Bikram Yoga 60-Day Challenge - Day 2

I have a love/hate relationship with Bikram yoga. Well, that's actually not quite accurate. I have a "fall over heels in love"/"slight irritation" relationship with this type of yoga. I love the sport portion of it. It's very challenging and very, almost immediately, rewarding. When I did my first 30-day challenge, I simply couldn't believe the transformation I saw in my body. I was more fit after 30-days of every day hot yoga practice than I was after years of running. It was simply amazing.

BUT it's super time consuming, it costs quite a bit, and (I bet this one will make me sound like weenie) some studios seem to be staffed with jerks.

I have a series of "but's" to complement the "but's" above as well. This yoga is worth the time and money - no doubt about that - and I would do it all the time if I had both of those, ahem, all the time. And I can live with the mean instructors too. I just store all the mean episodes so I can share them with ya'll.

For example, picture this. After a very long break from hot yoga, I come back to a studio, and I'm just struggling. I'm sweating like a pig, it's hard to breathe, my heart is setting records in how fast it can beat, and I can only do the bare minimum - each posture once instead of the mandatory two times. I was so out of it that I wasn't quite aware of what was going on in the room. My only goal was to stick with it and not leave the room. So, after every posture I'd take a sip of water and would lie down.

Apparently, in that studio I had to wait for everyone to lie down before I cold drink water. I simply didn't know. The first time I drank water "mid-posture", the instructor said: "Blue top, don't drink between posures." I'm all "ok, note to self". But, of course, since I was dying and was working really hard to just stay in class, I forgot and took a sip of water when everyone else was still on their feet, squishing their folds of fat, grunting, and turning red. So, the instructor decided to really teach me a lesson: "Blue top, don't drink water between postures, we call that a monkey brain."

Uh, excuse me? Ma'am? Did you just compare my intelligence and will power to that of a primate? Yes? Oh, ok, cool, just making sure. Thanks.

That's encouraging, right? Or maybe I'm missing something. With my monkey brain and all.

I am in a different studio now where my monkey self feels very welcome. A studio that has a spa feel to it. A studio that has SUPER nice instructors. And, get this, they just opened a new location that's closer to where I live. Also - this is a super cool coincidence - when I showed up at their studio yesterday I learned that it was their last day to sign-up for a 60-day Bikram yoga challenge. And it was just yesterday that I randomly decided to do several Bikram yoga challeges this year. I was going to do a 30-day challenge on my own beginning yesterday, but being a part of this studio's 60-day challenge is way better. We'll be broken down into teams, so we can support and get to know each other. And, to top it off, because I haven't been in this studio for a couple of years, they gave me the first unlimited month for just $39!!! and $10 off next month. Oh, and finally, I'm taking a 60-day break from running, so a 60-day hot yoga challenge couldn't come at a more perfect time.

The first day went extremely well. Today is the 2nd day, and I'll keep you posted how it goes.