Yogafied!

Cross-training can take many forms, including these:

 

 

On sunday afternoon, having done 21.5k in the morning while A-Chang was at her kickboxing class (never thought I'd be half of a sporty power couple), the 2 of us went to Bikram Yoga to have our 1st go at hot yoga. I'd tried, er, cold yoga a few years before, but really this seemed like my yogic debut. The picture shows the basic routine (from the Bikram site).

 

The extra squats I do on tuesday and thursday gym sessions and the free-weights routine from the last post probably saved me from swan-diving onto the floor more than once. The temperature and humidity were also something else. Just 2 minutes of sitting on the floor before class had me taking my shirt off. The newcomers are the ones wearing actual clothes.

 

The audible breathing at the start might have made me feel a little silly but for the fact that I was probably quietest of all. Imagine the "castle of arrrgggh" sequence from Monty Python and the Holy Grail and you're just about there. The drips of sweat turned into a several streams of it after only another couple of exercises. I was the shiniest person in the room in no time, a glistening, salmon coloured human spit-roast. When there was an exercise involving lying on the back, my belly-button filled up like a bathtub. I also frequently had to do a posture with my eyes shut to avoid the stinging, and it even flowed up my nose when holding the head upside down.

 

Nevertheless, I know this will help with stability, strength and balance (and probably more). Myself, I had no soreness the following day, unlike the time I tried "fitness bootcamp". I had to take the last 15 minutes easily, running out of energy at the end. My towel was very heavy with sweat, and I somehow forgot to bring a change of underwear. I will now coin a new phrase: "you never forget your first time doing yoga, especially when you have to go commando afterwards."