A Road Worth Running: The Unwritten Rules of Hot Yoga

I am so very excited for my hot yoga class tomorrow morning and here is why, my husband is going with me! I have been begging and pleading for years to get him to go with me and he has always refused. I don't know why he finally caved but he did and I will take it! My love for hot yoga started many years ago, before I had children and I still had a paying job and I could waste my entire paycheck on hot yoga with no guilt. I finally started gettting back into it regularly last summer and my love is still just as strong. Anyone who knows me in real life knows that I hate to be hot. I live in the Pacific Northwest for a reason and it's not our sun. The fact that I love hot yoga is mind boggling but I do love it and I am so excited to introduce my husband the amazing benefits of hot yoga.

Hot yoga is different than regular, room temperature yoga in a couple ways obviously there is the heat, 100+ degrees, but the style and flow is much different. It's a high intensity yoga for 90 minutes without being so intense you feel like you are going to die but after class you feel like you just ran 10 miles. The heat is to help you get deep into those tight muscles and let me tell you it works and it feels great. These unique things warrant unique rules. Obviously each yoga studio has a list of "rules" but from personal experience I have some suggestions for that list.

My previously unwritten rules for hot yoga.

Please shower before class. It doesn't matter that you are going to get sweaty and nasty during class, if you stink before you get there please be kind and shower. It's tight quarters, no one wants to smell that.
Apply deodorant. See rule #1. No one wants to smell that.
If you are a man and insist on wearing spandex short shorts please do not then roll the waste band down so far that the rest of the yogis can almost see your wiener. Just don't.
If you fart in class please laugh at yourself, even just a little giggle. We know its everyone's worst fear and it's bound to happen to someone so if you just laugh a little it will make everyone else feel a lot more comfortable.
If you are going to get completely nude in the changing room and need to bend over to pick up your pants and root through your bag please bend over with your back side to the wall. It's just the polite thing to do.
Don't wear a white sports bra with no shirt. Unless of course we are having a wet t-shirt contest that I didn't know about.
The bathroom in the studio is for #1's only!
Do not talk, even a very soft whisper, in the studio unless you want to be shushed by the very serious yogis.
Do not eat garlic or onions the day of your class or the night before class. It will sweat out of you and gag everyone around you. Same goes for booze, unless you want everyone to get drunk off your fumes.
Do a bend over test at home before you decide to wear those pants to class. If you can see your g-string or even worse your private parts, do not wear those pants.

Disclaimer: I am not a yoga professional just a practicing patron of the art of hot yoga who has seen things and heard things and learned things over the years.

Now for some kid cuteness!!