A lake of sweat.

After my little adventure the Friday before, I was still feeling a little crazy. Crazy being the operative word here. I mean, let's talk seriously. How crazy can crazy really be when I'm a CPA living in the suburbs?

So, on Monday night I decided to go to hot yoga. Yoga isn't new to me. I've been practicing yoga for the better part of 10 years... and by the better part, I basically mean I used to practice it faithfully at LEAST 4 times a week, if not every day at one point. And then about 5ish years ago I started working more/doing yoga less and then I moved and then I worked more/did yoga even less, and then I started running more and weight lifting more and essentially stopped yoga altogether. This all meant one thing: If someone even TOUCHES my leg muscles they will snap. They are that tight. So instead of using yoga as a source to stretch and breathe as I used to use it for, I just stopped it altogether. I decided I was so inflexible that I would just keep being inflexible instead of living with what I thought would be the torture of trying to become flexible again.

I know, this is stupid. It makes no sense to me either as I'm writing it.

But Monday I decided that it was the random day I was going to resume my much missed yoga practice. And not just any yoga- HOT yoga. Hot yoga is yoga that takes place in a +100 degree, 40% humidity room. It's supposed to mimic the conditions that are practiced elsewhere in the world where yoga originated. It also serves to release and detoxify the physical body while you are also detoxifying the mind through breathing. Basically, it's just freaking hot as hell.

And, in all my brilliant craziness, I didn't do the slower paced Hatha yoga, nope, I went balls out- power yoga. Power hot yoga for the first time really genuinely doing yoga in about 2 years. I guess that's how I roll? Or perhaps it's what crazy means for someone who, really, isn't inherently crazy at all.

At the end of the day?

I was SHOCKED to realize that my body really adapted to the heat and in the heat became so much more pliable and flexible. I was talking to the instructor after class and even she couldn't believe that this was my first time doing hot yoga and that I hadn't been practicing yoga at all for such a long while (hey, I'll take that as a compliment!) All of that being said, I absolutely LOVED it. But holy hell, I'm pretty sure I have never in my life sweat so much. Even running in Phoenix in 100 degrees- did not sweat this much. I was literally DRIPPING sweat from every pore on my body. My clothes were soaked through. Puddles surrounded me. At least I wasn't as bad as the guy in front of me who had literal geysers running down his face and head everytime we moved and serious ponds of sweat surrounding him (gross). Oh... but, it felt so good.

I can't wait to go back and to add this to my weekly workouts a couple of times a week. I cannot believe how much I've missed yoga... and that I didn't jump on the hot yoga train until now. I love the sweating and detoxifying from the hotness of this particular practice and I had (stupidly) forgotten how much yoga really does center and ground me into breathing, relaxing and really listening to my body. I've been completely missing out. In more ways than one.