This blog series exists to challenge me to push myself outside of my comfort zone, explore new aspects of fitness and, to give all of you something to laugh at. Although OCR training is varied, it has become the training I am most comfortable with. But, in the aim to strive to show grit, I have decided I am open to taking on any fitness challenge thrown at me.
I would describe myself as a bigger dude. I weigh just shy of 90kg, my favourite obstacles are heavy carries, my ideal workout involves a loaded barbell and a high heart rate and my mobility is poor at best. So when pressured into taking a ‘hot yoga’ class I figured the least I could do was try.
The class, ‘Hot Yoga Basics,’ was at 7:30pm on a Thursday evening at Yoga Movement in Tiong Bahru here in Singapore. We arrived 15 minutes early, signed up for a single session and paid for the class. At $35 for a single session I was expecting a lot from my hour in the small but comfortable studio space. Mats were provided along with yoga blocks and a fountain to fill a water bottle, we found a space near the edge of the room and set up our towels and waited for the class to begin.
At just before 7:30pm the room was full and our instructor for the evening came in and introduced herself. She asked if there were any first timers, Jessie and I raised our hands and received a smile in return. We didn’t seem to have any special attention paid to us because of this and so I have to assume we were at least as good as the regular yogi’s in the room. We began by learning a vinyasa which entailed sticking our butts high in the air, dropping down to the ground, arching your back and coming back to ‘down dog’ (the butt in the air). After approximately 3 minutes I understood why it was referred to as hot yoga, I’d sweated through my t-shirt, removed it and thrown it down next to me while dripping more sweat across the mat, Jessie’s mat and the surrounding floor.
We spent the next hour standing up, bending, twisting and stretching into all manner of positions I’d never even thought of attempting before. We did something that was called a lunge but wasn’t the lunge I was used to doing and involved a straight back leg with your foot turned the wrong way and a bent front knee. I flung sweat around, fell over, faced the wrong way, pulled my legs and arms into places they weren’t meant to go and laughed at the slightly bizarre music choices. In case you were wondering, I was uncomfortable the entire time but gave everything asked of me the best attempt I could, despite not always understanding exactly what that was.
The session ended with a short cool down type set of movements, some breathing and the traditional (or so I’m told) ‘Nameste’.
Overall my opinions about Yoga weren’t changed. It was fine, it was hot as described so it almost tricked me into thinking it was more of a workout than it was. I felt a little bit more flexible immediately after but no more so than if I’d spent 15 minutes on a foam roller and 15 minutes of stretching at home. I felt very enclosed during the session and luckily it was Jessie next to me otherwise a stranger would have had to deal with me accidently bumping them and brushing them with my arms as we rotated.
Warrior pose a.k.a not a real lunge
I woke up the next day with sore knees from all the kneeling, stiff and tired from my actual workout the morning before and full of regret for not doing my own stretching routine as well. If you like yoga, I get that, its calm and relaxing and I imagine could be fun if you spent time learning it and getting better. For me it was just an expensive and not quite as helpful YouTube stretching video in a hot busy room. The studio seemed great and the other 20 people in the class seemed to enjoy it but it really isn’t for me. We weren’t allowed phones in the session so I sadly don’t have any videos of me flailing around and not being able to force myself into tight positions or low stretches, so for now you’re just going to have to use your imagination…
So that’s that, I can tick hot yoga off my list. But it wouldn’t be a series if there was just one entry. Therefore I am looking for my next fitness endeavour. If you have any suggestions on other things I could try to push me out of my comfort zone let us know by leaving a comment below. As long as its accessible and feasible I’m unlikely to turn anything down. I’m not excited about it but I am willing to crush whatever you throw at me so let’s go!