Urban Yoga Spa: Yogathon!

Last Saturday I did the Yogathon at Urban Yoga Spa in downtown Seattle. It was an incredible one-day yoga intensive! Three two-hour yoga classes, with breaks. One hundred and three people in a heated yoga room--quite steamy and sweaty, but fun, and amazing group energy. The first class was a very physically rigorous Power Vinyasa class by Kathy & Gordy. I took frequent breaks in Child's Pose. Then a special Hot Hatha class by Erin called "Hot Hatha to the Core." She played with the typical UYS Hot Hatha sequence to bring in some additional poses that played to her theme. "To the core" meant deep lower abdominals, the cradle of the pelvis, and she got us in touch with "the four points" --tailbone & pubic bone; hipbone points in front--and had us engage them to make poses throughout the class more effortless. Awesome. Finished with a class by the incredible Whitney, about half Power Vinyasa, and then some sweet, gentle restorative poses.

The whole thing was $17, drop-in, I think, or just one class off a multi-class pack if you have one. For an additional $20, you could preorder healthy, yummy food from Juicy Cafe, so at the first break there was a peanut-butter ball, second break a smoothie and a brown rice/salad with your choice of tofu or chicken, and afterward a garbanzo bean salad. I actually didn't eat the salad--started to and then put down the fork. Doing lots and lots of yoga always puts me in touch with what my body really needs to eat, and how much. (In training, the answer was frequently: FRUIT and A LOT.)

I was extremely tired that night and the next day, but also feeling extremely open and blissed-out. The soreness--and the positive effects--continued rippling out through my life the whole week.

There's another Yogathon coming up at Urban Yoga Spa at the end of July, check it out! (scroll down on that link to get to the info on Yogathon.) If you have never taken hot yoga before, take at least four classes before you jump into yogathon, though, and obviously, hydrate well for 12-24 hours before any hot yoga!!