Sept 1 - Session 1

Oh sweet god. Session 1.
Time: 4:30pm
Instructor: Erin, LP Location

Okay, so I read up. I knew what some tricks were - drink a ton of water before, go on a light stomach, wear light clothing, bring a towel. The place I went actually gives you a towel and mat your first class for no charge - but after that, you gotta rent or buy or whatever. I have an old, stupid mat from yoga of yore, but I gotta get a better one. I walked into the joint - a place on Clark that you walk upstairs to - a nice, blown-out sorta studio space that seemed clean upstairs and a good size. It was organized and my instructor was at the counter ready to greet me, and was real business-nice about telling me where to head and how to prop out.

Every thing I had read was just about staying in the room. Over and over again, all these websites just kept reiterating - hey, no matter what, just try to stay in the room the whole time. Don't walk out. Even if you gotta just stay there, just stay there and lie down. So, I figured - I can do that, I hope.

Annnnyway, prep - wore a leotard (recommended, though I thought it was a prank - well, joke's on you, I look strangely adorable) and shorts, took an inhaler just in case (sometimes my body thinks I'm not breathing when air is hot) and drank a s-load of wats all day. I carried two liters of water into the room thinking drinking all that was implausible - spoiler alert, I WAS WRONG. I drank every last ounce.

The first thing you gotta notice about this class - you walk in, the glass to the room is fogged, and yes, it's hot as balls. People were already spotted throughout the room wherever on mats, mostly lying in corpse pose and relaxing. I think I went in 10 minutes before class started and took a place in the back and tried to do the same. I liked it.

The second thing you notice about this specific joint? Holy crow, those people are R I P P E D. I'm talking ripped, in the most perfect way. Lean but not skinny, very muscular but not Gaston. They all looked like exceptionally good hip-hop dancers. Like, that dude in the "Love Will Never Do Without You" Janet Jackson video. I was amazed. They didn't seem to be pretentious at all, and I felt strangely comfortable.

The instructor, Erin, talked me through everything. I wasn't used to that - all group exercise I do (spinning, step, junk like that) - the instructor was working with you as you did stuff, and if they weren't, you feel like they're cheating. Here, I didn't feel like that - it was actually nice to have someone eagle-eye-cherrying the whole time and making sure this ol' chestnut wasn't blowing it. Plus, I can't imagine you can do more than one of those a day.

The Bad News:
I had done Kettlebells (unrelated and extremely intense) the day before, Tuesday. That wasn't smart - I mean, kettlebells rules and is an awesome work out, but I was already sore starting my first class - probably not good, in hindsight.

The Good News:
I DID IT! I mean, I reaaaaally did it! I not only stayed in the room all 90 (100) minutes, but there was only probably 5-10 minutes I corpse-posed out and just stayed flat. My instructor even pushed me a bit, so I feel like she felt I could do more than the average beginner. That made me feel good. One person left the class, three others were flat nearly half the class. I felt a-ok. :) A woman after class, a nice flexible athletic pretty 40-something, came up to me when I was refilling my water bottle after. "Wow - was that really your first class?!" she exclaimed, and I told her yes, and she said I was really ahead of the game. She told me she'd seen people freak out/get sick/lie down whole class - she made me feel exceptional and I think in my hallucinating stage, I overthanked her. She kept saying "Come tomorrow, come again - keep coming", so I felt like that made me want to push the next day.

Poses Report:
OOF. Some okay, some yikes. I should make a list of these 26 or whatever and report on what I cannot handle. Disadvantage DeFran - I've got a softball/rugby player's body, with boobs - which I like sometimes, but I'm short and have short legs and arms. When you do those wrappy poses (I can't remember the name right now) - those are my WORST. My body just laughs at the idea of my leg coming around my other twice. I can't tell if it's that I'm thick-legged, not that flex, or if I'm truly built differently. We'll see.

Of 26 poses, around 21 attempted, and mostly ok. Locust, you can SUCK MY BALLS.

So, that's where I am. Sore, glowy, tired early. Excited for and somehow also dreading tomorrow. ONE DOWN! 14 to go.