My love for yoga started during quarantine, when I would follow along with YouTube videos of people meditating and practicing yoga. Since then, I have practiced yoga in my own time, and in classes on campus. Recently, one of my old coworkers became a yoga instructor so my friend and I decided to sign up for a class and visit her. When we arrived at Y2Yoga, I signed in and received a towel, thinking it was for support during a stretch as I had used it before. I realized I was mistaken when I opened the studio door and was met with a wall of hot air.
This was a hot yoga class.
Don’t get me wrong, I had heard of hot yoga before but wasn’t sure what it entailed or where to do it. But I like to try new things and love yoga, so I thought this would be a great experience. It was, just not in the way I expected.
As I set up my mat and towel, I prepare to stretch in this humid room. If you’ve taken yoga classes similar to the ones I’ve been in, your session consists of a calm-talking instructor who leads you through breathing exercises and downward dog. Take this and add heaters, and you have hot yoga, right? Wrong. In walks the instructor, my old coworker, with a microphone headset greeting us enthusiastically as she turns on the surround-sound speakers. I look at the front of the room and realize the first row is full of students on mats, so I wonder where she will set up her mat to guide us through these poses. As we begin, I quickly realize this is unlike any yoga class I’ve ever taken.
As hype workout music fills the hot room we immediately jump into downward dog, quickly followed by mountain climbers, Warrior 3, the stork pose, Warrior 1, and side planks. Our instructor is pacing the room, speaking words of encouragement, and making small adjustments to our form. I wondered what was the point of perfecting a pose if, by the time I got into it, the next pose was waiting for me. It took a couple of minutes to move as smoothly as those around me, especially when it came to poses I wasn’t yet familiar with. When it was time to take the first rest in a one-legged downward dog, with the knee bent, I realized just how much I was sweating.
By now, I was fully committed. I went into this session having no idea what I was getting myself into but now there was no way I would stop in front of this entire class. I used this as motivation to stretch my body as much as I could in each pose, to gain as much as I could out of this 60-minute session. I realized that even though we were moving quickly, I never felt out of breath or tired like I would after running or working out. In fact, I felt energized. It was like I could feel my body sweating out the toxins and my flexibility improving.
After a minute plank and isolating focus on each side of the body, it was time to meditate. As we lay on our backs, our instructor walked around, placing cold towels on our faces. With my palms facing up, I was instantly relaxed breathing in the citrus and lavender from the towel.
When it was time to leave, we all said “Namaste.” The light within me honors the light within you.
Even though this entire experience caught me by surprise, it was truly amazing. I am honored to have been able to take this class, stretch my body, and try something new. It was so nice to be completely focused on one thing for an hour and to dedicate that much time to working on myself. I will say after the class my body was pretty sore, so I will continue these sessions to see improvement in my strength and to feel this rewarded time and time again. Thank you so much to everyone at Y2Yoga Dilworth for being so welcoming and making this a wonderful experience.
I would recommend hot yoga to anyone looking for a unique workout opportunity, even if you’ve never done yoga before. It is so rewarding and truly has so many benefits, including improving flexibility, burning more calories, detoxifying, and improving physical and mental health. Hopefully, if you do try it, you’ll be more prepared than me!