how heat helps

i just started doing bikram yoga. yeah, i said it. yoga. a quick ditty about what bikram is exactly: basically, we do all twenty-six poses and stretches in a room that's heated to 105 degrees. the whole workout lasts about ninety minutes. the heat allows the muscles to stretch without trauma and to "release toxins and poisons" in your body through your sweat while releasing oxygen-rich blood through your system. these are all good things; if i keep with it, i'll lose weight and tone muscles and develop better balance and, supposedly, i won't be sick as much. not that i've been sick or ever really sick at all; i guess now i won't be sick ever again.

anyway, it's an amazing concept. i was able to get through my first workout (which was at night) and was completely exhausted and soaked on my walk home. the second workout (which was in the morning) didn't go too well; i had to stop ten minutes before the end of class. it was either that or passing out.

here's the cool thing: the day after the workouts, i was about as stretched out as i could possibly ask for. in fact, maybe overly stretched, stretched to the point of almost hurting.

almost.

i felt great, as if i'd pushed myself to a limit and was now teetering on a cliff but never falling, kinda like how when you drink way too much and have too much of a good time, but the next day you wake up as if nothing happened the night before, absolutely completely refreshed, and you suddenly become invinsible because you're now immune to hangovers.

until you find a tattoo on your back that you don't remember getting.

i haven't gotten to the tattoo part of this yet.