Or at least that's what the promotion says. I've never been a true yoga devotee, but I like a class here and there, and I've always wondered about "hot yoga," so when I realized that there was a Bikram Yoga studio open near me offering a week's worth of classes for 220 pesos, I decided to check it out. Megan and her friend Carolina agreed to join me, so Monday night we showed up fifteen minutes early for the 6.30pm class to register ourselves.
Trying to find yoga in Mexico has been a bit of a challenge for me. Megan has a studio she loves, but to join it would be too much on top on my gym membership. The gym offers a couple weekly classes, but my one experience with the teacher grabbing my shoulders and cranking me into a twist, telling me in response to my "ow!" that "pain is a necessary part of yoga; to grow, to stretch, to change, is painful," scared me off. (I was also offended by the mantra at the end: "A flexible mind means you have a flexible body; an inflexible body means you have a closed mind.") I'm certainly not going to join the hot yoga studio (I think twice-weekly classes would be more expensive than my gym membership! plus I have to drive to get there) but why not try it for a week?
My impressions from day one: The room is hot. Really hot, and humid. Like stepping into a sauna. The floor has two rows for yoga mats marked with masking tape, which seems quite orderly, really, and there are boxes of kleenex scattered around the room (for your sweat). The instructor, who stood on a little podium in the center of the room and had a headset on, wore a kind of euro version of a speedo and nothing else. A couple of the women in the front next to the instructor had obviously been going for a while and seemed to put themselves into contortionist postures with little effort. The instructor spoke rapidly and constantly, describing the positions and shouting at us to push ourselves much further, much further (he also mentioned positions that were compressing our waist to burn fat and compressing our thighs to treat celulitis--I don't think I buy any of that). At several points in the class I felt kind of dizzy, and towards the end I found myself so lightheaded that I needed to sit down and rest. Also, the class was not the 60 minutes I expected, but rather an hour and a half, which actually became an hour and forty minutes. My clothes were sopping wet an hour into it. It was extremely difficult, and I wouldn't say that I enjoyed it.
But afterwards, once I had drunk enough water, I must say that I felt good. I don't think I would ever become a true devotee, going on a daily basis for a month at a time, but why not try it for a week (and get my money's worth!)? I did sleep very hard and I did have a hard time getting out of bed this morning--my whole body feels stiff and heavy. Megan has already decided that it is not for her, and I'm not sure what Carolina wants to do, but I'm going to try to keep at it for the week. Or at least go twice.
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