SweatyShe Monday: Bikram Yoga and Beer

Danny and I in Corpus Christi

By: Susan Farago

I blame my friend Danny for this and he knows it. When I curse him for it he just smiles and says that it’s good for me. I’m referring to having a nice cold beer after a really, really hard workout.

It started a few years ago when Danny and I, along with a group of eight other people, ran the Capital to Coast relay -- 223 miles of running starting in Austin and finishing on the beach in Corpus Christi. It took us two days of non-stop running relay-style and by the time we got to Corpus, we were very tired but very excited to have finished the race. They offered free beer at the finish line and Danny handed me a glass before I could even refuse . I have never been a beer drinker and on the rare occasion I would indulge, I would order a beer based on color, not on name (“I’ll have a medium colored beer, please.”) But Capital to Coast was cause for celebration and after the team toasted our achievement, I have to say that medium colored beer tasted AWESOME!

Bikram beer of choice



After that something clicked in my system: hard sweaty workout = beer craving. I am able to resist the urge most of the time. And then I started taking Bikram yoga last week.

If you are not familiar with Bikram, it goes like this: Walk into a yoga studio where the thermostat is cranked up to 108 and the room smells like a combination of hay, melted yoga mat rubber, and sweaty feet. Then take off as much clothing as possible and get ready to sweat like never before. Proceed to stay in this room for 90 minutes as you are verbally guided through a series of 26 postures, each one done twice. I sweated through two beach towels and five bandanas during my first class. And as we laid there “cooling down”, my mind drifted to one thing. Ice cold fizzy medium colored beer.

I got home and cracked a Victoria - what has since become my beer of choice - and it tasted fantastic! Then I realized I was probably defeating the benefits of Bikram detoxification with Victoria intoxication. But my liver was just going to have to get over it.

I have taken two more Bikram classes since then and each one is followed by a beer chaser (and a small cursing at Danny for even starting this whole habit). The beer chaser cravings are coming earlier and earlier in the workout and I now find myself thinking about the beer reward even before class begins. I have two more Bikram sessions scheduled for this week. They would probably frown if I rolled a cooler into the yoga studio and cracked a cold one before the workout. So I’ll just have to get through the 90 minutes and look forward to my post-workout rehydration fix.
Go.Do.Be.

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Need a way to jumpstart your week? SweatyShe Mondays are thoughts and humorous musings from the world of active Shes.