Turning My Living Room Into a Hot Yoga Disaster

Who said turning your living room into a sweltering hot yoga studio was a good idea? Certainly not me, after my side-splitting and sweat-inducing debacle that takes center stage in today's episode. It's Dawn here, spilling the beans on my valiant but vain attempt to save a few bucks and the precious minutes I spent getting to my local hot pod yoga class. Brace yourselves for a roller coaster of DIY disasters and the stark realization that sometimes, convenience isn't king. I'll regale you with the saga of my living room turned sauna and how a fan heater, a yoga mat, and great intentions weren't quite enough to rival the structured discipline of a proper studio setting.

Amid the laughs, I've also got some pearls of wisdom to share on smoothing out the rough edges of our day-to-day lives to boost productivity. No guests joining me today, just a hearty dose of reality as I dissect the friction points that can chip away at our well-being and how a dedicated space for our endeavors can make all the difference. Tune in for a candid reflection on the social dynamics of group classes versus the solitude of home practice, the quirks of setting up (and tearing down) a would-be yoga space, and the technical snafus that even I can't always dodge. It's all about finding the balance between laughing at ourselves and learning from our foibles. Don't forget to hit that like button and drop a five-star rating if you enjoy this blend of humor and hindsight!

Transcript

Hot Yoga at Home Experiment Failure

Speaker 1 0:00

I made a pretty big old mistake the other day and I was thinking I was gonna try , and you know , save some money and save myself some time maybe , and but it was kind of just an embarrassing failure . And I did video actually . But I thought I would just share my experience with you on the podcast , because it was actually something I did talk about on the podcast . It was hot yoga . I thought I would try and do hot yoga at home and , oh boy , was it a big fat flop failure . No , probably don't even bother , and I'm gonna tell you what happened and why it was such a disaster . So I recently tried hot yoga , but I have been going to something called hot pod yoga . It's right in the centre of Bristol , which is the city . It takes not a lot of time to get there , but it's like a fairly big plava and I kept going at like rush hour because that's when the sessions are after work , and I was . You know they don't let you in if you're late , that's you have to be there three minutes before or they shut the door . That is that should be their motto three minutes before , always shut the door . Because I was actually late once and I rang them before and they were like yeah , you literally can't come in if you're late . So , but it's actually in some ways , the lateness means that you intentionally be on time because you're like , well , I literally can't be late . So it means that you end up getting there like 10 minutes before and chilling out in the room rather than like running in , like this is most of my life running into an exercise class and like literally it's starting within like a minute or so . What you end up doing is you end up arriving and then chilling out and doing some own personal stretches and like organising yourself for like 10 , 15 minutes . But anyway , that time I did actually have to skip and then I did the session after . So thankfully I did get a spot on that .

Speaker 1 2:08

But it was like super stressful and I thought do you know what ? Let's try and figure out if I can do it at home . Not only that , not only is it stressful trying to get into the city centre . There's also no parking , absolutely none . So you have to either cycle or get a bus or get a lift . Walking would literally take like an hour . It's just not worth it . Or I could try somewhere closer . But there is somewhere closer , but I haven't yet tried them anyway .

Speaker 1 2:38

The other problem with hot yoga is it's really expensive and I get it . It's because they have to like spend a lot of money heating the place . I get it , I understand , but it's also like you don't want to be doing it every day . So I thought you know you don't want to be spending like . Some of the sessions are like 15 quid . Obviously that's without like a membership . It's cheaper if you have like lots of sessions , but also they're really hard to book onto . They're like fully fucking booked . So all of these reasons put together made me think do you know what ? Let's try it at home .

Speaker 1 3:13

And the problem is I do actually like going physically to exercise classes . I never liked doing stuff from home , so it was kind of more of an experiment that went wrong . But because I won't end up exercising , that you know sometimes I'll skip it , or I just won't end up doing it or I'll keep putting it off . If I have a scheduled time like you need to go to to hot yoga for five o'clock tonight , I will go , I . But if I'm like right in , you know , half nine tonight , I'm going to go and do a yoga class downstairs on my own . I won't do it . I just don't . I just can't . Can't muster up the motivation to do it on my own . So , alas , we end up having to go to exercise classes , which I think is really beneficial . Also , people need jobs . So , you know , we are kind of funding instructors as well and like gyms and stuff . So it's not all bad . You know , youtube is not fully the way forwards , but it is pretty useful . So I was finding hot yoga quite beneficial for my mental health or my I don't know about my physical health , but it felt good . Okay , firstly , just doing yoga , I think , rather than necessarily hot yoga , but hot yoga does feel good , like I think , because you get so stretchy . So what I did was we have a fan heater in the living room downstairs .

