Hot Yoga

I am a big believer in getting outside the box and trying new things. I am all for my Beachbody workouts but I am not going to say no to a new experience when it comes my way. I was invited to go to Bikram Yoga with a friend of mine from work. I thought why not? It's a rest day but why not challenge myself and stretch my body. I like the occasional yoga to stretch myself out and get at one with myself so I said sure.

I went on Pinterest to see more about this Bikram Hot Yoga thing and I shouldn't have even gone in there to try and research blogs on this issue. HA HA HA I FREAKED myself out. Seriously!

The first picture I see is a red picture and in scary movie writing how to survive hot Yoga. Here it was....

 

Source

So I don't know about you but that picture scared me a little bit. I sent a text to my friend telling her how scared I was and she told me that she was too even though she had already been several times so HOLY CRAP that doesn't help does it?

So we get to the Bikram place and I am all geared up. Water. change of clothes. renting a towel and mat there. Check check and check. The instructor was really nice and welcoming which put me at ease and she showed me some of the breathing exercises that we were going to do in class and told me that my main goal was to stay in the room the whole time. Ok I got it. Stay in the room. Honestly though I was like shit it MUST be hot in there! So I went in set up my mat and it wasn't so bad. We waited on another friend and we started just laying around there.

I really thought that all yoga was like I guess vinyasa style where you downward dog and all that but Bikram is 26 poses that you do twice totaling 90 minutes of breathing, stretching, poses, and corpse pose at the end. I was pretty happy that we didn't have to move all over the place. For a beginner like me to explain it to you the best way I can put it is that we got into a pose, stretched or compressed the body depending on the pose and then you repeat it again. It was REALLY challenging and fun to do I really liked it.

So you are probably wondering how hot it was in there! Um yeah it was pretty freaking hot at one point I had to take a break because I was getting lightheaded but I think that was because I have a sinus issue going on and it irritated it a little. There were 2 points in the session where I felt REALLY hot and wondered when it was over but when I felt like that I started spitting positive affirmations at myself and I forgot about the heat. I started to tell myself that I could do it, we were almost done, and that I was strong and doing a wonderful job. I paid attention to how beautiful I looked holding the poses and surprised myself at how much farther I was able to stretch.

After the class I was DRENCHED. There was a puddle on my towel which was gross but when you are in a room that is 105 degrees you are going to pour sweat. I didn't feel it until I got home but I totally felt cleaner and "detoxed" lighter feeling. I don't know if that really is a true thing but I felt lighter and not bloated even though my fingers swelled from being so hot. It is something that I would do again but I totally saw the value in my at home workouts. Overall it took three and a half hours to get ready, go to the yoga place, do the thing, and then get home. When I can just go downstairs do my thing and come back upstairs and shower and go on with my day.

I did like the instructor and the atmosphere and the people there were so nice and you could instantly tell that you were in a no judgement zone which was really cool. I was totally surprised that so many men went to the class and the ages and different types of people that were there too. It is something that I would do again and yoga is something that I don't consider to be a weight loss tool but a wellness tool but I could totally see myself doing some kind of challenge with it in the future if I was ever in a place where I would be able to be closer.

Here are a few tips that I found to be helpful for my next go round or that would help you to go.

 1.) Bring cold water! I had warmer water and it was OK but having that COLD water in the room would have been a morale booster when I was feeling down.

2.) Bring a mat and a towel. They do not have special mats (I thought they did) they carry the same ones you probably have at home.

3.) Don't worry about a change of clothes. You are going to be sweating through them anyway so just throw a dry towel on your car seats and you will be good.

4.) Go in there with a positive mindset. I went in there scared and I did panic a bit at the end but keeping it positive will help you to focus on what you are doing and you will forget the time.


Why not test yourself and try something new?