Yoga in a Sardine Can?

Is this hot yoga or torture?

On the first day of summer, in the middle of Times Square, hundreds of people gathered to do Hot Yoga right out in the heat on the street. Not hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk, it WAS hot enough to work up a sweat and get all the benefits of hot yoga in this yoga flash mob.

But Times Square's got nothing on us.

With the advent of summer - longer days, more light and heat later in the day, temperatures soaring into the 100s already - our little Riverflow hot yoga studio has been filled to the brim with hot-to-trot students of all kinds - beginners, advanced, enthusiastic, skeptical. And we welcome everyone.

But is it OK to do hot yoga in a crowded room?

No, it's not OK; it's FABULOUS! There is an added element of energy in a crowded hot yoga room.  It's palpable - you can feel it - and you are benefitting from it tremendously.

• The person next to you goes into a deeper Camel pose - and that helps you go there too
• The person behind you smiles into the mirror over your shoulder and you remember how relaxing it feels to smile instead of struggle.

• The new person in class doesn't take any poses off so you KNOW you can hang in there.
  

The energy is infectious. But how about the germs?

If you're worried about the hygienic wisdom of getting whacked with someone else's sweat during Half Spinal Twist, don't sweat it. Sweat is clean. In hot yoga, you are not even releasing lactic acid from the muscles as you do in weight lifting or working out at the gym, so you don't really need to shower. The more hot yoga you do, the cleaner you will smell after class (I mean it.  And stop smoking.)

And we use Thieves oil to clean our carpet, walls, mats and mirrors. You can't get any cleaner than a product that holds the legend of curing Black Plague (really).

Yes, the hot yoga room is hotter when it's crowded, but not because we raise the temp; because you raise the bar.

Being in aroom of fully enthsiastic, mat-to-mat, no holds barred hot yogis, you get your mojo back. You get to call on your Warrior (how often do you really do that?) and see what you're really made of.

And it's much sterner stuff than you think. Hang in there, hottie.

Here's how it goes:

Before the class begins, someone else's towel is daring to touch your mat; you feel a vague sense of animal territoriality.

You stand up to begin Pranayama, still wanting to protect your space, and stagger somewhat between the two people to either side and successfully avoid bumping elbows as you do the inhales.

For most of the standing warm ups, you stay on your mat. Except for the occasional person who falls on you in Standing Separate Leg Forehead to Knee, your mat space is still your own.

Water break! The frozen water you brought into class just 20 minutes ago is melted enough for the first cold sip...and now get ready: 

In a hot yoga room this crowded, you are literally all in this together.

I say you haven't really done Dandayamana Bipaktapada Paschimottanasana until you've craned your neck to avoid someone's butt.

You haven't taken flight in Poorna Salabhasana until you hover your arms over the people closest to you and take them under your wings.

And sit ups? Yes, you get flicked with sweat but hey, the whoosh of the sit up is the only breeze in the room at this point so you're LOVING it.

You know that new student behind you stepping on your mat and so obviously unaware of hot yoga etiquette? By the time class is over, you'll be rooting for her. You'll give her a sip of your water when she runs out.

You're a hero. You're a warrior. You're a hot yoga Goddess.

Not only will you go further and relax more in a crowded hot yoga room filled with new and close, close friends (just watch your Standing Bow Pulling soar through the ceiling), you'll find yourself with a lot more patience OUTSIDE the hot yoga room.

August is coming. Once again you are going to find yourself on a hot crowded subway. Waiting in the summer heat for a bus. Stuck on the Garden State Parkway on a Friday after work dying to start your weekend at the beach. But suddenly, the heat stress is gone. The heat, the crowds, the waiting - it all bothers you a lot less.

In fact, it begins to feel homey and familiar to you.

Heat begins to mean health to your subconcious mind. It brings you back to the way you feel in a crowded hot yoga room: released. Relaxed. Re-energized.

Crowded hot yoga will challenge you in all ways physical, emotional, and mental. And then it will heal you, from the inside out.

So get in there. Your deep reserve of will, capability and power will show up for you in this shining, sweat-glistening moment.

And right there in the middle of your next wall-to-wall hot yoga class, you will find your singular, unwavering focus. 

Comments

[Becky]

Having my own home studio can be great, I know that I'll always have the spot in the mirror that I want. That being said I do miss the energy you get from a hot full room!

[Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT]

No question about it, Becky, a home studio has some advantages of space; but I agree not to overlook the lovely intangible of practicing hot yoga in a room full of people (full can even be one or two more) with high energy, and a teacher to guide, encourage and mirror back not just pose adjustments but how how beautiful your poses already are -because sometimes, when we look at ourselves in the the mirror we fails to see that beauty.

[Marguerite]

In the beginning I only wished to be doing this yoga by myself. But I really missed the community feeling of my classes. Sometimes I sense that there is some anxiousness in the hot room (ok maybe it's me), and then it all melts away. Yesterday while in Tadasana, I really FELT everyone in that room, like we were doing the parachute dance together. I don't know what that really means, like how it happens. But I was given gifts of energy and acceptance and relaxed my mind. I was more able to be quiet and still in between the poses.