Hot Yoga

Two days ago I went to do a yoga class with my friend Fi. She is a member and I was able to tag along for a free trial. I made sure that the class would purely be a practice in exercise and didn't involve any spiritual chanting or such. It didn't.

The thing that failed to sound an alarm for me was that is was a "hot" class (even though Fi did remind me that it was going to be pretty warm in there). For some reason that sounded absolutely fine to me (more sweating = good hard workout). I don't know why my brain didn't immediately recall the numerous heat induced fainting episodes and blood noses I've experienced since I was a teenager. Is this really a minor detail????

Anyway, in we went and sat chatting (well, we whispered cause you're not supposed to talk in the studio so technically I think we were okay) in the quite warm room. We were sweating already. Then we started. I was just as inflexible and lacking in coordination as normal, but it was kind of fun. Until the sweating increased and the stars started encroaching on my view..... Now I had an important choice to make. Do I keep going (because I do love a good hard workout) and risk passing out? Or do I stop for a drink and a little rest and see how I go? My face was as red as a tomato. I had a drink and a rest. Did this help me cool down? Not one bit!! After all, it was 40 degrees in there! I tried to do a bit more. Nope, the risk wasn't worth it. I gritted my teeth and decided to make a bee line for the door (which was at the front of the room). My safety is, after all, more important than how silly a bunch of strangers may think I look.

I got intercepted at the door by the instructor, who suggested I sit down right there and drink some more water. Whether I wanted to or not, the decision seemed to have been made for me. There I sat at the front of the class, cooking. I moved back to my mat next to Fi and made a galant attempt at some of the floor work but just couldn't find the inner drive to push myself to fainting. I sat still. The instructor suggested I lie down. I did. And there I lay, cooking. Feeling ridiculous (as well as thankful that I am now old enough to not really care whether I looked foolish or not).

And so, hot yoga is not for me. I am pleased to report that I didn't faint. Neither did I vomit on the way downstairs to the changing rooms (though I felt like I might) or have a blood nose. And ironically enough, while I was quite definite I didn't want to do a class that involved any spiritual elements, I spent about a third of the class lying down praying to my Father God....