The Harder The Work, The Sweeter The Reward

Over this past summer, my best friend and I really wanted to get into yoga. As regulars at the cycling classes at the YMCA, we heard that yoga was a great complementary workout. We took a beginner’s yoga class at the Y, enjoyed it and wanted to find another challenging workout so we decided to try out Revolution Hot Yoga (RHY).

When I first stepped into the studio, I was horrified and thought, “What did I get myself into?!” If my friend hadn't been there, I’m positive I wouldn’t have gone through with it. I was nervous before class as the instructors explained how hot it would be in the room and that we might get lightheaded. However, I was surprised by how much I liked the intensity, yet calming effect of the class. After, even though I was completely drenched in sweat, I knew I wanted to continue and knew that it was going to be with RHY.

What I love most about RHY is that even though class is in a group setting, it feels like a one-on-one practice because the instructor walks around and helps each person individually.

Although my yoga life only started four months ago, it has changed substantially in that short amount of time. What I love most is seeing my progress from one class to the next. I’m able to get into poses that I couldn’t a month ago and also go further in my stretches.

Coming in for class one time, I remember Rebecca (Jordan-Turner) said, “Do you realize how much your body has changed?” I'd noticed small improvements since starting yoga classes, but it meant a lot to me for Rebecca to note my progress too. That’s the type of attention and encouragement that has kept me coming back to RHY.

Yoga has not only changed me physically, but mentally too. I definitely have more patience, and I've come to understand that taking just five minutes out of the day to do Savasana and sit in silence can help minimize my stressing out about school, life, etc.

Is it weird that sweating during class is my favorite part of hot yoga? When sweat is dripping off my body, I think of all the toxins I'm releasing. I enjoy coming to each class never knowing what to expect from my body that day since every class is different. On any random day, I could have a particularly hard class, but have the best class ever at my next practice .

For me, the most challenging part of hot yoga is staying focused on myself during class. With the busy-ness of life, it's a difficult task to set everything aside and completely focus on my practice that day, but yoga is teaching me how to do just that.

Because I’m not a small petite woman, I feel like I have to work a little harder to achieve some of the postures, which may come more natural to others. Interestingly enough, however, I think that that element has made me appreciate the accomplishments I've made in class even more. That’s one of the things that's great about yoga: it’s scalable to your abilities. I hope to continue practicing yoga for the rest of my life because I want to always keep that good feeling of accomplishment I have when leaving the studio.

This is Camille Nesi's yoga story.

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Yoga Magic

As a young girl, I watched all my Mom's exercise endeavors. Being an early riser, I used to crawl out of bed, curl up in the big recliner in the den, and watch her do aerobics videos or yoga sequences. I liked the ritual because it was a quiet time. Watching someone else practice yoga is still mesmerizing and meditative for me. Yoga looks so fragile and strong at the same time. 

Over my adult years, I took a few yoga classes at the YMCA and although I enjoyed the stretching, I didn't really feel a difference in my body.  So, I kept running instead. 

My cousin is a Bikram yoga teacher, and I knew there must be something really amazing about the practice that would convince her to go to California for nine weeks for training. Two days after my first half-marathon, I tried hot yoga for the first time. I was dehydrated, felt like the teachers were yelling at me, and wasn't sure what to make of the experience, but felt amazing in the days following. However, I only attended two classes because I couldn't do all of the postures and felt exposed, observed, and just plain weird. 

A friend, who had transformed herself into a more confident, balanced, and happy person doing hot yoga, made me take a second look at the practice. My cousin, the Bikram teacher, is super thin and fit. I've never been like that and don't really want to do the hard work or the healthy eating required.  So, I figured hot yoga just was not for me after my couple of bad class experiences. However, my friend spoke so highly of it, talked about crying on her mat, and just letting everything go. I really wanted that kind of spiritual renewal more than anything physical.

My friend told me about Revolution Hot yoga (RHY) and Rebecca (Jordan-Turner), and I came the first week the studio opened and have been attending pretty regularly in spurts, five days in row then not all for a week, since.  I found Rebecca, Jane (Cable), and the other teachers so nice, supportive, and complimentary of my efforts.  It didn't matter if I could do the postures 100%. What mattered was my effort. 

I was super proud to make the 100+ practice club this past year because it shows the level of commitment I made to myself over the long haul.

Hot yoga got me through my dissertation at graduate school last year. There was a point where I couldn't really tell the difference between being asleep and being awake. I sat at the computer reading and writing all day, and at night, I dreamed I was sitting at the computer reading and writing. I even had dreams about footnotes. Really. 

