a sneaker without laces
a geek without braces
asentencewithoutspaces
Or so that witty little ditty goes (w/endless variations.)
And in exactly the same way –– today, I experienced Bikram without the heat.
The room was a little chilly (meaning 98 degrees) right before class, but I just chalked that up to the teacher forgetting to blast the heat right beforehand.
But when he came into the room and started fumbling with the heater and it wheezed and gasped like an old engine, well … it was clear we weren’t getting any warmer.
I thought it might be rude to jump ship immediately when it became clear the heater wasn’t going to start up again –– and soon the room was a CHILLY 85 degrees –– but honestly, a big part of the whole Bikram thing IS the heat.
Otherwise, it’s just an odd yoga class with a strange sequence of poses and a weird script full of a non-English speaker’s mistakes (“move your both arms” or goofy, made-up terms for body parts like “thigh bicep.”)
It is true that some sweat was being generated just by holding the poses, but I couldn’t help but think “this is not the experience I wanted right now.”
I do think the teacher was right to keep going with the class –– I’m sure that’s what I would have done –– although I wonder what Bikram himself would say. I could imagine him easily thinking, “No heat, no yoga happening.” I wonder …
And is it too much of a stretch to blame this all on Mercury Retrograde?
Somehow this inspired me to look up the actual temperature on Mercury and this is what I found via National Geographic:
Temperatures on Mercury’s surface can reach 800 degrees Fahrenheit (430 degrees Celsius). Because the planet has no atmosphere to retain that heat, nighttime temperatures on the surface can drop to -280 degrees Fahrenheit (-170 degrees Celsius)
(I’ve also learned a new trivia fact: Venus is actually hotter because it has an atmosphere.)
But honestly, after today, it felt like I’ve now experienced both Mercury extremes in that room
