30 days of yoga: Day 29 - the foot thing

As I've mentioned before, I generally appreciate a little quiet time/nap before my yoga class begins. But it's not all sweet dreams and towel snuggles, I'll have you know; I generally like to sit upright about five minutes before the teacher comes into the studio just so I'm not going straight from a horizontal position to a standing position and end up toppling over from an epic head rush.

Now, obviously there's not really much to do in a yoga studio when you're not doing yoga, so once I've finished checking my bad self out in the mirror, glanced out the window to see what's going on in the world, and checked out the competition, I've found myself doing this sort of weird thing with my feet.

The only way I can describe it is being a bit like a Predator mouth.

Here, look:

It keeps me entertained like you wouldn't believe, and it's become something of a habit now. I'm sure the people sitting on either side of me must think I'm a mentalist. Either that or they're amazed at the dexterity of my toes. I can pick stuff up with them, don't you know. They're like little monkey feet.

Anyway, as exciting as my feet are, did you notice that today is day 29? Just one more to go…

30 days of yoga: Day 28 - get naked

When I first started doing Bikram yoga last June the first thing I did when I stumbled out of the studio into the bright sunshine and blessed cool air was to go and get something to drink, because although you have a bottle of water with you during class, believe me, after class it's never enough. On that first day I headed straight for Starbucks (Chiswick handily offers three) where I bought a coffee.

Now, while my love of coffee is well documented, it doesn't really hit the spot after 90 minutes of stretching, balancing, sweating, and wondering what the hell you've done spending money to be tortured in such a way. So, after my second class, I started buying this:

This is a Naked Berry Tasty smoothie. It's really fruity, exceedingly refreshing, and must count for at least a couple of my five a day (BONUS). The knowledge that I'm mere minutes away from one of these fruity little bastards is what gets me through to the end of class.

I used to buy these from Starbucks, but a few months back they stopped selling them which is annoying but fine because Waitrose sell them so it just means I have to wander a little further down the Chiswick High Road in my sweaty, somewhat dazed post-yoga state. And anyway, Waitrose is good because I can pick some nice food up in there too.

On the downside, while I thought I was forming a nice bond with all the lovely members of staff in Waitrose, apparently I'm somewhat mistaken. And quite frankly I've only got myself to blame, because I realised that when I walk in there, not five minutes after scampering out of the studio, I'm still sweating a fair bit. And when your shirt is plastered to you, the light denim jeans you're wearing are slightly moist on the inner thighs, and you look like you should be called Crazy Man Mentalist Hair, it's quite understandable that the staff of this upper class supermarket would think that you're a homeless, albeit somewhat buff, special who quite frankly looks more like the sort of person who would normally be found shopping in Tesco.

30 days of yoga: Day 27 - Hulk hands

One of the biggest changes I've noticed in my body during the 30 day challenge has been my arms. I've got more definition in my shoulders, a bit more of a bulgy bicep (on both arms, mind; one would just be weird), and some protruding veins.

I'm curiously fascinated by the whole veins thing, although admittedly in a 'poke it and squeal a bit' way because it looks a bit like a worm stuck under the skin. They're a bit more visible in my forearms, and on the biceps just above the elbow, which is exciting; there's also one on my left arm that runs slightly horizontal and looks a bit like a smiley face. I tried taking a picture immediately after coming out of class but they don't really show that well (thanks iPhone!) and I just ended up looking like a bit of a tit taking a photo of his arm in Chiswick.

Apparently girls find veiny arms sexy because it shows you're fit and take care of yourself. That's all very well, but I just have to make sure I don't go too far with it and end up looking like Sylvester Stallone or - *shudder* - Madonna, who quite frankly looks like she's had the arms of a 110 year-old corpse transplanted onto her body.

30 days of yoga: Day 26 - AWESOME

This is going to be a short one because a) nobody likes a show-off, and b) I've only just got in.

