Just do it #8: Try Bikram Yoga (or "Feeling hot, hot, hot!")

In October, I claimed that due to gorging on too much Halloween candy, I was going to finally try Bikram yoga. It's January. Don't judge.

For those of you who haven't heard of Bikram yoga, let me fill you in...

1. The studio is heated to 105 degrees,
causing the sweatiest, frizziest
bad hair day I've ever had

2. 26 poses, each done twice, with small exercise in between
(#18 almost killed me)

image from here

3. Trendy celebrities love it
image from here

Today, was National Yoga Day (yes, it's a thing) and my friend Mali, her work friend Kristen, and I decided that with free Bikram classes being offered, it was now or never. After much stressing out about what we should wear in the scorching room (Our birthday suits?? G-strings??), what to eat (Nothing to avoid vomiting? A Valium?), and what would we do in case of emergency (Will you drag me out?! Do you know CPR?!), we finally calmed down enough to drive to the studio together.

Our hysteria subsided once we started the class with a deep breathing exercise. Relaxing... Then, we started the first sets of stretches. I felt powerful and limber. This wasn't bad at all! Once we got to pose #12, however, I noticed my knee was shaking and could barely see because sweat kept pouring in my eyes.

Things began to unravel once the class started doing the floor exercise (#16 and up). All of the side effects the instructors had mentioned that newbies might have (nausea, dizziness, wanting to sob in fetal position but alas no tears due to dehydration) started to happen. Also, the room was saturated with a sour smell of b.o. that was almost suffocating. But somehow we made it through without fainting, throwing up, or swearing at the sweet instructor who made us work like we were in boot camp, calling out instructions in her soothing, melted ice cream voice. (When she calmly crooned out, "We're almost done" for the fourth time, I almost screamed...)

Afterwards, we celebrated with smoothies, probably consuming all the calories that we had just burned. Again, don't judge.

Verdict: Just do it #8 was a success!

In summary, I leave you with this really bad poem...

I tried Bikram yoga
for the first time, you see
with hopes of toned abs
like Jenny McCarthy
I had to sign a waiver,
in case of heat stroke
26 poses in a sauna
that's intense, no joke
Sweat, nausea, dizziness
though at the end I felt revived
but more than anything else
I'm glad I survived!

For my Just do it #9, I plan on something a lot less sweaty. I'm thinking of a "you've got mail" theme, but will have to mull over what I want to do... stay tuned!