Jan 23rd, 2008
Bikram Yoga Minneapolis
Well – since I’m planning on going to Bikram in another city tomorrow (Dallas) I guess I should go ahead and write about the class that I took last week at the Bikram Yoga studio in Minneapolis, MN (brrrrrrrr). I haven’t been looking forward to writing about the class because it was one of my worst – I literally had to sit out the majority of the class because I felt so out of it. My arms were tingling, head was fuzzy. When I got up to leave I really had to be careful because I felt like I was going to pass out. After I had taken some time to recover I went and talked to the teacher to see if he had any insight into why my class was so challenging. He immediately asked “what did you eat for dinner last night..how much sleep have you been getting..are you drinking enough water”. At that point it was all very clear – I had slept roughly 4 hours each of the past two nights. I had eaten some pretty unhealthy food the night before (at a bar called “The Local” in Minneapolis – great Irish bar). And since I had been traveling I hadn’t been able to hydrate enough. All this added up to me deciding to be more committed to taking care of myself while I am on the road. It’s funny how this yoga makes you be more mindful of the rest of your activities.
So – about the studio. It is in a part of town called Midtown in a large building that contains other similarly alternative businesses (”Bodies by Pilates” was another occupant). When I entered the studio there was a little boy that reminded me of Quentin telling his father (I assumed) that the room was not hot enough. Sounds like a Q line. The mix of people was, as usual, very interesting. Little tiny 20 something women mixed in with super-hairy 50 something men. A motley crew to say the least. This was by the far the smallest room that I have ever taken in, making the 4:30 class that I chose to take seem especially large (though there were only about 20 of us). Despite my challenging session I really did enjoy the teacher (I’m pretty sure his name was Eric – which would make him one of the owners) – he was upbeat, informative, and had a nice pace. Though I left with a bit of empty feeling because of my lack of participation, I did enjoy the Minneapolis studio. If I find myself in the twin cities again I will certainly be back to improve on my past performance!