Basically, then: favourite teacher plus plenty of between-posture witty banter, compliments on my yoga (and physique!), in-class laughter, and properly NAILING all 26 postures (on my 26th day? SYNERGY!) equal quite possibly the best class so far of this challenge.

Add to that some post-class chatting with other members of the class - which I haven't really done before because I'm antisocial I tend to just get changed and go - followed by a keep drink with a fellow yogi who first introduced me to the joys of back-chatting to the teacher in class.

It's nights like this that remind why I enjoy this yoga so much.

30 days of yoga: Day 25 - unclean, UNCLEEEEEEAN!

About a week into my 30 day challenge I went to see Inception with Best Mate Jo. Upon picking her up I asked, like a polite gentleman, how she was. Her reply, or rather what I could make out through the snot and croaking throat, horrified me. I spent the next 10 minutes smooshed up against my driver's side window, and briefly wondered whether I could get away with making her sit elsewhere in the cinema to avoid the risk of contamination.

If you were wondering, I loved the movie, though.

The following day was spent sitting around the house being incredibly paranoid and wondering if I was feeling a tad feverish or could detect the early stages of a sore throat. Having invested a considerable amount of time in the challenge, and £130 to cover my month long unlimited pass, I was understandably nervous. Fortunately, nothing transpired as a result of an evening spent with the unclean.

Fast forward to today, day 25 of my epic challenge. With the finish line in sight I'm feeling pretty chipper … until two colleagues came in sounding like death warmed up and insisted on getting within contamination range while making a cup of tea. If I'd had any holy water on me I would've showered them in it and started chanting random things in Klingon Latin. Cue the return of my paranoia and, disturbingly, a headache.

This is it, I thought, I'm stumbling on the final straight. I nevertheless went to class, fearing - although the idea was repulsive to me - that I might have to leave if I began to feel too rough. But then a miraculous thing happened! The combination of the extreme heat and excessive sweating made my headache disappear - and I went on to ace the class.

So I've now got five days left in which to evade the diseased, after which time I'll happily submit to a lurgy and bed rest. Well, maybe not 'happily,' but the idea of lolling about in bed for a few days actually is quite appealing.

30 days of yoga: Day 24 - modesty is the best policy

It occurred to me earlier that this is the final Tuesday of my 30 day challenge. Just typing that out feels a bit weird; yoga's totally dominated my life for the last three and a bit weeks, and the idea of this challenge nearing its epic conclusion brings with it some mixed feelings. This time next week I could be sitting at home with my feet up watching the telly amid a pile of junk food rather than being half naked, dripping with sweat and wondering if I'll pass out in camel pose.

Still, the fat lady hasn't sung so it's not over yet!

After a few days of somewhat mixed results, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I nailed tonight's class good and proper. I'd kind of come to the conclusion that I'd be having fair-to-middling classes for the rest of the challenge (although to be honest, an OK-ish class for me now is about on par with a damn fine class from around three months ago), so I was somewhat taken aback by how easy all the postures came to me and how awesome I felt. To be honest, if this had been a weekend class and I'd had more time I would've seriously considered going for a double.

Although I'll never be too certain why tonight's class was awesome and Sunday night's left me feeling like I'd been raped by a bear, one thing does spring to mind: one of the lovely ladies on reception asked me how the challenge was going, and I replied "oh, y'know, feeling it a bit now!"

Clearly, then, my plan from here on in should be to feign as much modesty as I can possibly muster in an attempt to fool my body into jive pushing it, pushing it real good.

So with that in mind, er, I expect tomorrow's class will be just *awful*.

30 days of yoga: Day 23 - bitch slap!

Yoga gets very busy at peak times. I think the capacity of the studio is around 60 people, and when it's full you're actually quite close to the people on either side; there's something like a 10 centimetre gap between mats.

