A Hot Sweaty Mess

This past weekend I tried something new. Bikram Yoga. Eeek! It’s an intense yoga done in a very hot room. Now I’ve been practicing yoga on and off for the past ten years. Mostly Hatha and Sivananda. Those two practices did not prepare me for Bikram. I sat in the hot room before class to get myself acclimated to the heat. I made the mistake of not bringing a water bottle in with me. I also made the mistake of not drinking much water before I took the class. The teacher who taught said at the beginning of the class for all the newbies to stay in the room even if you felt dizzy. Hmmm. Now for those of you who know me well, I’m a bit on the heavy side and being overly hot isn’t my favorite thing, but I thought I would try this type of yoga to help my very tight muscles loosen up a bit. We, humans, are not meant to sit at a desk for 8.5 hours a day without our bodies tightening up. So I bought this month long voucher back in January. I meant to go. I really did but my chattering monkey brain got in the way. I talked myself out of going to yoga because I was anticipating a class full of hard bodies while I tried to slog through the poses. Hehehe. I know now that I was just getting in my own way. I finally went Saturday morning full of vim and vigor. I seem to be telling this story in a circular way.

I went through the most intensive 90 minute yoga class in my life. Every inch of my body was covered in sweat. It was not a pretty sight but everyone in that room looked the same on that count. I did have to take a few sitting breaks from time to time because the heat and the poses made me cramp up or made me want to throw up. And yes, I did feel faint a few times. * note to self – bring a water bottle next time. Essentially this particular class focused on standing / balancing poses. I have one bad knee that had me all out of whack…but I hung in there. I think this type of yoga will be beneficial to my crazy bad knees because they focus on strengthening the quad muscles. And good lord, mine have atrophied since I blew out my knee, so I spent a good deal of time shaking through my poses trying to get my quad muscle to fire up and hold still. When I came out of class I was trembling probably from dehydration but mostly from the effort. I stayed in the class the whole time, I did not pass out, I tried for the poses and even when I definitely didn’t have the flexibility or the stamina for them I did my best and I’m really proud of that fact.

After class, I bought a ridiculously overpriced coconut water which help with the dehydration. Then I went to get a mani/pedi ‘cause the one thing I noticed while doing those poses was the fact that my feet were jacked up. So yes, pedicure was needed. I bought myself a fruit blend made from bananas, strawberry and apple and headed for a little pampering. Then I went straight home where my body was naturally detoxing. I took a long hot shower and gradually a migraine started to bloom. I went to lie down for a short nap and 12 hours later I awoke. My intention was go to another morning class on Sunday but my body was on fire. I was very sore…there are part of my body that I never knew could get sore, like the muscles around my rib cage. Who knew? Anyway, I opted to do an hour long session of Sivananda yoga instead. The gentle approach helped break up some of the crazy soreness I was feeling and afterwards I treated myself to some berries and cereal. Yay!!
All for now,
L~
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