Hot and REALLY sweaty!

Last night, I stepped into my very first session of Hot Yoga. Being a newbie, we participated in an 1 hour 'short-course' that slowly took the yoginis through pranayama (breathing) exercises and a little under 20 poses. The studios are normally just below 40 degrees Celsius, but I don't know if this one was that hot.

But really, don't get me wrong, it was HOT! In fact, it probably was around 40 degrees in that room. My friend and I arrived at the studio about 30 minutes before class, and were allowed into the hot room 15 minutes before class. By the time class actually started, sweat was beading on my forehead and all over my arms and legs. 10 minutes into class, I was sweating and sweating and sweating. We were encouraged to drink over a litre of water during the session, but it was literally as if I were a water container with holes all over. If you could imagine that (I know, it's kind of gross; apologies for the details).

The good sign was that I wasn't struggling at all. Due to knee surgery last February, my right half of the body is totally tight, and I know better than to force it to become flexible right away. The lack of flexibility, however, has caused by pelvis to be crooked to the point where it is causing some painful problems in my lower back. Recently, with my routine solo Ashtanga-yoga in my room, the pain has slowly ceased. Yoga is about letting that ego to be 'great' go, listening to what your body 'says', and just letting things be. Really, that is my favorite part of yoga.

I came out of the studio drenched, but I felt so good afterwards that I took up a 5-class membership at the studio. For some reason yoga classes here cost a lot of money. At my yoga studio in Vancouver, it was $15/week for unlimited classes. Here, it cost me $140 for 5 classes (you can choose what classes to take). In London, it looks as though a monthly pass costs between £85 - £100 (don't be fooled; that's about $200+), depending on the studio, so about the same as here. My favorite so far is Yoga Junction, which is a bit on the pricey side but looks nice, and Sivananda Yoga, which offers an unlimited monthly pass for £63 (closer to the Vancouver market price). I wonder why the prices are so different between Vancouver and Tokyo/London.

In any case, hot yoga is great. I am totally hooked.