Yoga was something very different which took me out of that haze for a little while. In one class, Rebecca mentioned that padahastasana II was good for people who typed all day. After hearing that, I threw myself into the pose, standing on the palms of my hands waiting for my fingers to tingle which was both fun and relaxing. Because of hot yoga, I was able to keep off SOME of the dissertation weight. 

After turning in the first draft of my dissertation, I did my own version of a thirty day challenge. Each week, I kept healing in new ways. My knee swelled up, and then went away. I popped my toe, and it got better. My back started hurting, stopped, and I was able to feel sensations I'd never felt there before. The month long experience was surreal and amusing to observe, but I just kept doing the yoga.  If it had been anything else, I probably would have quit. 

The fitness that comes with yoga is a nice byproduct for me. My yoga practice is about healing and meditation which Rebecca and Jane facilitate. Sometimes when I'm in class with them or right after, I just want to lie down and put my head in their laps because they are like yoga mommies to me. I study ritual and magic in graduate school--the ritual and magic of the English Renaissance--and yoga brings that to life for me in our little RHY studio. 

I find something magical about this yoga:  the meditation, the breath. Rebecca, Jane and Carmen (Cavanagh), the RHY studio, the Sanskrit, the Hindu gods, the candles, the twinkly lights, and THE LAVENDER FACE CLOTHS! :)

This is Tina Romanelli's yoga story
Tina is now a teacher at RHY and is getting married this weekend!

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A Year Of Yoga

What a year it has been at Revolution Hot Yoga.

We did it!! With your help, we made it to our first anniversary! Although we’re not really surprised, we're proud. We knew that our vision of an intimate, welcoming, beautiful studio with excellent instruction and a revolutionary approach to hot yoga was bound to succeed.  Add you, the amazing community that we've attracted, to the mix, and it’s an unbeatable formula.

Frankly, we're amazed at how quickly the time has flown by. It seems like only yesterday we were opening the studio doors and welcoming our first students. We're sincerely humbled and grateful for the success of the past year and passionately dedicated to improving and growing over the coming years.

Some milestones of the previous year:

• On October 9, 2013, we opened our doors for business at 8:30am.
• 365 days later, we have offered 1,364 classes.  Of those, Rebecca taught 40% or 546 classes.  Jane taught 433 classes or 32%.
• 905 people have come through our doors to take their first class.
• 15 people have made it into the 100+ Practice Club!! 

1. Emily Rex 274
2. Carmen Cavanagh 234
3. Debbie Hampton 211
4. Tammi Thurm 182
5. Pam Goldberg 181
6. Page Motley-Mims 137
7. Steve Young 136
8. Ron Baron 130
9. Susan Brady 127
10. Pete Turner 119
11. Rebecca Jordan 115
12. Jane Cable 110
13. Tina Romanelli 105
14. Stacy Dove 102
15. Martin Price 100

We’re proud that our current teaching team Rebecca, Jane, Carmen, and Tina, made the list, and our administrative and long-term work study persons are included as well. The team that yogas together, stays together!

On average, Emily Rex, our most frequent yogini, practices 5.25 times per week.  So, when you see her do amazing things in class and are tempted to think, “she’s just good at it,” remember the hard work and dedication that goes into her practice.

According to the results from our survey, we must be doing something right:

• 84.95% Described their first class as "excellent."
• 100% Said they would refer a friend to RHY

It’s thrilling to look back on our first year and see how far we’ve come, but far more exciting to look forward to where we're going. Big thanks to you, the members of our community, teachers, work-study team, and administrative group.  RHY is here because you expressed the need for this studio and supported it.  We do it for you, and we couldn’t do it without you. 

It's a deep and profound honor to serve this community with the gift of this yoga, to bear witness to your growth in your physical and spiritual practices, and to maintain this space as a gathering place for those who seek the light we offer, which is the light which dwells within us all.

Namaste

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Yoga Is My Secret Defense

In high school, I was introduced to yoga when my mom's friend opened her own yoga studio which, I think, was basic Hatha yoga. . Being a brand new studio, business wasn't exactly booming.  Often, I would be the only one in a class which meant that I received a private lesson essentially.   

I first tried hot yoga a few years ago and although there was a year and a half gap in between my first and second class, I haven't stopped once I really got into it.

Both forms of yoga (hot and not) have a calming effect on me which I really like.  In hot yoga, I feel like I get the added benefit of ridding my body of unnecessary stuff it doesn't need in all of the sweat, and I prefer it. 

