Hot Fun In The Summertime! by Pam Goldberg

Having reached my 300th class after starting at RHY in November, 2013, I have had the opportunity to practice hot yoga in every season. And as a person who is ALWAYS cold — frozen hands, icy feet, always requesting extra blankets at a hotel, I find the heat of the yoga room to be heaven at any time of the year.

There truly is nothing sweeter than coming into the room on a cold January morning and feeling that blast of heat as I hurry into the changing room. As spring 2014 came around, I thought I would find hot yoga in hot weather to be uncomfortable and kind of icky. Boy, was I wrong!

 
Hot yoga in hot weather is a whole new experience.Not only does it take less time to get heated up and sweating away, but it is energizing in a different way. The transition from a hot outside to inside a hot yoga room is easy, and I find I acclimate quickly. The big benefit is the increased flexibility that comes much sooner in the practice. 

And then there’s the earlier experience of the “swimming pool effect.” That’s the point in my practice where I am drenched.and sweat is rolling down my face, my legs, my arms, and dripping onto my mat. When the weather is cold, this point is usually at the end of the warrior series, or during the balancing series. But when the temperature outside goes above 80, I’m in the deep end of that pool by the end of the second half moon sequence. It’s a wet one from there out! 

I like sweating like a pig. (Even though I don’t eat pork!) It means that all that toxic gunk is coming out of my body and falling onto my long-suffering Yogatoes towel which is not even close to it’s original shade of teal blue.My skin is pushing out all that oil and dirt that floats around the world and sticks to it. My innards are moving around, and I’m stretching all of me, inside and out. 

I’m so pleased that RHY has returned me to my full height of 5’8”, instead of the 5’7-1/2” that I shrink to when the world is weighing me down.That move down to the mat for the spine strengthening comes at just the right time and savasana is as lovely as ever on a hot summer day. 

Is there such a thing as a bad savasana? 

But the best part of all is leaving the studio, sweaty as can be, and settling into that steamy car. It’s just not that hot! It’s temperate. I don’t want the A/C — it would make me cold and probably bring on a sick feeling. Instead, I’ll open the sun roof and get some breeze blowing while I look for a song on the radio that resonates with my endorphin high and toxins released state-of-mind. 

“Hot Fun in the Summertime,” indeed!

Pam Goldberg with wax Madonna.

Go to RHY website

Not Just Going Through The Motions Anymore

I first tried hot yoga because a friend found a groupon and encouraged me to try it with her. I had previously been to a regular yoga class at the gym where I was a member but found it to be too low key and not enough of a challenge for me.

But hot yoga sure did! After that first class, I had muscle aches in places I didn't even know I had muscles - and loved it! That particular studio was out of the way for me, and it was hard for me to get class regularly. A year or so later, I went to a closer studio because of another groupon special. For some time, I did attend classes there with more consistency.

Just after Revolution Hot Yoga (RHY) opened, my fiance bought me a gift certificate for Christmas. Even though it took me almost 6 months to go in for my first class, I was surprised and happy to find Rebecca (Jordan-Turner) sitting behind the desk. At the previous studio, I had taken and enjoyed her classes.

Yoga has become the most consistent fitness practice I have done in years. I like to try new forms of exercise but have a history of giving the latest new thing my all for a short period of time and then losing interest. I either don't see the results I want to see physically or I get bored which isn't the case with hot yoga. RHY has kept me totally engaged over the last year.

With hot yoga, I find everything challenging and engaging. Some days, it's a challenge just to show up. On other days, the challenge is to stay present and focused. Every class seems to bring a new challenge but overall it's always to push myself to progress just a little bit, but also honor my limits.

I've been practicing regularly for just about a year now. When I first began at RHY, I wanted to go into the full expression of every posture right from the start and thought that not being able to was a sign of weakness or being out of shape. But I've learned that the slower I take things, the better the results in the long run. Slowing down and taking small calculated steps is a continual challenge for me. Yoga also challenges me to show up, stay engaged, focus on myself, do what's best for me that particular day - building on where I've been and focusing on where I can go.

Every class over the past year, I would just go through the motions of reclined hero pose with my bottom nowhere near the floor - and as far as I was concerned, it was never going to get there. I was convinced that this was the one pose that I would just never be able to do. But one class a few months ago something clicked and down I went. My butt was on the floor! I have never been so happy to have my rear end on the ground. It's the small victories like this that keep me coming back.

I find evening workouts are hard for me to commit to and have always had more success sticking to a morning workout routine. If I can roll out of bed and show up at a class or the gym before having the opportunity to talk myself out of it, that's always best.

I LOVE the 6am class and the low lights and the calmness of the room. I love that its usually still cool outside and the room is so warm. When I leave class, I love the natural high I feel and how that stays with me through my day. When I've done yoga, I sleep better, eat better, and have a better attitude.

