HOT Yoga

I’ve been to the odd yoga class here and there, I’ve tried so hard several times to properly get into Yoga and as much as I love meditation and stretching nothing I tried ever seemed to click, either I wasn’t feeling the love for the space or for the teacher or I just felt really uncomfortable for some reason.  The more I got into fitness and began to love high intensity killer workouts the less I felt drawn to yoga.

However, I really wanted to try Bikram or Hot Yoga, my friend has been raving about it for years but the closest hot yoga studio was in Glasgow (30miles away).  Until the end of last year, one opened in Falkirk which is not far and even more recently mid-December one opened here in Stirling.  Obviously I had to try it out.

So off I went last Tuesday.  I was a little nervous about this class because: a) I had done a TRX class at this new facility a few days before and had an…incident   b) I’m not good in saunas so if it’s unbearable heat I may have to make a sharp exit  c)  I was told people do this class in their underwear d) I didn’t have a yoga mat and being the newbie…always scary, right?

I arrived 15 minutes early.  Keen! Jack who had taken the TRX workshop remembered my name and introduced me to his wife Juliette who would be taking the class.  I hired a mat for £1 and headed into the furnace of doom, just kidding, it wasn’t too bad.  It was warm but not unbearable.  I copied the people that were already in the room and lay silently on my mat and towel, I closed my eyes and genuinely felt like I was lying on a sun lounger on a beach in Spain, all be it a very silent beach.  I miss summer…sigh!

Juliette came in and stood on a small platform at the front of the room and directed us to standing position before instructing us to practice a breathing technique which she explained thoroughly but I couldn’t get past the fact that it sounded like a group of people growling on inhale and sounded like Harry Potter speaking parcelmouth on exhale…if you don’t know what that means are we really friends? The more I thought that though the funnier it got and I was worried I was about to become the immature, giggling newbie.  Thankfully the breathing excercise was over before my lungs exploded to a cackle.

Next Juliette directed us through the warm up poses, not overly difficult but I did feel like the heat had turned up a notch.

Soon we were working our way through a Fierce Grace routine, I stuck to the beginner variations of most of the poses unless I knew for definite that I could do them.  I watched the girl in front of me as she looked like she knew what she was doing, there were full length mirrors at the front of the room, so she probably saw me and thought I was perving on her. Oops! She did have a great butt!!

The mirrors were good for having a point to focus on but also made me realise how unstable my balance was – my tree pose was more like a jenga tower that had only one last stabilising block left.  Thankfully I didn’t quite reach tipping point.

I don’t think the room did actually get any hotter but it felt like we had moved from sunny Spain to the desert heat in Dubai. Hot but again not unbearable.  I placed my forehead on my mat and noticed a huge puddle as I lifted it, not just where my head had been, my shoulders were dripping, my legs -who knew leg sweat was a thing, basically everywhere there was skin, there was sweat.  It dropped from my earlobes, my nose, my elbows and knees. I’m pretty sure I heard a noise similar to Niagra falls running down my back.  If our bodies are 70% water there was only 30% of me left standing.  Olaf, the snowman didn’t have a look in!! It’s gross but I’m pretty sweaty when I work out anyway so this didn’t bother me greatly.  I liked that everyone was just as sweaty, that doesn’t happen in the gym, there are those infuriating non-sweaters!!!!

However, with all the puddles it didn’t take long for my yoga mat to decide it was a slip ‘n’ slide and even standing with my feet together became difficult and a lunge soon became the first time I’ve done the splits in 17 years!!

After what felt like 15 minutes but was actually 60 I was back on my sun lounger in corpse pose (my favourite)for the end of class, Juliette opened the door and let some cool air in the room like a much needed sea breeze. Ahhhhhh!

After the class Juliette said I had done great, I have a feeling she said that to make me feel good because I did awful, but you know, practise make perfect and all that!!

I learned that.. I am about as flexible as a steel pipe and and have zero balance.

Did I enjoy it.. I went to my second class tonight, so I’d say that’s a yes!

I know I’m late to the party with this but have you recently tried hot yoga or are you planning to? 

Thanks for reading ❤

Namaste 🙏🏼

Angela xo