Pop Culture Yoga

I’ve been pretty consistent about going to a 90 minute yoga class each week. Even though I usually only have time to go once a week, it makes a huge difference in how I feel. Since I’ve been visiting family for the holidays, 2 weeks have gone by since I’ve done any yoga. So I looked on-line for a place near my parent’s house that does hot yoga. I’m use to a room of about 90 degrees or so, which apparently isn’t that hot. I found a place with a great new student 2 week unlimited yoga pass for only $20 that I couldn’t pass up. So I decided to try it out. They call this yoga “hot yoga” and the studio only teaches one class, “sumits yoga.” I’ve only been taking yoga at a studio for about 9 months (I’ve done it at home for years) and have only ever been to 3 different studios, so I’m definitely not an expert. Maybe it’s normal for some studios to only teach one yoga class and repeat the same class at various times throughout each day, but for me that sounded a bit strange. Despite that, I decided to check it out.

I showed up and everyone (including the teacher) was super friendly. They even gave me yoga toes to use for free during the class. I mentioned I’m use to yoga at only 90 degrees, and the teacher took my mat and said she would put me close to the door so I could feel the cool air when she cracks it open during class.  I went to the bathroom, shed some layers, and walked into a completely packed room with my yoga mat laid out and waiting for me right in front of the door. Great! Then I walked over to my mat and realized I was about 6 inches away from the people next to me. We were packed in there like sardines and the room was heated to 104 degrees! “Oh well,” I thought, “let’s do this!” 

The class started out okay, a bit slow with a small amount of meditation, but then jumped right into what I discovered to be techno, dance club, “yoga.” I hadn’t heard that kind of music since the last time I was in a club, and I can’t even remember when that was it was so long ago! I think the teacher used about 5 different traditional yoga words throughout the whole class. I realized how reliant I’d become on yoga speak, when I felt lost with her lay descriptions of what to do next. It was the strangest yoga class I’ve ever taken! We went through almost every yoga pose out there in one flow sequence. And we did it fast! It was like yoga on speed in a really hot room. When it was time for some stretching toward the end of class, we even went through that fast. By the time class was over, I was drenched in sweat from head to toe, but didn’t have tired aching muscles like I do in my regular hot yoga class. Did I get a good work out, or did I just sweat a lot? One thing was for sure, I definitely didn’t feel relaxed.

The funny thing is that this studio gets rave reviews. Maybe this is the new pop culture yoga that's the latest craze. Maybe it’s good for people who want a high impact workout without the impact and don’t want to do yoga because it’s “slow,” and just “stretching,” and “isn’t really a work out.” You know those people…the ones who have never done yoga, but assume it’s all meditation and stretching. I’m far from being a yogi, but know enough to have been a bit embarrassed that the class I took was actually called yoga. I guess if you do a few yoga posses, it’s considered yoga. Is this where yoga is evolving to? I hope not! I love the traditional Baptist vinyasa flow I’ve discovered. Maybe I’m getting old, but I can not do yoga to dance music! Enough said  :)