I like the vibe at RHY. I like all of the teachers and how they bring their own unique styles to each class. I like that every class is just a little bit different. Not different enough that you don't know what you are doing or what you have stepped into, but just enough to be challenging and fun. I love that the teachers know me well enough to know my abilities and show me how to take my practice just a little bit further each class.

I like the vibe at RHY. I like all of the teachers and how they bring their own unique styles to each class. I like that every class is just a little bit different. Not different enough that you don't know what you are doing or what you have stepped into, but just enough to be challenging and fun. I love that the teachers know me well enough to know my abilities and show me how to take my practice just a little bit further each class. 

This is Stepahnie Lehnhausen's yoga story.

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Yoga Is My Little Secret

In September 2007, my marriage ended and I was angry, tired, and needing something new in my life. I has always wanted to try yoga but thought that it would be too chill and hippie for my hard core exercising self. A friend mentioned she went to Bikram Hot Yoga with her brother and didn't like it, but commented, " You should try it, I bet you would like it." What an endorsement! She went on, " I'm not going back, but you should try it." So, I went in January 2008 and haven't missed a week since. After that first class, I was hooked.

Even though I originally thought of hot yoga as a workout, I find that yoga is exercise for my brain more than my body! The many benefits my body experiences are a BONUS. Yoga means ME time, no kids, no emails to return and no laundry that needs to be done. Yoga is like a good friend that I talk to once a week but know it's always there for me in a times of need. Yoga clears my head and allows me to think straight just like a nitty gritty conversation with a good friend. So, if you see me practicing more than once a week, it means something is going on, and I need it!

For seven years, I practiced at Bikram until 2015 when my daughter started volley ball practice for two hours from 8:00-10:00 pm on Tuesday nights. After driving her to practice, it was too far for me to go back home and too loud there to get any work done or read. I thought, "There has to be some better way to use this time." and searched for yoga studio's nearby. That's when I discovered Revolution Hot Yoga (RHY), and it was like it was meant to be. I walked into RHY and there sat Rebecca (Jordan-Turner) who lead the class I attended every Monday morning at the Bikram studio.

It was like seeing an friend I had lost touch with and all of the sudden my new yoga experience wasn't so scary anymore. Once I did my first class at RHY, I was hooked and never have been back to the other studio. I love the coziness of RHY and that each class is the same but always different. The instructors have a way of speaking right to ME which I like so much better than having them standing in the front of the room calling out commands.

I STILL have never done yoga in an non-heated room and can't imagine yoga any other way at this point. Hot yoga is something that is all mine. It's my time to be still and focus. I tell people about the wonderful benefits, but do not beg them to come with me.

After all these years, I still find relaxing into the posture and being easy on myself when I cannot get to full expression challenging. Yoga reminds me to be gentle with myself in and out of the room. So much of the lessons I've learned in the hot room can be applied to so many areas of my life.

For example, Rebecca said to me just the other day, when I told here that I wish I was as flexible as another member, "Don't be envious of others' yoga practices." When I"m wishing I was as good at the stretchy poses as the balancing poses, it remind me to extend myself some GRACE and appreciate what I am good at and continue to work in the areas where I'm not.

I feel like hot yoga is a hidden treasure that many people haven't discovered and especially this great little studio right here in Greensboro and that so many are missing out by not making yoga a regular part of their life. On the other hand like any good secret, I want to keep it to myself.

If you would have told me 7 years ago, that I'd give up cardio and weights before I would give up yoga, I would have told you that you were crazy. Since starting yoga, which coincided with a new single chapter in my personal life, I've really tried hard to achieve BALANCE. I love my girls ( 17 and 14 ), and have a good demanding job and wonderful friends and family in my life. I'm the happiest when I can enjoy all of them in healthy doses. Same applies with my exercise habits, running and hiking gives me time to enjoy the outdoors, weight lifting is an investment in my future maintaining muscle mass, and yoga is my own wonderful secret time just for me.

This is Beth Pfister's yoga story.

Go to RHY website.

Yoga Is "THAT" Thing I Was Searching For

You know the kid who is always dancing down the aisles of the supermarket, knocking down everything in sight? Yep. That was me. So, my parents put me in dance class at a local studio in my hometown as soon as they could. Dance eventually became a huge part of my life, and I decided at 13 to pursue professional dance training at a prestigious school in New York City.

As part of our curriculum, we were required to take yoga classes every week for cross training, which was my introduction to yoga. Back then, I thought of yoga as more of a way to balance out my training as a dancer, rather than it being something I could do for my well-being. In ballet, I experienced many challenges and bumps along the way: injuries, intense competition, and pressure for perfection.

