

So, the next time that you feel the impulse to drop that brick on the A+ student next to you in class, remember something: All of us are just moving from a gross to a subtle understanding of ourselves, and we all have an edge somewhere.

Or, if that doesn't work, at least be kind and use a foam brick.