Tuesday, October 2, 2001

oh fuck! // Actually, day one was and wasn't as bad as I've been warned. Bikram was in a good mood and he was very personable. He also went easy on us. We only did one class today and we were done and out of there by 8 pm.

I should explain what I mean by "class" to those of you who are unfamiliar with the Bikram program. I suppose you could say I'm in class all day long -- posture clinic, Bikram lecturing, Anatomy, and performing the full set of 26 postures -- but I use it to refer solely to the 26 postures. A "class" is the hour and a half period when we perform the 26 postures in sequence in the heated room. We're scheduled to do two of those each day. Yesterday, since it was our fist day, Bikram went easy on us and all we had was 2-3 hours of his introductory talk, a lunch break, then 4 hours during which each of the 262 students stood and introduced themselves (largest contingents were Colorado, Vancouver and Australia!). We then took a dinner break, came back and had our first class with Bikram. It was brutal. Estimates ranged from 110 to 120 degrees -- I even saw some of Bikram's teachers sitting out postures and gulping gallons of water. One left the room to refill his jug. To those of us who practice in Atlanta, leaving the room is almost sacrilege. We are also encouraged to keep our water intake to a minimum, something which I found easy to do since my water become so hot it provided no relief. At one point, well into the series, it looked as if more than half the class was sitting or lying down. In spite of it, Bikram told us how well we were doing and that he thought we were doing much better than most groups do on their first day. Of course, he might say that to all his trainees....

It's doubtful I'm going to have the energy to write again until the weekend. I also can't promise any thoughtful insights. Even with the early ending last night I came home exhausted and feeling inarticulate. I'm sure it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better. Much of the day is overwhelming just dealing with the large numbers of people in a facility that is really too small for it. The shower room was almost disgusting after only one class and the studio itself is already stanky with body odor. It's safe to say that surviving nine weeks of this is going to be the biggest challenge of my life.

One small hope I have is that Bikram may have to force himself to stop talking before midnight. They've arranged for those of us with cars to park in a covered lot that closes at midnight. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Bikram won't offer them more money to stay open later.

Well, it's 8 am and I've got to go back to the torture chamber.

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