My workout of choice? Hot yoga! Also known as Bikram yoga, it’s a hour and half of 26 yoga postures (always the same postures) in a room that’s heated to over 100 degrees. It’s not a cute workout: you sweat out of every pore of your body, and it’s not designed to be easy. This practice has stayed with me since high school and has been a wonderful part of my life.
Growing up, my Mom did Bikram yoga religiously. The summer between my junior and senior years of high school, I started to go with her, and quickly got hooked! The yoga studio in my hometown had a special deal for students to take classes during the summer, and me and two of my girlfriends started going together. It was fun to share the practice with my friends, and nine years later, I still look back on spending the summer with those two girls so fondly. Yoga was an awesome challenge, and I loved how much I would sweat.
Throughout college, I would occasionally take a normal yoga class, and it just never cut it. If I wasn’t sweating out of every pore of my body, the workout wasn’t intense enough. In college, I kept in shape with ballroom dancing: I joined the Ballroom Dance Team at the University of Michigan and we had lessons twice a week. My partner and I practiced several times a week in between lessons; mostly because it was fun, and also so our team’s coaches wouldn’t shame us for sucking at dance at the next lesson.
After college, I struggled to find a rhythm to keep active: I tried getting back into dance, with no lasting success because trying to find a partner (as a girl) is hard in the ballroom world. I kept up with running for a while, when I lived in a place where I could have a good route. Three years after college, I moved down to Indianapolis for my job, and quickly got depressed. I knew I needed to try something different to pull myself out of the dark place I was in, and there was a hot yoga studio nearby. I decided to get back into yoga- a slightly cheaper alternative to therapy.
It helped immensely. I was quickly hooked: I fit five classes a week into my routine. I would have gone everyday of the week if my schedule let me. I learned so much: the lessons from my yoga mat deserve a post of their own, but they made a huge impact on my mental health. I loved every minute that I was able to give to myself in my hot yoga practice.
When I left Indy in August 2019, leaving my yoga studio was the hardest goodbye. Hot yoga was the best part of my life in Indianapolis. The day before my last class, I cried hugging the owner of the studio goodbye. I cried during my last class, I cried after. Basically I was a hot mess my last day in Indianapolis. Moving back to Michigan, I tried out life without yoga for the first few months while I was getting adjusted. My brother is a personal trainer and hooked me up with a workout plan that I could do at my apartment gym and I got a lot stronger. After three months, I went back to yoga. The difference in my body was crazy: I was a little less flexible, but I had a lot more strength. Now, I’m going to yoga 2-3 days a week, and lifting weights/cardio three days. Yoga gives me a great gauge of how my body is changing by doing strength training. It’s also a mental workout: I appreciate the challenges that come from hot yoga, and it keeps me grounded and humble. I sometimes have flashbacks to the classes that I did when I first moved to Indy and was depressed, and I’m reminded of how far I’ve come, and how far I still have yet to go.
My yoga practice has become a powerful part of my life in the past couple years. Every class has been a new experience: I’ve learned to give myself grace, take control of my own power, to breathe, and to take risks. If you’ve ever considered taking a hot yoga class, I can not recommend it enough! The first class is always scary, but so is every new beginning. I’m so grateful to have this yoga, and I hope that it’s something that always finds a way to be a part of my life.
xoxo,
Kaitlyn
