That's hot (Yoga)

It was the last day of the year and I felt like doing something different. How about a Bikram Yoga class? Almost 2 hours of yoga in a room at 105 degrees. That is different. Most of the class times do not work for me as they are mid morning or late afternoon and conflict with my job and or home/child responsibilities. But no one else was at work, so I just chose to leave for 2 hours and try it.

I have taken about 12 yoga classes in my life. Not enough to be any good at it, but plenty to know that I am not very flexible. I was not sure how hot yoga would help or hurt.

It was quite the experience. Some random thoughts.

Look at all these people. Almost 35 people packed into there, every two feet or so and in three rows. Range from 20-50, mostly under 30. 5 guys and about 30 women.

That's hot. Walking into the room, is like walking out of Caesar's Palace Las Vegas in August and getting hit with that wall of dry heat.

What to wear. It is so hot that the rule seems to be the less, the better. I saw women in one piece body suits, booty shorts and sports bras, tank tops, you name it. Guys had shorts. Of the other 4 men, 2 had shirts on and 2 model looking dudes had no shirts. I was not sure which way to go. I started with shirt on, but within 10 minutes I had to pull a Harold. Bam.

And if you are wondering, yes. During almost 2 hours of stretching, twisting, sweating, back bends, front bends, etc, you see a lot of sweaty cleavage flying around and there are some very attractive and fit people in there.

What is the Bikram method. Unlike other yoga classes that may have a different focus, this class does 26 moves/positions in the same order every time. It is very regimented, as it the instructor.

The instructor. Had an army ranger shirt on when I signed in. Seems both very serious, and also nuts. Speaking of that, when class started he rolled in wearing just a black speedo. OK. During the class, we speaks almost non stop. Like a memorized script. The whole thing is weird. He also had rules, lots of rules. Water breaks only between poses, etc..

The class. It was hot, and the moves were hard. I could not do them all, but not everyone could. I am not sure that I will ever be able to stand on one leg and have the other leg fully extended in front of me while I pull up on my toe with both arms to lock it out. Do I want to do that?

But thanks to Crossfit, my core is strong and my balance pretty good. I could do more than some people and at the end I got a compliment. The instructor tried to argue with me that I had never done it before, or that it had been more than a year since I had done any yoga.

I will be back, as soon as I figure out how to schedule it in.