Sweatin' to the Bikram

I love my friend D that lives in Vegas. I have known her since the 5th grade. She has this electric personality. You know how some people seem to walk around with a rain cloud overhead, well instead of a cloud, D has a sun. Not just the normal sun, but the rays that shine down if you happened to be sunbathing on a sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil on the equator. So, it's fitting that she lives in one of the only cities that you can apparently see all lit up from outer space.

I am mentioning D because she told me about this yoga class she tried a while back where you do yoga in a super hot room. She said that it was her goal to just stay in the room the first class. At first, I was like, woman... are you nuts? First of all, you live in VEGAS... it's a zillion trillion degress there already! You could just lock yourself in your car for like 10 minutes and get the same effect.

But then I started to do some investigating. I like yoga. I had several "do it yourself" yoga DVDs throughout my life, I even have a yoga book for babies, and yes... one for cats. I will say that the cats didn't like it so much. Nonetheless, I hopped on line and did some digging. What I found totally surprised me.

Birkram Yoga is a series of 26 yoga poses developed by a man from India by the name of Bikram Choudhury. The neat part about this type of yoga is that it's done in a room with a temperature of approximately 150 degrees and 40% humidity.

So why the crazy heat? It is said that the heat is a major part of what makes this yoga so special. It was explained to me that the heat takes a lot of the trauma out of the stretching allowing a person to go much deeper into the stretch in a shorter amount of time, thus accelerating the results. Also, it helps flush all of the garbage out of your body.

So after all of the research, I found a local Bikram yoga center in Grosse Pointe Park. I made a commitement to go last night, the 7:30 class. As I pulled into the center's parking lot, I was trying to convince myself to go. I admit it, I was nervous. I hate heat. I love air conditioning. Thoughts raced through my head, what if I pass out? What if I barf? But I remembered that D didn't barf, and it was her goal to make it through the class. So I said to myself, if she can do it... so can I.

I will tell you that it's not a lie... it's hot. However, to me, I found the heat to be relaxing. After paying my fee (which included a little extra for a mat and a towel), I stepped into the room, laid my towel down, and myself as well, and just laid there. I immediately began to sweat. But again... it wasn't as bad as I thought.

The class went by pretty fast. You spend about 30 minutes warming up, working on breathing. The next 30 is spent doing several standig poses that are way too difficult to describe. However, even if you are a beginner, there are ways to do the poses and still achieve a successful workout. However, I will say I started to get a little dizzy during the standing part. I was happy to learn that the last half hour was spent on the ground. At least if I was going to pass out... I wouldn't be that far from the ground anyway.

All in all my first Bikram Yoga experience was outstanding. I haven't ever sweated that much in my life, but I felt really good after. I am sore this morning, but not as sore as I thought I would be. So, they offered a "come as many times as you want for 30 days special for a great price," so I purchased that and will take it from there.

So, if you're curious... check out the place that I went to http://www.bikramyogagrossepointe.com/ . They post thier class schedule on line... and really their fees aren't that bad.