Hot Yoga... the review

Short: stinky, but very relaxing and purifying. Two thumbs up.

Long: I showed up at the studio with my face towel and water. The instructor took one look at my towel and said, 'you're going to need a bigger towel'. Reminded me of Jaws. Anyway, I put all of my shiz in my locker and went in the room. Holy stinky batman. I guess you just can't have 20 people in a room over and over again sweating all over the place and not have a stinky room. Yuck.

I put my mat down and my rented (1 dollar) towel and prepared for the worst. I was thinking it would be like a sauna. I enjoy a good schvitz but they get awfully hot and constricting after 20 minutes or so. I was thinking I would have the same feeling during yoga. But the room wasn't that hot. I mean, it's hot, don't get me wrong, but I never felt like I couldn't breathe. The instructor said the goal for the new people was to stay in the room for the entire class.

The class was actually pretty basic as far as yoga goes. It's not really safe to do a head stand with sweaty arms, eh. The stretching was good and because it is super warm and you are very relaxed, you get a good stretch.

One downside, you don't wear a lot of clothes in hot yoga. This seems great, kind of like being a massage therapist... but you don't really want to see everyone mostly naked. The man in front of me for example, I would have appreciated is flexibility if he would have been wearing a shirt...somehow the back hair threw off my chi. But on the up side, you really aren't paying so much attention to the other folks in the room.

I'm happy I went, and I'll go again. The class is 90 minutes and while I'm not sure it's the cardio fix I usually go for, it's definitely a good use of time. After all, I do like to sweat.