Speaker 1 4:37

I made a lot of mistakes in this journey , let's put it that way . So what I did was I set up my mat and all was fine . It's my towel mat . It's not my proper mat because I didn't have a mat at that time , but now I do . I've actually been given a mat from . Maybe I should include it in the link . Actually it's by it's from . It's like amazing . Honestly . It's amazing , and I know I got it for free , but I wouldn't be saying this because I'm not a liar if it weren't true . It's like the grippiest mat you'll ever experience . It's from Community Unity oh , that's so funny . Community Unity Yoga . It's an eco-friendly mat . It's made out of rubber and jute and I do actually have an affiliate link . Maybe I should start like putting that in , because I'm really bad at like actually advertising these things . But anyway , next time I use that .

Speaker 1 5:28

But I didn't have that at the time , so I used my hot pod yoga towel and basically what I did was I started off thinking , right , I'll just turn on the heater and it'll be fine . I'll just turn it on and I'll work out in the room and it'll be fine . I did a 60 minute bickering session . Now I don't necessarily agree with bickering , because I'm pretty sure he raped people not good so . But he has some difficult yoga sessions and I thought you know what I want to do ? A 60 minute one . I want to work hard . So we did that and it wasn't by bickering , it's by a mother guy , gary Oldman , I'm pretty sure that was his name , that was his . That was the guy who was running the yoga session , but it was like a bit crumb style , I believe , anyway .

Speaker 1 6:15

So oh , I forgot to mention that when I do hot yoga I get really stinky , like actual onions have been rubbed in my armpits , like honestly , it stinks and I don't know how to get rid of it . It's really hard to . I've tried washing beforehand , I've tried putting extra deodorant on , I've put tripping perfume on . Doesn't work , I just still stink . So I was thinking you know , if I'm at home , it doesn't matter if I'm stinky , the only person that's gonna know is me and the dogs , and that's it . And then I can just go and have a shower . I forgot to mention that one .

Speaker 1 6:48

So anyway , I choose a bit from yoga . I've got my mat or my towel and I've turned the fan heater on . Now that room can get pretty toasty when you turn that fan heater on . But why , didn't realize ? But it wasn't getting up to 40 degrees obviously , like it just wasn't , and I didn't know how to get it that high because it just wouldn't work .

Speaker 1 7:11

Basically , I live in a 1923 I guess it's like a kind of Victorian house . The ceilings are really high , 10 foot maybe , I don't know . Probably three meters , I don't know something like that , and maybe not three , I don't know . Anyway , they're high and basically I guess the heat was rising . I was also on the ground floor , so it's not as warm there and the the house is just kind of a cold house . It's just chilly . It's quite difficult to heat . So I think , did I turn on the heating as well ? I think I might have turned on the heating . I turned on the fan heater .

Speaker 1 7:49

I could not get it at the level that I needed it to be , to be pouring with sweat with no clothes on , because when I go to hot yoga I don't have any clothes on . I have like a sports bra and leggings and that's it , and I'm still pouring with sweat . So next I decided right , I'm gonna put on loads of jumpers . So I put on two jumpers and I had a top on and a bra and I put on I had a pair of leggings and then I put on a pair of jogging bottoms as well . I thought this is gonna do it , surely ? Mmm , still not quite enough . So I decided I was going to put on a woolly hat .

Speaker 1 8:24

Anyway , there I am doing my yoga in my woolly clothes , like literally so many layers on . It's like it's already difficult doing yoga when you're a little bit bigger when you're like a curvy person and then add extra bulk to you and it becomes even more difficult . Now the thing is , the people on the yoga video were like yoga instructors , like , for fuck's sake , thanks for making me feel bad . So there they were doing like , literally bending themselves in half , and I was like , no , it's not happening . I mean , that was like the least of my problems , but it was a problem nonetheless . So , oh , I also forgot to mention it's February , so it's not even a warm like . If it was June , it might have happened . June , july , august , september , the summer months I might have been able to get it hot enough , you know midday or something .

Speaker 1 9:16

I was having a big failure over time . Anyway , I got a bit of a sweat on . The more I did it , I was starting to sweat more . But the thing is I just wanted to take off all my clothes , and I did take them off and then I just cooled down like pretty much instantly . So I was like , right , let's put them back on again . It was just it felt kind of disgusting like I was wearing a hat and I was like sweating profusely in it and I had the . I turned the fan heater to like blow straight onto me because I was like right , that will make me hotter . It did , but then also I just felt kind of icky because of that and also it kind of dries the sweat off of you . So it like dries you out . So it was all not going very much to plan whatsoever .

