Yogi Bare

I went to my very first yoga class last summer, and I’ve been hooked ever since. At the local gym I frequent, there is a very good instructor who gives a one hour Hatha class three times a week. She’s a wonderful, bubbly, tiny specimen from India. I think her name is Kavita Pretzel. She’s been doing yoga since Gandhi went on his first diet. The first couple of weeks were very hard…I’ve spent years running and lifting weights, so the yoga stretches for an old man like me…well, I can’t bend very far, that’s all I’ll say. Not to be discouraged, there are plenty of incentives to go:
1. The classes are mostly women.
2. Most of them wear spandex outfits.
3. I love spandex.
4. The instructor wears spandex
5. Did I mention that I really really like spandex? (And camel toes, one yoga move I can’t do but have fun observing in others.)

I’ve been noticing some improvements in my range of motion, and the truth is I feel better after a session. So when I got down here into Washington State, I cruised the net for a yoga studio so I could get my spandex fix. And I found one. Boy, did I find one.
It’s Bikram Yoga. Now for the uninitiated, Bikram Yoga is hot yoga. Each session is 90 minutes long, and in a room heated to 105 degrees F.

Oh….My….God!!!!!

The first time I went, there were about 30 people there, all ages, shapes sizes, even a pregnant participant. A lot of skimpy spandex. Yum! The routine is simple but goes very quickly from one pose to the next and I broke into a sweat after the first 5 minutes. By the end of the 90 minutes I felt like I’d gone for a swim in a hot tub with my clothes on. No, that’s not right. Imagine a pool heated to hot tub temperature and then doing 100 lengths. Or maybe visualize running 10 miles in the jungle on a hot day.

Bikram Yoga is yoga on steroids. It turns a basic yoga session into a phenomenal cardio work-out. The moves are no more difficult than traditional beginners’ Hatha yoga, but the heat cranks up the heart rate and the sweat just pours out.

Now I am assured by our instructor, who by the way is a real cutie named Kelly and is 6 months pregnant and still looks great in spandex…. but I digress. I am assured by Kelly that the sweating releases toxins and the heat allows the victim to stretch even further than traditional yoga. All this is true, in my estimation. The second and third time I went were not quite so dramatic, I think because I knew what to expect. The end result of all this, after my heart rate calmed down, showered and chugged a large bottle of water, was that I felt great! And now I’m hooked.

Synchronicity: As it turns out, there’s a Bikram Yoga studio starting up my home town in Canada this week, so I’m going to have to check them out when I get home. Anyone else tried this thing? Check out Bikram Yoga.

Namaste!