When I signed up online for today’s yoga class, I was pleasantly surprised to find my favorite teacher, Valerie, teaching again! She usually doesn’t teach on Mondays. I’ve been trying to come to class earlier because I’ve found that it starts the class off right – I’m never rushing to get there and it gives me time to adjust to the heat. Even though I got to class 15 minutes before start time, it was already halfway filled and almost every spot in the back row had been taken (I got the last spot, whew!).
We had 5 Bikram Yoga virgins in class today. Most of the time, there are no new students, and at most just one or two… so today’s count was quite unusual. One great thing about Valerie is that when new students come, she kindly asks the more seasoned yogi’s to move towards the front so that the new students can have prime locations in the back, giving them the ability to observe and follow along without too much trouble. She also makes it a point to remember their names, which I hope makes them feel included and not overwhelmed with attention. I was pretty impressed at the newbies today, they were definitely handling their own and I didn’t see any of them sitting out.
When new students come, they’re usually not familiar with some of the rules, like no drinking water when people are balancing. I also wonder if they are caught off guard by the many savasanas between poses – or perhaps that was just me. I remember my first impression of those things and always wonder if others have the same thoughts. In my first class, I found the savasanas between poses annoying and hated turning around and laying on my back for a few seconds, only to quickly get back up again to do the next pose.
Some of my other First Impressions:
- Prior to Bikram Yoga, I had only done Vinyasa Yoga flows so my assumption was that Bikram Yoga would be a flow-like series in a hot room. I didn’t do any research so was completely caught off guard by the Hatha style.
- Didn’t know that every class was the same 26 postures done twice.
- Wondered what the big deal was about drinking water before the first water break, did they want to dehydrate us or something?
- Omigosh my instructor is wearing nothing more than a Speedo!!!
Haha, that was then, and I’d like to think I’ve learned a thing or two since. As for my poor mat… I think my yoga mat is forever stained with purple welts, but Nancy does make a good point – I now have a purple dotted mat – that’s certainly one way to look at it, LOL! Good thing my mat is always covered with a towel anyway in Bikram Yoga, so I’m not in too much of a hurry to get a new one. If there are any mat deals out there though, please send them my way!! There seems to be so many quality, eco-conscious, sticky mats out there now… it’s going to be tough to choose.