When the time came to decide whether I wanted to pursue dance as my undergraduate major at a university or choose to leave the dance world, I not only chose to leave dance and pursue something I really love, teaching special needs children, but I decided to spread my wings and move from New Jersey to North Carolina - on my own. I'm currently pursuing my undergraduate degree in Special Education with a concentration in English at UNCG.

  

At UNCG, I met Tina (Romanelli) when I was taking her writing class my first semester there. After class one day, she and I chatted about my background in dance and my wanting to get back into yoga. She told me about Revolution Hot Yoga (RHY) and encouraged me to try a class, but I never did. Six months later, I ran into Tina again, and she was now teaching at RHY. After expressing the stress of undergrad expectations I was feeling, Tina again encouraged me to try a class at RHY thinking that I might really enjoy the environment and find some peace of mind.

So, I got my act together and showed up at a restorative yoga class that she taught, and I've been a regular at RHY ever since.

  

I started off doing the restorative yoga classes to just get a feel for what my body felt like doing yoga - not as a means for cross training this time. I found that I really enjoyed the stretching aspect of yoga because of its similarity to dancing.  For the first time ever, I'm learning to really listen to my body.

I decided to brave it out one Monday morning and showed up for the 6am regular hot yoga class. I really thought I wasn't going to make it through that first class, but I just kept telling myself to breathe through it. And I did, in fact, make it and have never let the fear of the heat keep me from classes since.

Yoga turned out to be THAT elusive thing that I'd been searching for since leaving the world of dancing. I love that the yoga is a combination of a choreographed sequence, a means of discovering something new about myself, and learning to be at peace with the process and not feeling like I'm competing with myself or anybody else. Yoga has become a tool of learning self compassion, acceptance, and combating the pressures and stresses of college life.

My yoga practice is still fairly new and evolving each day, but I've gained more confidence as I keep practicing. I'm learning to trust myself and my body and starting to come out of my shell. The most challenging part about yoga for me is developing patience needed because I'm a perfectionist and starting something new is always a huge challenge for me.

As a dancer, I never could touch my toes in seated staff pose, odd for a ballet dancer. But through yoga. I finally touched my toes last week, which was mind-blowing to me!

Coming to RHY was probably one of the best things I have ever done for myself. From the amazing teachers, to the wonderful people I've met on the mat; it's like one big family. I've learned so much from those around me in such a short amount of time. I'm so grateful for Tina, Jane, and Rebecca for their endless patience, support, encouragement, and reminding me to just ‘be.’

Getting to be a part of the RHY family as well as the work-study team is an honor!

This is Victoria Budesa's yoga story.

A Yoga Class Can Be A Challenge Or A Treat

In 2006, I was first introduced to yoga by a co-worker who invited me to a Bikram’s class in Greensboro. I had never practiced yoga of any kind before. I was a bit put off by the heat because I really don't like to sweat, and the appearance of the other students made me uneasy because I don't have that “I practice yoga” look. However, I liked the experience of doing the actual yoga and continued going for a while until work and travel took priority.

My opinion changed when I came to Revolution Hot Yoga (RHY) where I felt a sense of acceptance and comfort from the moment I entered the studio. Yoga has since become a way of life as a means for me to connect with my “better” self. 

My yoga life is still in its infancy and there is so much to experience, I don't see an end in sight. Usually, I like setting goals and having definite deadlines, and I never would have imagined that I'd enjoy something with such infinite possibilities. For now, my yoga life has an enjoyable “long way to go.”

Surprisingly, I like the warmth of the room and find that I can do so much more in the increased climate, but I still don't like sweating. It makes me smile when I see my face all sweaty during class because it is so out of character for me.

Taking a yoga class can either be a challenge or a treat. The challenge may be getting my heels to the floor in Down Dog while the treat may be escaping from a long workweek. The joy is that I get to choose depending on what I need and how I feel that day. 

Yoga has given me a newfound confidence in my physical body. Over the years, gaining weight left me feeling depressed about my external appearance, yet I still felt gorgeous inside (what a struggle!) When I was first instructed to “Greet yourself in the mirror” during a restorative yoga class, I was actually pleased with the strong women staring back at me. Yoga is helping me to see beyond my exterior and remove the limits that I once placed on my physical being.

Yoga helps me realize just how strong I am because I've never had to work so hard to hold in a fart as I do when in wind removing pose. I'm proud of myself each time I succeed! :)

I feel like I belong at RHY and connected to the instructors, other students, and studio. I like that the instructors call me by name and acknowledge my progress. I enjoy practicing in a judgement free atmosphere with supportive classmates and instructors. 

It is my ABSOLUTE pleasure to be a part of the work-study team, and I truly am blessed to be a part of RHY.

This is Vivian Grice's yoga story.

