Early days

Today's day four of Bikram Yoga boot camp. There are close to 400 of us in this training session, which is the biggest class ever!

Yesterday we started delivering Half Moon pose in front of Bikram. This is where each one of us gets on stage in front of the entire audience of our peers as well as Bikram and recites the nearly two minute posture while three people perform it. I decided I wanted to get it out of the way early, as the exercise is known to last two or three weeks. I was 39th. As each person went before me and I inched my way to the front of the line, my anxiety level began to skyrocket. I had to give myself a little pep talk to put it all in perspective. I learned Half Moon pose back in May -- I know it as well as my own name. I also use to present at conferences in front of similar sized audiences back in my grad school days, so public speaking isn't foreign to me. Plus, Bikram himself told us that missing lines and stumbling is to be expected. The point of the exercise is for him to get to know us.

When it was my turn, I climbed on stage, grabbed the microphone, introduced myself, and belted out the dialogue. I got the entire thing out without stumbling, although my voice and hands were shaking beyond control. After I finished, I looked at Bikram for feedback. He smiled, said "wow" and then "next," signaling the next person in line to come forward. What a relief! I was fully expecting him to tear into me, but I must have said the dialogue to his satisfaction. So happy that's over with. Now I get to spend the next several days listening to everyone else recite the posture.

We've been moving at a pretty quick pace. Yesterday we must have gotten through nearly 100 people delivering Half Moon. Bikram seemed to be in a great mood and gave people very constructive feedback. Guess I'd better start reviewing the other 25 postures, as posture clinics may start sooner than we think.

While we've only done four Bikram Yoga classes so far, my body is very sore. I could barely do most of the postures in the standing series this morning because of the aches and pains. I did open up in the floor series and am now feeling much better. The classes are very different from back home. And because the room hasn't reached its full temperature yet, I'm not sweating as much as I typically do. All in good time I'm sure. It's still early days after all.

11am.... time for lunch. Until next time!