I Put the HOT in Hot Yoga. Oh wait... it's 40 degrees?

Today I took a hot yoga class.

                        
                         ...if you can balance rocks, you can balance yourself.


     For those who don’t know, hot yoga is yoga in a hot room. I’m talking super hot here; the temperature ranges from 37 to 39 degrees Celsius, so that you can pretend you’re doing yoga in India like the real thing. And no, the progression isn’t lost on me- we’re going from freezing cold showers to boiling hot exercise. Maybe next week I’ll jump in a volcano, you never know! I won’t.

     I visited Moksha Yoga Winnipeg on Waverly for a beginner’s practice. That’s a frustrating thing I quickly learned about yoga- it’s always practice. You’re always practicing, for what? The yoga finals on Saturday? But anyways…

     Moksha’s website dictates strict rules regarding what to bring and when to show up, and it’s one of those systems where being on time is late and being twenty minutes early is on time. So, wanting to make a good impression, I showed up forty minutes early. The studio exudes calm and unity, and even has a vegan café called Calm Unity. I was immediately impressed by, of all things, the change room: clean, bright, sinks made of marble, and a couple giant showers. Now with a modest yoga studio, the change rooms are going to be proportionally small. At first it wasn’t a problem because let’s face it- guys doing yoga are a minority, so I had the space to myself. But once a couple of surprisingly old men came in and got naked, it got a little cramped in there.

     So I snuck out to wait outside the studio. I stood around with my rental mat trying to look inconspicuous until the door was opened to let the eager beavers in. My mind was wandering but it was impossible to miss… “Oh isn’t that nice of her to hold the door for OH MY GOSH IT IS HOT IN HERE!” The hot yoga room is basically a sauna. It’s the hottest day at the beach without the sexy tan, the comfort of sand, the refreshment of water, and the fun of volleyball.

     My plan was always to set up my mat at the back of the class and hide, but the room was so wide and only ten feet deep, so the “back” was actually about half the class. Oh and did I mention that half the walls were actually mirrors? There was nowhere to hide. I was relieved for a few reasons though: it seems I had chosen a popular yoga outfit, all black and showing some shoulder and leg; and I wasn’t the only one who had brought a non-yoga, beach towel. In fact, my towel wasn’t even the beach-iest one there; it didn’t have giant anchors all over it like hers did.

     Jessica, our yoga leader, came in and turned up the lights, speaking in hushed soothing tones about breathing and being in tune with our thoughts. Things quickly got serious as we went through our various poses, and the heat was definitely getting to me. I don’t want to get too graphic here, but it was the most I have ever sweat in my life. I normally don’t sweat a lot, I’m kind of classy like that, but I was pouring buckets the second we got out of child’s pose. By the time we got to dancing pose, I was dreaming of a oxygen tank as the heat closed in on me. But it turns out that was almost the end of the class, and I survived. Once Jessica wished us Namaste I walked out, being careful not to pass out from the head rush and heat.

     I got back to the change room and get this- had a cold shower. Little inside blog humour there… perhaps there are reasonable times for normal people to have cold showers after all. But anyways, I used their pump o’soap they provide right in the shower and went home smelling like coconuts.

In closing, I say Namaste. Random yoga word. Random… yoga word.

Check out Moksha Yoga's Website here.
(An Introductory Week is $20 for unlimited yoga sessions.)