Back to Hot Yoga

After about a six-week break that involved moving, flying to boulder, flying to NYC and starting a new job, I finally decided it was time to get back into the swing of things and find myself a hot yoga studio. Despite living most of my life without any yoga at all, being yoga-less the past six weeks has been a real test for me - it's the first time in about three years that I have gone for so long without regular yoga. So breaking my 'yoga fast' with the hardest kind of yoga I've ever done - hot yoga - maybe wasn't a great idea. But I'm not one to bail just because it doesn't sound like a great idea.

I started out wanting to vomit, almost immediately. Usually the wanting to vomit part doesn't hit until at least midway through the first pose. This time it hit about as soon as we stood up to start class.

I also ended up sitting out three poses, which is the most I've ever had to sit out (my previously worst class I only had to sit out one, usually I can make it through all of them although it may not be pretty).

So here is a summary of what I found at my new studio which is generally different from my old studio:

1. At my new studio, people were wearing normal clothes.

Yea, that's right, a guy wearing gym shorts and a t-shirt was right in front of me and I swear I even saw a woman wearing yoga pants. In my old studio it was all booty shorts and skimpy sports bras, or for the dudes speedos or giant silver underpants.

2. At my new studio, it smells nice.

This is refreshing, but didn't reduce the vomit factor at all (see first comment, above).

3. At my new studio, there is no parking.

I had to park about three blocks away, which doesn't suck when you're going to class but might as well be on the East Coast after class when you can barely walk and you can't see straight and you're not sure how you stayed alive for the past 90 minutes.

4. At my new studio, people aren't afraid to sit out an entire pose, or even the whole class.

As did the obese guy in the speedo, who at one point had a towel over his face and was rolling around moaning in pain (the teacher told him to stop, as his drama was "feeding into itself"). At my old studio, almost everyone did all the poses, and nobody dared be obese.

5. My new studio has a water filter right in the room where you do the yoga, which is convenient. They also had a clock in there, so I could time my pre-class potty break within the minute of class starting.

All in all, it was a pretty similar class with the same sufferage and the same sore muscle agony the next day that I have experienced elsewhere. I may adventure around however and check out some other studios - there are three hot yoga studios within a mile of my apt in Seattle (what does that tell you about my neighborhood?). I'm pretty spoiled here.