My Bikram Experience

This morning I tried out Bikram Yoga. On second thought, maybe it wasn't the best day or week to do it, but it was quite an experience.

Usually when I work out, my heart rate is up, I'm tired, my muscles hurt - something like this.

This yoga was not like that, but it was really hard. Most of the positions (though I'm not doing them right at all, but still) were doable. About one half was lying on the floor. Put those two things together, and it shouldn't be so hard. But...my heart rate was actually up for a lot of the class, I thought I was going to pass out a bunch of times at the beginning (the standing up part), and for the rest of the day my body felt a little exhausted (it also could have been the three hours of sleep or the class all day effect...).

The challenge was more about staying in the room in the heat than anything else. It was a really hard mental challenge, because the door was so close, and I knew it would be so nice if I went outside, and I wouldn't feel dizzy or icky anymore. But...I stayed (Anna said at the beginning of the class that just staying in there is hard, and I didn't understand, but then I sort of saw it as a challenge). It was quite an accomplishment when I was done.

Anna and Koen are doing this for 30 days in a row. Today was 21. That's nuts.

I would like to join and do it more often, I think, but it's REALLY expensive. I think I need to negotiate the non-profit salary discount (with my new negotiation skills from b school!).