Thursday: Humbled by Hot Yoga

Oh, friends, I will admit to you that I have a bit of athletic arrogance. I mean, I don't think I can hop into a singles match with John McEnroe and I realize that my ability to play football is lacking, but I generally think that I can endure. I will just be honest and tell you that I thought I would OWN Hot Yoga today. I have taken many yoga classes, and I practice on my own at home often, just yesterday in fact. So, I arrived at class, got my mat and sat around stretching until class started. Now, this class was one and half hours long, and I was READY. When I got to the class, I put my mat right up front.

My sister had taken a Hot Yoga class, and she warned me that it might be both rugged and embarrassing. As is typical of me, I ignored this sound advice. I put on my yoga short shorts and a great top by Lululemon and marched in. Somewhere in my prideful heart of hearts, I probably thought that Sandra (the instructor) would use me as an example of perfect Yoga positioning.

The first 20 minutes of class, I was all over it. I was posing and stretching, and I even thought that the heat felt reasonable. It was so so miserably cold outside today, and the hot yoga room felt nice even. I was able to balance on my left leg with my right leg extended in front of me and easily touch my toes.

Then, my first wave of nausea hit me like a ton of bricks. I was attempting to balance on my right leg and stretch my left leg out in front of me, when I looked into the mirrored wall in front of me and saw my face go from red and overheated looking to completely white. Then it went to green. I had to lay down on the mat completely supine on my back and suppress the strong desire to army crawl out of the room. There is no way that I could have walked. I was seeing stars, and I will just be honest with you and say that I thought briefly that I was going to lose control of my bowels.

SO, there I am right up front. The rest of the class is moving through a series of standing poses, and I am laying on my mat heaving for 45 minutes. Actually it must have been more like an hour, because I was in 20 minutes before my first wave of nausea. I was able to do some of the seated poses in the end. I felt so ill while I was lying on my mat that I was afraid I was not going to be able to drive home. If my husband had had to come and get me in the snow and then figure out some way to get my car home, it would have been the end of Hot Yoga forever.

When class ended, I gimped out to the lobby. My clothes were soaked completely through. Wetter than a long run in July. I was swimming pool wet.

Now, I am not saying I will never go back. I would actually love to do the 10 day Hot Yoga commitment, where you go every day for ten days. This apparently gets you over the hump of feeling weak and sick, like I did during the first practice. The instructor, Sandra, was AMAZING. She moved the class quickly and was so knowledgeable. Also, if you can make a person feel great about laying on the floor heaving for the majority of the class, she really did that. I would not be embarrassed to go back at all. Also, if they offered a 6 AM class every morning, I would go. There is no way that I can leave Ivan every day for the next ten days, however. So, I may look for a vacation time that I could commit to Hot Yoga, when we are without Ivan.

The rest of my day has felt a little fatigued and thirsty. Ivan and I went to the indoor pool and practiced some swimming and I am curled up on the couch flipping back and forth between my Thursday night lineup and the playoffs. Reasonable day. All New Years Resolutions met.