Last Sunday, the morning it snowed about three inches, I tried Bikram Yoga for the first time. I was really nervous. I can only stay in a sauna or steam room for about 10-minutes and then I usually get a sudden urge to leave. The urge doesn’t creep up on me. I need out of the hot space immediately.

I never really wanted to try Bikram Yoga because I heard that they frown on you leaving, so I basically assumed I would hate it. But a lot of my clients ask me what I think of it, and I feel inappropriate saying that it didn’t seem good to me when I’d never done it.

Heather who teaches our Bloomfield classes and subs has done Bikram Yoga, so she agreed to go with me—this was a few weeks ago. We made a plan to go to a morning class on a Sunday in Glastonbury at Bikram Yoga. I didn’t set my alarm because I’m normally up by 6am at the latest and the class wasn’t until 8, but then I slept in missing the whole class, leaving Heather all by herself. I felt terrible, and thought my body had sabotaged me since I was really quite afraid of going. Heather is good sport (and it reminded me of what wonderful people I work with) because she contacted me to go again a couple weeks later. I promised to set my alarm.

Three inches of snow couldn’t have stopped me (although I think Heather thought she might wind up alone again). The snow actually of settled my nerves. I was cold and looking forward to getting into a toasty room. I wanted to be wrapped up in hot, moist towels. And I imagined that was what it would feel like. Just how toasty that room was going to be was one of my concerns. Online it looked like most Bikram Yoga is done at 105 degrees with 40-percent humidity. That didn’t really mean much to me until I looked up the average sauna temperature—110-degrees. Hmmm….now I was nervous again.

So I called my sister who teaches yoga in NYC. She didn’t make me feel any better. She is pretty convinced that working out in extreme heat is terrible for people and that Bikram Yoga is just a fad. She thought you could easily overstretch your muscles and get injured. Other yoga instructors I know have said the same thing, and anecdotally they have gotten similar feedback from doctors. Inquiring wasn’t making me feel better, but I think it’s important to know what you are in for. Muscle injuries aside, I was most nervous about not being able to leave if I wanted to.

So, what happened when I got there? Tune in tomorrow to read about the actual class.