I’ve been practising yoga for almost a year and a half under a really dedicated yoga instructor who taught me that yoga is never a destination but a journey. I’m only glad that I’m now able to take my yoga practice to the next level by gaining exposure to the different types of yoga practices under various instructors at Meraki Yoga. When I first attended their hot yoga class there, I just felt in love with the place almost quite instantly. Maybe it’s the beautiful ambience, minimalistic designs or their passionate yoga instructors that have attracted me to choose it as my yoga training grounds or simply because, I felt it’s a very homely place where I could simply be in touch with myself. Not all yoga studios have given me that vibe which is why it is always good to attend their trial classes first before making that commitment.
It is through my couple of weeks of attending their hot yoga classes here that I understood a little more about hot yoga and its benefits. Hot yoga is doing yoga in a heated studio with temperatures roughly ranging from 32 degree celsius to 47 degree celsius. It felt exactly like you are in a hot sauna room or steam room doing various type of yoga poses.
On the other hand, bikram yoga consists of a fixed set of 26 poses with 2 breathing exercises. Bikram yoga is named after its founder, Bikram Choudhury. To avoid copyright issues and legal disputes over the naming issues of using Bikram’s name, many yoga studios would use other names like ‘hot classic’ in place of Bikram yoga. For me, I prefer hot hatha or hot vinyasa classes over hot classic because doing 26 poses repeatedly after some time can get really bored for me. Besides, my body feels different everyday. On certain days, I felt strong whereas on other days, I just want to stretch and relax my body.
Morning hot hatha with Crystal
Depending on the instructor, you could be doing some Hatha yoga poses or Vinyasa flow series during a hot yoga class. But whether it’s Hatha or Vinyasa, you are bound to sweat buckets. As long as you sweat it out, you would feel like you’ve just did an intensive workout regardless of how much energy or strength you’ve exerted. And if you love sweating out in gyms, you will love doing hot yoga too. Maybe it’s a human-wired thing that the amount of sweat is directly proportionately to the amount of effort put in. Though it may not be necessary true but wouldn’t you agree that you somewhat felt more accomplished when you are able to swim in your own pool of sweat? That is perhaps why hot yoga can be so addictive. At least for me, I am already addicted to it.
To warm up my body further, I would practise ujjayi breathing throughout the class. It’s a warm internal breath that sounds like the oceanic waves. Even without being in a heated room, you would be dripping with sweat while doing yoga if you practise ujjayi breathing. to be honest, it does take some guts to be practising ujjayi breath in a room where no one does it except you as the sound is creates can be pretty loud and it sounds like you are breathing very heavily for air. It took me a while to be comfortable hissing air out from the back of my throat where I could really hear my own breath in the midst of the quietness and stillness in the room.
You could purchase this pure coconut water at Meraki Yoga and drink it up to fill up your body with water and minerals.
Replenishing your body with fluids after a hot yoga class is crucial as your cells have probably worked darn hard to drain out the water in your body. After a hot yoga class, I usually felt lighter and less ‘swollen’ as the water retention in my body has been gotten rid of. My body and muscles also felt more relaxed.
I love practising yoga in the morning so occasionally, I would attend the 7.30 am classes at Meraki Yoga whenever I’m not called down for work. So far I’ve only attended their hot hatha and hot classic classes but has yet to try out their other classes like core and yin yoga. The instructors there were all very approachable and would make the effort to go around to correct their students’ poses. But the best instructors are the ones that pushes you to reach your limits and shares with you about the spirituality behind yoga. I found myself being put to the challenge after attending Yen’s class and her style of teaching and class flow is very similar to my current yoga instructor’s.
Figuring out when I’m able to stretch and lift myself up like that underdog. These yoga-related paintings are like motivation charts to remind myself that I need to work hard to get there.
I’ve been enjoying every single yoga classes at Meraki Yoga so far and I am already looking forward to the next yoga class. Do check out my upcoming posts about my yoga journey with Meraki Yoga. Do you set goals for yourself when you practise yoga? Do share your thoughts with me by leaving a comment in the box below!
Free Outdoor Yoga Classes by Meraki Yoga
Meraki yoga conducts free outdoor yoga classes every Thursday evening at The Star Vista from 7.30pm. Just bring along your yoga mats and have a ‘yogalicious’ time under the lovely evening sky! Check out their
Facebook page for the latest updates.
Meraki Yoga
7 One North Gateway
One North Residences #01-15
Singapore 138642
T: 68723711 / 91727712