I find it rather incredible what a little breath and movement can do for me in yoga.  Sometimes after savasana, I leave my mat with the sense that I've resolved something, even though I can't consciously say exactly what. Yoga allows me to address issues that otherwise I don't think about all the way or don't really understand.  

Hot yoga also puts things into perspective for me.  Often, my thoughts can carry me away, and the yoga grounds me. What's wonderful is that it's not the yoga, in a literal sense, that does this.  It's accomplished by me practicing the yoga which is really just me breathing and moving.  I can carry this grounded feeling with me everywhere I go. Yoga is like my secret defense against the more unpleasant things I encounter in the world. 

For example when I started practicing yoga regularly in high school, I was that typical rebellious teenager with zero patience for her parents. My mother and I were in a what seemed like one long, continual brawl, and after fighting one evening, I went to yoga class. Coming out of the class, I bought her some tea that I thought she would like from the yoga studio's little store, even though I was angry with her and could hardly tolerate being in the same room.  The purchase only struck me as strange days later.  In the moment, it seemed like the most natural thing in the world, getting my mom some tea that I knew she would like just because.

When I started yoga, I liked the flexibility that resulted and again, the sense of calm that was so evident even after just one class. When I began practicing Bikram yoga in college, the sweat factor was great and the series healed my knees from chondromalacia patella, a fancy term for runner's knee. 

Physically, Bikram yoga made my body feel great, until I needed to take a break from it.  I probably just over did it by going to class almost every day for a few years which took a toll on my body.  Around that same time, Revolution Hot Yoga opened its doors. I found that the shorter classes were kinder to my body and was able to slowly get back into a regular yoga practice.

This is Ron Baron's yoga story.

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Hot Yoga Is The Cure For Me

Back in 1986, I didn't like my first yoga class.  Already practicing karate and working out at the gym, I thought I was too manly for yoga and never went back.  Fast forward 16 years to 2002.  I started having horrible lower back spasms and hip pain.  My girlfriend at the time was practicing Ashtanga yoga and strongly encouraged me to give it a try to help.  It definitely did.  The girlfriend is long gone, but I've stuck with the yoga.

Although my back and hip issues improved, they still nagged me when I first tried hot yoga in Oregon in late 2004. Shortly after, I moved to North Carolina and found a local hot yoga studio.  Before a class, I showed the teacher that I couldn't lift my right heel off the floor while sitting on the floor because of intense pain in my hip. She advised me to do as much as I could without pushing too much. When the class was over, I was easily able to lift my heel off of the floor while sitting down without any pain in my hip.

After that, I knew hot yoga was what I should be doing and practiced 4-5 times a week for months. My hip pain has been gone since, and I can count the back spasms I've had since then on the fingers of one hand. Before practicing hot yoga regularly, I would get them several times in a year.

When skiing, I tore up my left knee in 1988 and again in 1991 and wasn't able to move well laterally after that for many years.  Then, one day after a hot yoga class, the knee noticeably popped when walking down stairs. Because it was sore after that, I had it checked out by a doctor who told me that everything actually looked really good. After the soreness passed, it's been as good as it was before I hurt it ever since.

Other than skiing, the problematic conditions developed in my body due to sitting at a desk job all day for decades.  Some muscles weakened and atrophied which meant others got stressed and overworked compensating. Plus, the vertebrae in my spine were compressing and pinching nerves and the pain in my hip was coming from a pinched sciatic nerve. Through a regular hot yoga practice, especially rabbit pose, I've opened my spine and don't have pinched nerves anywhere anymore.  I can't stop doing yoga because, if I do, everything bad slowly but surely starts to come back. I know. I've tried quitting a couple of times over the years.

I have flexibility I never dreamed of before I started hot yoga and more strength. I feel better in my mid-fifties than I did in my thirties and forties and it's been nice not to have to deal with and worry about the health issues that I used to have.  Hot yoga's positive impact on my health has been dramatic. It's not for everyone, but it's right for me.

For me, having a consistent practice is the most challenging thing about hot yoga, but my back and my hip make sure that I keep practicing. I find it interesting that I never know how a class is going to go. Some days, my body can't do things it normally can.  I might not feel like going one day, but I go anyway and have an awesome class. Then one day, I might feel super walking in the door but struggle in class. Regardless, I'm always better off for getting to a class.

Plus, classes can be fun. While doing locust pose one day, the teacher said, "This pose cures tennis elbow and carpal tunnel syndrome. They don't have machines at the gym that can do that." A little voice in the back corner of the room said, "They don't have wind removing machines at the gym either." The teacher replied, "I have a vision in my mind of a gym with some happy old men sitting under a sign that says wind removing machines."

This is Martin Price's yoga story.

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