Come Hell or Hot Yoga!

Yesterday...Saturday 530am...I found myself waking before the alarm sounded with sheer excitement over the 8am appointment marked on my daily agenda. Just days before, I had agreed to do Hot Yoga with one of my awesomesauce friends, Angie. Yes, that would be me...a newbie to yoga and I was signing up for a hot yoga class. The only exposure to yoga that I had prior was in my bonus room doing the P90X3 video with Tony Horton. Needless to say, that was never pretty since it was happening at 430am on rare occasion and I was definitely struggling to keep up with beast mode like he leads.

After I tossed a boiled egg and a couple of slices of bacon plus my morning Spark in my belly, I loaded my yoga mat, a towel, my Rehydrate in a shaker, and a Quest Bar for post-workout in a bag and headed out the door. 45 minute drive to the destination gave me plenty of time to mentally prepare for the fun to be had.

Upon signing in at the Unity Yoga Room, I suddenly had this butterfly feeling in my gut that seemed to be telling me I had bitten off more than I could chew. What triggered this? Well, could it have been the temperature in the room escalating by the second to that goal of nearly 90 degrees or the realization that the class was not an hour as I had planned? It was 90 minutes! 90 minutes of nothing but hard work and high temps for this fluffy and over 40 chick. But...I had paid my $15 so I was committed.

My buddy, Angie, had so kindly unrolled my mat and placed my bath towel on it. I looked around the room only to see that many folks had mat-sized towels all stretched out. Ooops....the towel was meant to lay on your mat rather than to simply wipe your brow. Oh well, I was determined that I would probably not need a beach towel to sop up the sweat like some folks must need. After all, I had my BondiBand on my head, absorbent yoga pants and a stretchy Dri-Fit shirt that would surely suffice.

As the instructor, Daryn, started the class, I was pretty comfortable in my decision to enjoy the class and make the best of the situation. After all, I reminded myself that getting outside of my comfort zone was part of my journey toward getting stronger and making new memories. Finding alternates to running is very important since you need cross-train days as well as a wide range of core strengthening exercises to be a well rounded athlete (or wanna be). Then...the bottom fell out.

About 20 minutes into the workout, I realized two things. First, my towel was insufficient. I was starting to sweat in places that I didn't know existed. Sweat was beading up on my arms and face and running down my back like a steady trickle from a leaky faucet. Second, I was completely out of shape. How can I run for miles but feel breathless while engaging random muscle groups in static holds for brief periods? Jeez a meez, this yoga crap must be for total freaks of nature that were born with super powers.

Oh....then the fun continued. We alternated the most common yoga moves multiple times, and I quickly realized that not only can I not keep up with the moves in a Zumba class but I can't switch from Downward Dog to High plank without face planting once or twice. I've heard of "two left feet" but seriously....could I be more awkward with my arms and hands? Daryn continued to remind us to "have fun with this" but all I could think of was "do no harm."

And then...I had a perfect idea! Of course, I had no clue how long I had endured the torture chamber of challenges at 90 degrees but I was sure that I had earned bonus points for my first time as a "newbie hot yogi." Therefore, I started planning my escape. Wonder if any one would notice or even care that I had picked up my big blue mat that was pooled with sweat and made my way toward the door? I mean seriously...I didn't know a soul there except for Angie and had no intentions of gracing the doors of Hot Yoga again in this lifetime. Surely Angie would forgive me since "at least I tried." Well, considering I was strategically (unfortunately) placed near the center of the room, there was no discreet way to exit. Fact: I was stuck!

Thankfully, within a few minutes later, Daryn brought the workout back to a slow roar as she instructed us through chair pose along with several other do-ables for me. Needless to say, I was simply in survival mode. "What doesn't kill me makes me stronger" kept playing over and over in my mind. She continued to bring us further to the floor into a position that I will refer to as the distorted pretzel. My left leg was tucked in front of me and my right leg was stretched behind. As I stretched out over my left leg and rested my elbows on the floor, the sweat running down my face pooled below me on the mat. I tried to reach for the corner of the towel but it was just too far out of my comfort zone to grab. I was deep in thought with listening to Daryn's voice speak into the room. She clarified that if your hips were struggling to relax in that position then the pain directly related to stressors in your life that you needed to release. I took a cleansing breath and allowed my back to relax and sink into my pelvis. I think that is part of "becoming one with your mat" so maybe...just maybe...I was finally getting the gist of this yoga stuff. Within seconds of relaxing, I felt tears stream down my face. No, this steady stream was not residual sweat...it was definitely coming from the inner canthi of my eyes. These were not tears born from physical pain. They were seemingly an emotional release of sorts. Dang it...I was trying so hard not to like this horrific experience.

By the time the background music was drawing to a close, I had maneuvered my way to the corpse pose as instructed. My entire body felt lifeless and heavy. I could feel my heartbeat in a perfect steady rhythm and felt my lungs expand against the mat. The ice cold cloth that Daryn placed on my forehead as my eyes remained closed was such a welcomed touch after the hard labor I had endured under her direction. I was drenched from head to toe. My clothes couldn't have been more soaked if I had been caught in a torrential rain for an hour.

After my 90 minutes in what seemed like the pit of hell, I was truly feeling revived and renewed. So...the honest truth...Yoga is definitely a nice addition to my life of "working on a better version of me." I will make it a point to find time in my week for at least 1-2 hours of this type of experience. Would I recommend Hot Yoga? Absolutely. Perhaps not Power Hot Yoga for 90 minutes for newbies. Who knows...maybe that is what it took for me to believe that you must give it all to the mat and the workout and not hold back for fear of challenge or failure. After all, I am a slow learner.  I will say that I was among about 20 others in that room yesterday morning at 8am but can't tell you how anyone else looked or performed. That 90 minutes was truly about finding myself and improving on my baseline rather than comparing myself to those "true Yogis" around me in their own pools of moisture. I know very well that "comparison is the thief of joy." Thankful for friends like Angie that believe in me and encourage me to step out of that comfort zone and for instructors like Daryn that don't judge the weak while encouraging all to find that inner peace.

Namaste...