It was a Friday afternoon… sunny weather with a cool breeze. The date: September 17th, 2010. The place: a Taiwanese restaurant in Richmond, British Columbia. I was enjoying many dishes with my good friend, Joy Chen (one of the best child/family/wedding photographers in the world…if you don’t believe me, check out her website). Suddenly, she challenged me.

Joy: “You should try Hot Yoga.”

Me: “I should?”

Joy: “Yes. There is a class today. In 2 hours. You should try it.”

Joy can be very persuasive, and she has not disappointed me with exciting new opportunities in the past, such as my fake wedding several years ago. So I agreed. I did not have the proper clothing, so I went to a local store to buy a pair of exercise shorts and a sports T-shirt. I ate a peach for energy. And I prepared for my fate. I had to be brave. What was I about to experience?

The class was free (but the school’s own bottled water is $2.50). I needed water so I bought a bottle. This is essential for hot yoga. Why? Because it’s 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees F) inside!! And you’re going to spend 90 minutes inside this 40 degree room…exercising.  The idea sounds crazy, no? But I was just crazy enough to try it. I wanted to see if I was “man” enough to do it. But I discovered that the majority of the class was women, most of them older than me, with the exception of a few men with hairless chests (they were topless) and greater-than-average interest in personal hygiene.

Hot Yoga, despite what you might expect, is not performed in the nude. It is performed in dry clothes that quickly become drenched in sweat. The instructor does not perform the motions, but instead tells you what to do. I typically just followed whatever the people closest to me were doing. It was a good workout and I would recommend yoga to anyone. Hot Yoga, on the other hand, was a little bit too hot for me.

After the class, I headed to the men’s changing room, which is probably not as interesting as the women’s changing room, but it is the only one I was allowed to enter. There is a shower there, and after 90 minutes of hot yoga, a cool or warm shower does seem more than necessary. However, I wasn’t sure of the “shower etiquette.” A man entered the shower before me, wearing a Speedo. I didn’t have a swimsuit. And there is only one shower stall with about 4 showerheads, so men can shower side-by-side. The man closed the curtain. I decided to play it safe and wait for him to shower first. After he finished and left, I threw off all of my clothes, and entered the forbidden shower. No one entered while I was showering, male or female, so I was forced to wash my own back. A few cameras appeared from behind the curtains to take photos, but nothing else.

I left the Hot Yoga studio feeling warm and refreshed, the good feeling you get after having a good workout. I was also craving ice cream, but Joy suggested I avoid it. My suggestion to others is to bring ice cream with you into a Hot Yoga class. THAT would be interesting. But you should eat/drink it quickly!