Hot Yoga

As you know, I love yoga. I favor vinyasa flow and restorative classes, but I tend to enjoy just about everything - with the exception of hot yoga. Perhaps this is because the only type of heated class I had done was Bikram Yoga, which is known for being pretty un-yoga like. Long story short, you are in a room heated between 95 and 100° F and you do a set sequence of non-flowing postures for 90 minutes. 

Bikram in a nutshell

I tried to be a Bikram person, but I just couldn't do it. I've probably taken 12 or so classes and only made it through one without sitting down (people sit down all the time - "staying in the room" is the major thing in Bikram; sitting down is OK as long as you stay in the room and get back up when you feel better). The postures in Bikram are variations of familiar postures from other classes I've taken, but when practiced in the heat without a traditional warm up they're terribly hard for me. I often felt faint (which was probably because I didn't have the proper amount of hydration/fueling beforehand...I never figured out exactly what I needed) and was painfully sore the next day. I've done a lot of research on Bikram and it's various benefits and dangers, and I've decided that, for now, it's not a practice for me.

That being said, I still crave the deep stretching that a heated yoga class gives you, so I've been on the lookout for other options. When I saw a LivingSocial deal for Hot Yoga Burlington, I was hesitant at first - I wasn't sure if I was going to have the same challenges as with Bikram. However, the class is described as a "vinyasa style" yoga in a heated room, so I decided to give it a shot. Last night was my first class on my 5 class punch pass.

I enjoyed the class very much! I walked in and felt a welcome heat - not the sometimes blistering heat that I felt in Bikram. I'm not sure what the difference was, but I felt like I could breathe fully and my skin and face didn't burn just by walking in. There were a few other hot yoga newbies in the class so the instructor led a pretty gentle, beginning flow with a focus on warrior poses.

I really felt how the heat assisted my stretching because we were doing familiar poses and flows, so unlike Bikram, I felt how my body was in this practice as opposed to the regular flow I had done a day earlier in a normal room. My shoulders felt stretchier, the backs of my legs felt longer and my twists felt deeper. I definitely broke a sweat (like a normal exercise sweat - back, face, under the sports bra) but wasn't absolutely pouring sweat like in Bikram (even my shins would sweat in Bikram - who knew shins could pour sweat?).

I wore shorts, a sports bra and a cotton tank top over it, assuming that I would take off the tank top and only practice in the bra and shorts, but all the other ladies had on full tank tops so I left mine on. Next time I would wear one of my built-in-bra workout tank tops instead.

I really enjoyed the class and feel great today. I ran 3.8 miles at lunch yesterday and am not the slightest bit sore today...thanks hot yoga! I'm not sure what I'll do after I use the remaining four classes on my LivingSocial deal - I definitely wouldn't pay the $14/class drop in price, but I might like to go during the winter. We'll see what kind of punch passes they sell.