Speaker 1 9:58

The last nail in the coffin is the fact that you then have to wash about eight pairs of clothes . You have to wash like three or four tops and then two pairs of trousers , and then you know , when I go to hot yoga I only have to wash my towel and my sports bra and my obviously my underwear and then my leggings . But when you're in so many clothes , you've sweated through all of them . I didn't think this through . You then have to wash all of those clothes because you've worked out in them Maybe not the outer layer , but definitely the hat , definitely both pairs of trousers , definitely the bottom , two layers of clothes . Like then I was like fucking hell . Now I've got loads of washing to do and I didn't consider this .

Speaker 1 10:54

Now what I'm thinking is the thing is they do actually sell the hot pod yoga tents and what they are is like they inflate . Basically they're kind of like a contained bouncy castle , like that's , but like a tent , like a tent bouncy castle but like a roof , and it basically stops all the heat from going out . Now you can actually buy single ones of those . I don't know how easy they are to put up and down , but I just don't think I could be bothered to do that . I

Minimizing Friction for Productivity

Speaker 1 11:24

don't know .

Speaker 1 11:24

Like what I would want is somewhere that it was just constantly out , like I've got my podcasting room . It's constantly ready to go , because the more friction I have to do stuff , the less likely I am to do something . So if I've already got my gym bag packs , easy , I grab it and I leave . If I've already got my meal prep ready , easy , I grab it and I leave , whereas you know , for instance , to get my bike out , I have to unlock I'm not joking four locks and lock them all again and then I have to cycle around the back of the house and then I'm out my car . I open two things . I don't have to lock them , they're on the latch . So I just shut the door and I get unlock my car and I just get into it and then I drive off . It's so much easier . You add more friction to things and you just don't do it .

Speaker 1 12:14

So if I had to inflate a tent every time I wanted to do yoga , would I do it ? I don't know , I don't think the thing is . I wouldn't want to keep putting it away and getting it out again . The other option is I do actually have a hydroponic tent , and I'm not growing marijuana or anything , but I had it for my house plants when I was , you know , growing lots of them and I put it in the garage . Now the thing is that thing is massive . Could I do yoga in it ? Absolutely yes . The other problem is I'd have to wear sunglasses because it's really like it's reflective . So it would be an interesting look .

Speaker 1 12:54

But the thing is that is sat in the garage at the moment and it takes up so much room . It's like probably two or three meters long and a couple like one or two meters . What the fuck was that noise ? I don't know . One or two meters , like one , at least 1.5 , I would say , or at least one meter width . So the thing is you're going to end up like taking up so much room in the garage for that . Now you could say we could put it up and down ? No , it's not possible . It is so heavy that I have . Since we've moved here , I just haven't put it up . It would be useful to have it in the garage , but firstly , it takes up so much room , but secondly , it's so heavy . Oh no , the camera just died . Oh , one second . Well , that's going to be a fucking disaster , because now I've probably lost loads of video .

Speaker 1 13:52

I thought I would make it through the whole episode on that one bit of battery . But this is the problem it has to be fully charged . The batteries go from full to 50% , and it's quite a long time , and then from 50% to 0% . It's shorter , it's definitely not equal . So I always charge every battery . But the thing is I was in the flow so I was like right , I'll make it through with 75% . And it didn't make it through , so that was a sad time . Anyway , we'll just have to put some funky footage over it . You know how we do . I haven't had that happen in a while , to be fair . So we're doing pretty well .

Speaker 1 14:32

So I could put my hydroponic tent up , but it's such a faff . It's so heavy and it takes up so much room , and I don't want to lose loads of my garage because I've got some exciting things coming up where I'm going to film in my garage , I think , so I don't want to use up loads of room . Also , I think going and doing a physical session in a class with people is actually kind of beneficial . I might not talk to any of them , but I feel like I've physically socialized and I've had an instructor and I think there's definitely benefit of having physical human contact . Whether or not you talk to them is beyond the point , but it's like going and physically leaving the house and doing something Like I don't want to be in my house all the time . So that's definitely a plus side . And I will not be doing hot yoga in my house again , not only because the electricity bill will probably be extortionate , but also because I think it's just nice to go out and leave and also because it just didn't work , so fail .

Documenting Life's Disasters and Triumphs

Speaker 1 15:37

Anyway , thanks so much for listening . I'm sorry for the interruption in the middle . I was so close to finishing as well . Fml , so I upload every Monday and Thursdays . We basically document my disasters in life and health , wellbeing , fitness , mental health , happiness , etc . And I've been Dawn and give it a like and a five star rating if you're listening on the podcast . Thanks so much and goodbye .