Sweat Fest

Another weekend has come and gone. Sunday night blues have set in, but I've managed to accomplish something this weekend that has left me feeling a little better than I normally would at 10:30 pm on a Sunday night. Thanks to my roommate I discovered the world of hot yoga today (otherwise known as Bikram yoga). Hot yoga is a series of poses totalling a 90-minute workout, done in a room that is normally around 105 degrees. Though I had heard of it before, I really had no clue what to expect.

Today was Amanda's third trip and she had made several recruits beyond me: our friends Dan, Katie, Christel and Jessie went along as well and all were also first-timers like me. I was glad to know that even though I'd be doing yoga with a veteran group of Lawrence hippies I would at least have a few rookies on my side.

Upon arrival, the instructor explained the few rules: no talking during class, no drinking water until we are told to do so and absolutely NO LEAVING THE ROOM during class -- if you get light-headed or worse, just sit down on your yoga mat. That had me worried, but I've been training for a half-marathon for a solid month now and figured I could probably handle whatever he threw at us.

Was I ever wrong. We took our positions on our mats and towels in the very hot room. I don't know if it was 105 degrees, but it was hot enough to be uncomfortable. Sweating like a pig was inevitable. Fifteen minutes into the series we had managed to accomplish the warm-up breathing exercise. WARM-UP?!? I was already exhausted. My eyes were on fire from the sweat that I couldn't stop from rolling down my forehead. (Side note: apparently the other yoga teacher has another rule: absolutely no wiping off the sweat from your body).

There were many times during the first 45 minutes that even though my body might have been capable of performing the desired position I was so physically drained I could do no more than bend over and stare at the floor so as not to pass out. Just when I was thinking I was in over my head (sometimes literally...) the instructor explained that we had finished the standing part of the series and would now move to the floor. I had never been so relieved in my life. I didn't care what crazy poses we'd be doing on the floor, there was NO WAY it would be as difficult as the standing poses we'd been doing for 45 minutes.

I wasn't completely wrong. It was still harder than anything I'd done and I still couldn't perform half of the moves but the Shavasana pose was the key difference for the floor exercises. After every difficult pose, we would be released into the Shavasana (the corpse pose): lying on our backs, heels touching and toes pointing up at 45 degree angles with arms at our sides and palms up. Possibly the most relaxing position I've ever encountered -- and I intend to sleep that way tonight though I'm extremely aware of how difficult it is for me to sleep this way.

The end of the 90-minute yoga series brought with it much happiness for me and relief. I was proud of myself for making it through and excited about the opportunity to do it again...even though I had to wash every last item of clothing I was wearing immediately upon returning home because each piece was soaked in my sweat!