A 30-day Challenge is where you agree to attend yoga class thirty days in a row, without a break. Some wimpy yoga studios allow you to make up a missed day by doing a double. Not mine.

My Challenge started on March 1st, meaning that I had to do yoga every day until March 30th. Before long, it became my main preoccupation. I found that just to make it to the class was 90% of the effort. I had to plan my whole schedule around it. For example, if there's only a four pm class on Saturday, that pretty much narrows it down to an exclusive commitment of my time from 1:30 pm on, with the rest of my Saturday evening dependent on that.

My biggest challenge about the Challenge was that I live 36 miles away from the studio. So, I ended up doing a lot of driving in the month of March:

36 x 2 = 72 miles, round trip.

72 x 30 = 2160 miles total

My usual class of choice was the seven pm. I found that the Interstate traffic coming into the city was relatively light at about five pm. Occasionally, I would get caught in a traffic jam and it would be bumper to bumper in-bound. Because of this I had to allow an hour and a half travel time before class. I had to leave right about 5:00 pm in order to make it to the studio by 6:30. I was never late and I never missed a class.

6:30 to 7:00 was taken up by my warm-up routine. After changing into my yoga shorts, I would take my yoga mat, my towel and my bottled water into the studio and fight it out with the other regulars for the "Primo" spots closest to the front mirrors. In some standing poses, you're supposed to stare at your locked knee. At my age, If you're one or two rows back from the mirror, it's hard to see your locked knee. Same deal with your third eye. In some standing poses, you're supposed to concentrate on your third eye, which can be difficult if you can't even see it with your other two.

The studio where I practice my hot yoga doesn't have showers. (Most studios do.) So, unless a thoughtful friend in the neighborhood offered me the use of their shower, I usually ended up going out afterward "moist," as I call it. When you meet someone that you haven't seen in a while and they want to hug you, you have to warn them first that you're "still moist." Generally, it takes almost two hours to totally cool down (and stop sweating) after a hot yoga class. (But it's a clean sweat. It's not smelly, because you've long since sweat out the toxins.)

If I had to leave home at 5:00 for my 7:00 class, the class takes ninety minutes, and it takes about two hours to cool down afterwards -- that's five and a half hours total. Plus, I had to make sure that I ate something substantial before I left the house. You can't attempt to do yoga on an empty stomach (although I think I might have done that once or twice during the month.) So, give it another half hour for that and I must have committed six hours a day to my practice for thirty days straight:

6 x 30 = 180 hours total

My studio does allow you to attend class at another Bikram Yoga studio, provided you get a note from that teacher. I did that three times, traveling to Mount Vernon Bikram Yoga instead of the Sweatbox. Still, there was no savings in distance, Mount Vernon being about the same distance away.

I found I had to do laundry at least once a day. I got that down to a fine art. Two towels, two pairs of underwear, my yoga shorts, two socks, two sweatshirts and a pair of pants. You don't want your clothes (soaked in two liters of your own sweat) just sitting around for a day. I had to do a washload every day. Occasionally I wouldn't be able to do this so I had a backup bag of duplicates, just in case.

"Hydration" is the technical term for ensuring that you have enough water in you before and during the class. I had to have at least one packet of Emergen-C to supplement my bottled water. Sometimes I would go through a whole liter of water on the drive in and I would have to add an Emergen-C to the second bottle right before class. During the class I would go through the entire second bottle. (Emergen-C is a powdered energy supplement with added electrolytes.)

Two liters of sweat is about right. Sometimes two and a half, depending on the temperature of the class. How do I know? Because I wrung out my gear one day to see how much was there. Plus, I know how much water I was putting into me before class. And how much I had to put back in to replace it afterwards.

Usually, I would buy a protein Power Bar from QFC right before the class and wolf that down. Since I always arrived half an hour before the class started, the power bar would kick in about halfway through the ninety minute class, providing a little energy boost exactly when it's needed.

Now, to top this story off, I should add that I began training for the 30-Day Challenge back in February. I started going to class every day in spurts, with the last spurt beginning on February 19th. I didn't want to jump into daily classes without some preparation first. Unfortunately, it snowed about six inches on February 28th, making it impossible to make it to class. If it hadn't snowed that day I would have had ten full daily classes before even starting the Challenge. If you don't count the Snow Day (which was outside of my control) I really did 39 straight days of yoga.

Now, why do such a thing in the first place?

First, I accomplished physical changes to my body. My postures are deeper now. I'm stronger while in the postures, and my endurance and stamina is better. I never sat out a single posture in the entire time. (As a matter of fact, I have never sat out a posture since my first week over a year ago, with the exception of a double I did in October and another back in December.)

I lost more weight and gained additional muscle tone. The spare tire I inherited from my Celtic ancestors continues to shrink, though there's still a ways to go.

My legs are locking now in the final Head to Knee With Stretching posture. This is critical because this is prerequisite to being able to lock your knee in some of the other standing postures. On some days I was able to lock my knee in Standing Separate Leg Head to Knee pose. As a teenager, I was never able to lock my knees in these poses. So, locking my knee has been a life-long challenge for me.

My Half-Moon pose has been called "beautiful" by my teachers. I've really improved on that one. My Back Bend has improved dramatically. My Cobra Posture has also been called beautiful.

My Locust pose has greatly improved.

There's a down-side to daily yoga. I'm pretty exhausted at the moment. Generally, I noticed that I was weaker on the average day, because there is not time to fully recover from the previous day. I've noticed that a day off provides for a much stronger class on my return. Also, I think there's something to be said about the mental effects of daily yoga. I have felt somewhat scattered and confused at times. This kind of daily yoga can have that effect, but to offset that, the ability to meditate is GREATLY enhanced with daily yoga. I found myself easily going into trance right after a class. I did it twice in my car (not while driving) going into a trance for about two hours, with strong effortless visions occurring, and even some lucid dreaming.

The rest of my life has suffered during the month of March, which is not very balanced. So, it's time now to get back to real life, with a more realistic yoga practice. Say, only five days a week?