Hot Yoga!

(This is just picture of someone doing yoga. It was the sweatiest picture I could find.)

Today I tried Bikram Yoga (www.bikramyogahonolulu.com) for the first time. My friend Leslie has been going for a few months now and keeps trying to get me to go. So, tonight I was free and we went to their studio in Kaimuki. I was NOT prepared for it! I knew it was going to be hot, but not that hot! Imagine doing yoga in a sauna.... that's exactly what it is! I have never sweated so much, and sometimes I can sweat a lot in the grill in the summer! I didn't know I could sweat out of so many places of my body!
I didn't know anything about this type of yoga so here is what I read from their website:

"Bikram Yoga is a therapeutic Hatha/Raja yoga that consists of twenty-six yoga stretching postures and two breathing exercises. Each pose is designed to provide a challenge for all abilities, from beginner to advanced, from athlete to non-athlete. Bikram Yoga classes are held in a heated room to provide a safe environment for deep penetration that can relieve body resistance without risking injury."
"The yoga studio is heated because warm temperatures allow for greater range of motion in the joints; and the muscles, fascia and connective tissue are more elastic for a deeper stretch. Warm muscles reduce the risk of injury and stretching warm muscles burns fat more efficiently."
"The heat causes capillaries to dilate and increases the oxygen flow to cells and promotes waste removal. It promotes toxic release through sweating skin, the body's largest eliminative organ."
(Again- just a picture I found on the internet but it shows the hot room full of hot bodies!)

I feel pretty good now but in the class I wanted to puke and pass out- several times. They say that is normal when you start and the main thing is just to try to stay in the room. Even that was hard!! I sat down about 50% of the time but then I could do the floor exercises later on. I will try a couple more classes with my friend because supposedly you get used to the heat and the dizziness! I am willing to give it a second chance!