Last night, I finally took the plunge and experienced one of my biggest fitness fears: BIKRAM HOT YOGA!
- I cannot stand heat. I can barely sit in a sauna for long.
- I have no patience for yoga. It’ssss soooo sssllllooooowww.
Surprisingly, my experience wasn’t that bad! Physically, it wasn’t hard although I can definitely work on my flexibilty a lot more and the heat wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. It was definitely more fierce than my apparently “Fierce” yoga class I took before so I’m satisfied. There were a couple times were I was lying there hoping it would be over soon when it started to feel suffocating but it was pretty easy to push away that thought… and think about something else like what I was going to make for lunch tomorrow (tuna salad + baked yams, by the way).
The hardest part of my Bikram experience was being there in the present and not letting my mind wander off. One reason I would want to continue yoga is to practice patience— and of course, to get a good stretch and increase flexibility. Stretching makes muscles long and lean.
The second [painful] thing were the foot cramps during most of the balancing poses in the beginning. At least I didn’t get them in the middle of the night when I’m sleeping. That’s the most painful thing ever.
The third [annoying] thing was that I was making garlic hummus while waiting for my girlfriend to come to my apartment which I ate a little of. Then I was self-conscious that my breath smelled like garlic the entire time even though I brushed my teeth twice and popped mints. Lesson learned: don’t eat garlic before yoga.
My other friend was ranting about how bad her first experience was to me so I was pretty anxious going there but overall, I think I had a good first experience!
Have you done Bikram Hot Yoga before? What was your experience like?
