Public service announcement: Hot yoga ROCKS!

I woke up tired and sore and now I feel energized and AMAZING.

Danielle has been going to Hot Yoga of Kirkland, and this morning I finally had no excuses left for not trying it with her. I've been fairly uninterested in yoga - I've taken a few classes that Danielle taught, but I always felt like even though it was probably good for me, I didn't love it.

I was incredibly nervous, because I always forget the poses (as a result of not going often, duh) and I was worried about how hot it would be and whether I'd be able to do everything.

Of course it was fine. Nobody except the instructor paid any attention to me anyway, and she corrected my poses a few times but mostly I could look over at Danielle and correct myself. I was surprised to see my heart rate rise - the max I reached was 152, and this is with vinyasa (flow) yoga! But the instructor did have us move from one pose to another fairly quickly - more quickly than in Danielle's regular (not-hot) class - with just a little "downward-facing dog" for rest in between poses. And lots of the poses required balance and strength - especially in the quads and hamstrings.

During the class, I definitely had some points where I couldn't wait for the rest part in between poses, and at one point I wasn't sure I'd be able to do a full 60 minutes (and a lot of classes are 90 - WOW!). But I was able to follow along for 99% of it, and I poured sweat like MAD. But it wasn't gross like I thought it could be - maybe because I was sweating so much I didn't smell everyone else's sweat or something, but it was definitely tolerable.

The best part is that my body feels so limber and light now - and my back especially feels great. I didn't realize that maybe it hurt before until now when it feels so good. I still have some pain in my neck from that powder skiing on Tuesday, but even that feels better than it did.

So anyway, hot yoga was a fabulous way to start the day. I burned 360 calories in the hour, which is very nice - equivalent to a moderate cardio hour. I'm likely going to go to the Pro Club later on today and do some sport-specific exercise, but this experience makes me think I absolutely need to work hot yoga into my training. I love the way I feel right now, and I want to feel like this all the time! I think I feel about as good as I feel after shiatsu massage, and hot yoga is a lot cheaper and burns more calories. :-)