Still trying to catch you guys up on what classes I’ve done so far.
Monday was hot fusion yoga at Earth’s Power Yoga.
It’s a pretty self explanatory workout. Yoga, in a hot room. Okay, I’ll give you a little more there.
It was a dark room with projections of nature all over the wall, so it was like you entered this immersive experience. And that was very cool. No distractions, just you and yoga and the ten gallons of sweat you release.
I’ve done yoga before. I used to go to Yoga To The People in New York when I lived there. And while it wasn’t billed as hot yoga, due to the massive amount of people that came to this donation based studio, it got pretty hot. And since it was cheap and close to grad school, I went a lot. So I got pretty decent at yoga.
I’ve always been flexible, even in my worst shape I can still do the splits and crazy heel stretches. But strength and balance are another story. And the beginning of this hot yoga class was all about balance. And that was frustrating, but I kept getting back into the poses when I fell out of them, balling up my hands in frustration. Normally when that happens, a teacher would say something about how that is why it’s called a yoga practice and not a yoga performance. But this teacher ignored my noviceness which was all at once nice and annoying. One thing that happens in every class I’m in, yoga and otherwise, is that at some point you have to do the quad stretch. You know, the grabbing the back of your foot and pulling it back stretch. And I can’t do it. I’ve never really been able to do it. I think it’s the combination of my fat thighs, tight quads and short arms that makes it nearly impossible to do that with any kind of ease. There was a whole section of that in the yoga class. It always makes me feel shitty. But it’s something small to work towards on this fitness experiment.
We then got to some more familiar poses for me and that is when my mat turned into a slip n’ slide. I WAY underestimated the amount that I was going to sweat and I brought only a hand towel. I spent a lot of time going in and out of poses to wipe my mat off. I feel like once the balance stuff was over, that my main battle was just against my slippery, wet mat and not against my inability to do the poses.
I left soaking wet. But also refreshed. And calmer. I used to look at yoga as the way that Madonna got her arms that are all at once sexy and scary looking. But I think it is much more than that and I think I will continue to keep a yoga class in my rotation for sure.
I’ll just bring a beach towel next time.
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