My First Sumit Hot Yoga

I sometimes think I was very lucky to have found hot yoga. Living in Columbia Missouri we are not the first to get trends. Yet a student of mine told me about how wonderful hot yoga was. It sounded good. I grew up with a sauna and liked a good shvitz. So I figured it would be really relaxing sort of stretching in a sweat lodge. Boy was I in for a surprise.

The first time most people do Hot Yoga they hate it. You feel like you are cooking in a room with a bunch of people who have all signed up to be commanded through a routine from hell. You try to drink water while you watch your bodies moisture stream off you onto the floor to co-mingle with everyone else's shvitz. You then find yourself laying in your sweat trying to reabsorb it through your fat belly.

One time I overhead a conversation in the change room after class. One lady who had just had her first class told her friend "I would rather run a half marathon right now then ever get back into that room."

I called Sumits before I went the first time and asked what to bring etc. I looked it up on line and started to get educated. Then I got my friend Sarah to try it with me. Not only did I hate it the First time but I bolted about an hour in. I had signed up for a 2 week trial. Even though the first tiime I went I wanted to die, like sushi, I start to crave it. Maybe one more time. After all, I have to get my money out of the deal. So try it again....

So when I started I could not get anywhere near most of the positions. I felt like I was a rather large inflexible person in the middle of beautiful tight bodied young people. I would giggle to myself some times at the positions like it was an audacious concepts to think I could do them. I sweat, and sweat. At this point I did not want to be seen so I took a spot at the back corner of the room out of view.

Thankfully they have showers so each time I would I rushed out of class and get to the showers right off. Letting the cold water stream over me, reminding me to breath. Slowly I would dress and come out of the change rooms victorious. I expected the instructors to be stuck up and look down at my lowly status. But they were fantastic and helped me feel great about my accomplishment of as they say it "making it to your mat". I think if I had met with apathy or contempt I would not have kept coming back. However the incredible enthusiasm and support was enthralling and my yoga practice was born.