A few words about hot yoga, or Bikram hot yoga precisely, because this is the type of class I am attending. Bikram Choudhury was the person who made yoga popular in the western world in early 1970s. He synthesized traditional yoga techniques into a set of exercises (consisting of 2 breathing exercises and 26 poses), which are done in exactly 90 minutes. Practicing Bikram yoga allows working on every muscle and organ in every part of your body and brings a lot of benefits. The ultimate conditions to practice Bikram yoga is a room with the temperature of about 40 Celsius degrees and the air of about 40% humidity. You can read a lot more about Bikram hot yoga online, just google it :) I will write about my own experience.
Well, the first session I had was hell. I thought I actually died (and went to hell? oh why???). I thought that in a few seconds I would just go out and never come back. If only I could move quickly enough to do it! The heat was overwhelming me. I was dizzy and sweating more than ever in my life (and I've been to a couple of pretty warm places). I was promising myself that this was the first and last class I was attending, and I was angry at myself and at my enthusiasm and signing up for TEN classes with promotional price. Damn it with the promotional price - this will be the most expensive class I would ever attend as I'm not coming back!
Yes... two days later I was back :) A couple of people less, a bit more air to breathe... my body got used to the heat quickly and I was coping quite well... Also the trainer was different on that day, speaking much calmer, which made me more relaxed. And, most importantly, I knew the poses we were practicing and their order, so I could predict more or less when the end was near... which is very helpful!
Today was my third class. Surprisingly, it was worse than I expected. It was much too hot for me today, I couldn't breathe at times. I felt dizzy and I couldn't do my favourite pose - tree. In the middle of the class I had a breakdown and I was swallowing my tears, trying to calm down my throat and stop shaking. And on top pf that near the end of the class my hands, up to elbows, became terribly numb. I completely didn't know what to do with them. When lying down I could not even relax them...
Will I be back? Yes, of course. Sometimes it's easier, sometimes more challenging, but I know it is always good for me. I feel lighter and more flexible and I feel how my body slowly gets rid of all the toxins. And it helps me pay even more attention to what I eat and how much I drink (water of course!). Thumbs up for hot yoga, worth the effort! I will let you know how the next 7 classes go...
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