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Yoga Is My Happy Place

About 10 years ago, I started practicing yoga semi-regularly when a family friend, who was an instructor, held classes in my mother-in-law's home for a small group of gals. It was a gentle and restorative practice, and I found that I just loved how relaxed it made me feel. 

When we moved to Greensboro 3 years ago, I continued practicing at home but really wanted to be around other humans. I tried another hot yoga studio in town and just didn't feel a connection to it. The idea of the heated room made sense to me though, so I decided to try it again at at Revolution Hot Yoga (RHY). Walking in, I remember feeling nervous, down on myself, and just not sure what was going to happen.  BUT despite all that, I promised myself on that first day that I'd go to at least two classes because I knew the first class would probably be pretty rough.  I was right, but there was also something deeply familiar about the sequence which felt really natural to me.  

The only time in my day (or life, it seems) when my mind is truly quiet is in a yoga class, and it's 75 or 90 minutes of just breathing, not thinking. Having struggled with anxiety and depression for most of my adult life, I find that in a hot yoga class all of the self-judgement, analyzing, sadness, and stress seem to melt away. Sometimes, I even visualize that I've left it all in that puddle of sweat on my mat!  When I know I'm going to yoga after work, I tend to drink more water and eat healthier. The day AFTER yoga, I'm so much more relaxed at work and life just feels more manageable.

Most of the time, I feel like I rush through life without actually showing up in it. But when you're so focused on just breathing (as you have to be when it's SO ho in class!!), I feel like I'm very present in each moment. Outside of yoga,I struggle with that, but on my mat, it comes so naturally. No matter how bad my day was, when I go to yoga, it's like some cosmic magic happens while I'm in that room and when I leave, it feels like everything is right where it belongs: my back, my brain, my soul, and the world.

 After a long day at work, I usually have this mental argument with myself whether to go to yoga or directly to the glass of wine waiting for me at home.  I ALWAYS feel better when I make the decision to show up on my mat.  The reward of a yoga class is far better than the wine.

I used to think that being a yogi meant having a perfect body and being able to do the full expression of every asana. Now, my practice is much more about finding those moments of mental clarity and peace. The physical benefits are icing on the cake for me. My skin is softer and glowier, My body feels bendy, stretchy, healthier, and stronger. 

RHY is my sanctuary. It's a place where I feel I can just BE, without having to BE anything or anybody in particular. There's a quiet energy there that is just so welcoming and accepting. RHY has truly become my "happy place."

This is Stacy Ruter's yoga story.

Go to RHY website.

  

Moving Forward With Yoga

Before coming to Revolution Hot Yoga (RHY), I had only tried yoga a few times in the past, and it never spoke to me on a deeper level or inspired me to practice regularly. However, upon trying hot yoga at RHY last year, I felt compelled to continue.

One of my close friends mentioned that RHY was offering free classes as part of their one year anniversary celebration. I knew on a gut level that I needed to go, even though I had never done hot yoga before. Since then, I have become a regular student and can say that my yoga practice has been a crucial part in my own transformation.

Not long before visiting RHY, my spiritual teacher committed suicide, and I subsequently escaped from an emotionally abusive relationship. It became very clear to me that if I was to progress through the poses (and with my own life) I would have to face my discomfort and pain from these recent experiences.

The crux of working through my discomfort was strongest in the Camel pose. When first attempting the posture, the lingering trauma from the suicide and destructive relationship surfaced, and I collapsed face down on the mat in submission. This pattern continued for several classes: the demons of my past made me collapse.

Yoga is very effective in bringing up any issues or glitches within the body, as well as past trauma. Early in my practice with RHY, it was overwhelming. Sweating in a room full of people and looking at myself in the mirror made me feel completely exposed. The poses brought up the "stuff" I had been struggling with, and in my early classes, it was terrifying. So much so that one time I had to leave the room.

In the beginning, it was difficult to face my own body in the mirror, let alone be comfortable with the fact that my body was so vulnerable in front of other people during the class. Along with the emotional discomfort, there was the physical aspect of asking my body to do things I never thought it could do.

I am very grateful that Rebecca (Jordan-Turner) gently coached me by encouraging me to breathe through the discomfort, and eventually, the power of my old fears faded. Being able to do the Camel pose was a huge milestone for me and represented the conquest of my demons.

Physically, I've noticed that my body is completely at ease after each session. Over time, my core has gotten stronger, and my flexibility has increased. The strength I've gained in yoga has translated into the rest of my life by confronting fears, embracing vulnerability, and finding a richness that was always there!

My spiritual teacher always emphasized how important it is to be in your body and trust its wisdom, and I feel that I'm honoring her teaching by practicing yoga. Hot yoga has given me a tremendous amount of peace and the ability to move forward.

Thank you, RHY!

This is Anna Sibley's yoga story.

Go to RHY website.