Hot Yoga?

Oooh, yesterday I received the confirmation email from Luna Sandals that mine are indeed now on there away across the seas down to lil' old New Zealand. This is going to be the longest wait of my life. Go ship, go!

There was also other excitement in my day yesterday. I finally got to try something I have wanted to do for years, Yoga! But this wasn't any old Yoga, no! This was hot Yoga! And far out, it was indeed very hot.

I was invited by my buddy who is a regular on the 'normal' yoga circuit. She had been recommended this hot Yoga by a friend and wanted to check it out for herself. I thought it sounded like a neat idea and as I said, Yoga had been on my list of things to try for a while now, so I went along for the ride. The studio we went to was Bikram Yoga Wellington.

On Bikram's website this is how they explain it:

Bikram yoga is the original 'hot yoga'. A unique series of 26 hatha yoga postures and two breathing exercises practices in a heated room. You systematically move fresh, oxygenated blood to 100% of your body, restoring all systems to healthy working order in every 90 minute class. Proper weight, muscle tone, vibrant good health and a sense of well being follows.

And oh my christ, they don't call it hot Yoga for nothing. I was dripping sweat in amounts I didn't think were humanly possible. Walking into the studio was like walking into a sauna. A smelly sauna at that. I'm not sure having a carpeted room is the ideal flooring one would want when you have a group of 10-15 people sweating the equivalent of their body weight into it 4-5 times a day. Anywho, you get used to it pretty quick by the time you have finished the first posture.

I actually really enjoyed it. I found it to be immensely relaxing. There was a definite point where I felt my body release tension and I got into a really nice place mentally and physically. And I am not the most flexible of people but it was taught in a way that any level of fitness or flexibility would be able to get the most out of each posture. Due to the heat, I did feel faint on more than one occasion so make sure you take a bottle of water for sure because you will be needing to take regular swigs from it. Although you must get used to the heat because some of the regulars hardly seemed to take water breaks at all. We all left the studio looking like we'd just had a shower. A sweat shower.

Will I go again? Maybe but perhaps not to 'hot' yoga. I did like the movement of it and the calming effect it has. And today my body definitely feels like it has had a workout... aching all over. But I would like to try it without the heat to see if you can achieve the same results without having to sweat yourself dry. So watch this space...