Nope, No Thank You, Never again.

So, on this week of free classes at TruHarmony, I tried one more time to schedule my favorite, peaceful wonderful hot yoga class. That one was full. No Vinyasa Flow for me. But hey, there were other options. 

For instance there was this “Yoga Sculpt Boot Camp” and only 8 people had signed up for that one.

These are the things that should have tipped me off:

-       Sculpt

-       “Boot camp”

-       The fact that only 8 people had signed up for this class even though this yoga studio is extremely popular and I live in a major city.  (later more people ended up coming, so it was a full class, but a mere 16 hours before the class only 8 people thought it was a good idea- so really I think the majority of the class was filled with people who had not though it out thoroughly. I relate, I clearly did not think about it.)

But nooooooooo. 

I figured the hot serene environment would make everything ok. I figured that anything that happened in that happy hot tropical oasis would be wonderful and soothing.

For three minutes I was right.

I lay back on my mat. I breathed in the hot air. I thought about aligning my body and what Zen means.

Then the lights flipped on. The top 40 club music started blasting and the instructor started yelling instructions.

Suddenly, we were jumping. Literally jumping. 

And there was yelling… I think it was supposed to motivate me. It reminded me of law school. Absolutely every person in that room looked miserable and worse, I could see them because instead of gazing out over the city scape, we were looking at our sorry sweaty selves in a full length mirror. 

I knew it was really bad when the MMA fighter had to take a break. I’m sorry, but if a guy can work out 6 hours a day and take kicks to the face and this makes him miserable, I am willing to just chalk this up to a terrible terrible mistake.

This class seemed like a horrible combo between:

-       Ballet- the whole workout happens while staring at yourself in the mirror

-       High School Gym Class- seriously, the jumping and high knee running in place. No thanks.

-       Bikram Yoga- in my opinion the unpleasant version of hot yoga.

-       Running- just because that also makes my body hurt. 

-       Beach Body Bootcamp- a misguided attempt to get fit. I took this class in college and decided to drop it. I had to go talk to my adviser because dropping this class was like dropping a real class.

No joke, halfway through the class, I literally thought “what fresh hell is this?”

Conclusion:

I will never ever ever take this class again.

Relecting on Hot Yoga

I angered the workout gods yesterday by saying that I didn’t feel like I had worked out.

This morning all of my muscles were deeply sore.  However, in my post work-out euphoria yesterday I had reserved a spot for yoga today a mere 28 hours after my initial class. Once you commit to one of their classes online, you have to go or cancel 12 hours before the class, otherwise there are penalties or something… Of course, 12 hours before tonight would have been really early this morning and I was still asleep. I had not yet realized the full extent of the soreness.

So I hauled myself to class.

Class was busy tonight. I think that some people showed up without having reserved a class and they were not allowed to come in. Also, it was hotter this evening.  The heaters were cranked up and with all the bodies in the room it was toasty.  By the end of class I looked like I had taken a shower in my clothes.

Once again, I am in post-workout euphoria. I am again planning another trip. So, what I have realized is this particular type of yoga is very much like a drug. If you go awhile without doing it, you experience physical pain.  But, that pain goes away when you do it again.  Tricky Tricky TruHarmony.

Hot Yoga at TruHarmony

This workout was amazing.

I am not a soul who “loves to work out” or gets “that runner’s high” or any of that.  However, this hot yoga is clearly going to be addictive. So be warned, they offer a week of free yoga to new people, but like drug pushers, they know that they just have to get you hooked and then you’ll be coming back.

The studio is pretty neat. 
The entry to the building was a bit bizarre but once you got into the studio it was really cool.  It is very industrial with cement ceiling and exposed pipes, but the pieces they added, like flowing curtains, make the studio very welcoming. The room itself is tropical warm with high humidity.  Almost immediately I was sweating a bit. But honestly it was more like being on vacation in a tropical place than an oppressive heat. Most of the time in yoga, I find myself itching to get off my mat at the end, but the environment was soooo pleasant and relaxing here, I could have stayed there all day and taken a nap.

If you have tried Bikram yoga, this is much better.   
The room is not quite so hot (although it does heat up as you go along).  Also, the yoga itself was a lot more fun. I tried Bikram and I considered it torture that I only participated in to humor my mother. The people in the class were very focused here, but not as intense as in Bikram.

The instructor, Rebecca, was amazing too. She came around and gently adjusted everyone into better poses.  I really appreciated that because I have not been adjusted before and I didn’t realize that my poses were a bit off.  She was also really friendly and didn’t expect us to be experts. 

Tips:

- Bring a towel. seriously.

-  Wear a tank top. it's hot.

- Make you feet kind of pretty. (again yoga, they are visible.)

- Wear your hair out of your face. I wore a ponytail and ended up having to stop to pull it into a bun halfway through because my hair was everywhere.
- Don't plan to go anywhere without a shower. 

I don’t know if I feel like I worked out per se, but I do feel like I had a mini tropical vacation on an otherwise cold March day in Chicago.

So, one week free. Do it. Here's the link:

http://truharmonyyoga.com/classes-2/pricing.html

If you scroll down, you can see the part where they offer one week free for new people in Chicago.