Because some of the postures - eagle pose in particular - involve some rather vigorous arm swinging, the teachers always recommend that we, the practitioners, stagger ourselves. Helpfully, the mats are themselves staggered in the studio, so if your mat is forward, you step forward; if it's back, you step back. Simple really. Well, you'd think so. I always pick a mat that's nudged forward, but on several occasions I've found the person next to me standing right alongside, and they often frown at me disapprovingly like I'm the one that's standing in the wrong place.

Fortunately I sweat rather a lot during class, so if a disapproving glare doesn't do the trick I just splash them with a healthy amount of my salty man juice.

*ahem*

Anyway, tonight's class was going rather swimmingly for me, with the people on either side generally behaving themselves. I think my biggest complaint up until around the halfway point was that the lady to my left kept tickling the back of my right knee with her ponytail during standing separate leg stretching pose. I don't think it was intentional.

However, as we reached the floor series, lady made the heinous error of putting her water bottle at the base of my mat. Outrageous - it's well documented that I detest such behaviour! Despite the no-talking-during-class-rule, I was seriously thinking about having a word. But then something more awesome than I could ever have thought possible happened: the woman next to her slapped her right in the face while swinging her arms up to go into half tortoise!

And it wasn't a half-hearted slap either - it was a full-on, skin on skin, loud cracking noise slap. I Immediately thought about having a go as well - clearly her defenses were down because she recoiled away from her back-handing attacker toward me a little, but in an instant my window of opportunity was gone; the slapper was apologising profusely to the slappee as if the whole thing had been a horrible mistake (yeah right!). Much to my chagrin they didn't even get into a sweaty cat fight.

Suffice to say, though, that as I rolled forward and down onto Captain Kirk's face in an awesome half tortoise, I had a massive grin on my face…

30 days of yoga: Day 22 - THERE. ARE. FOUR. LIGHTS!

Bikram yoga, as I've warbled on about plenty of times, is 90 minutes of yoga done in a hot room. Not a warm room, a HOT room. It gets up to about 40 degrees C (that's 105 degrees F if you're old school, or just plain old). Most of the heat is generated by a large and powerful heating machine that is secreted somewhere in the ceiling, but in addition to this hellish device, the teachers also flick on the lights in the studio.

You wouldn't think that lighting would really do much to make you sweat, but as a matter of fact it does. At the halfway point in the class when you lie on the floor for a two minute rest period they turn the lights off so you don't get dazzled by them as you stare up at the ceiling, and you do actually feel a little bit cooler. It might be my mind playing tricks on me, but then again I flicked my kitchen lights on earlier - which are the same kind of halogen ones as are in the studio - and I started sweating like a bitch in heat so I genuinely think there's something in it.

The gist of this is, then, that I now rather hate halogen lights.

Anyway, I was in class this evening, lying on my back during a rest period between postures and for some reason my eyes were drawn to the lights. And it was at that point that for the first time I counted how many were on, and as my inner Picard began to surface, I had to resist shouting out:

30 days of yoga: Day 21 - key to the door

Day 21 of my 30 day challenge and I thought it would be hilarious to keep telling everyone that today was my 21st in the hope that they'd think it was my birthday, which would then result in everyone telling me how young and adorable I appear before they scampered off to buy me presents.

I did not expect, nor want, laughter. People can be bastards. What is that whole 'key in the door' thing about, anyway? It drove me nutty on my actual 21st.

So anyway, I'm down to single digits now. Hurrah!

I dreamt about yoga last night. In my dream I'd finished my 30 day challenge, and as a result gained the power of flight. After experimenting with tentative hovering around the house, I set off on a tour of all my familiar West London haunts in order to bid farewell to my nearest and dearest before departing for a new life on the moon.

I was expecting excessive pooing as a result of all this yoga, not something akin to a bad acid trip.

30 days of yoga: Day 20 - mariachi el yoga

The one thing that bugs me about yoga - besides the excessive sweating and people who invade my area - actually happens before class when I'm trying to enjoy my nap time relaxation period. Recently I've become more and more aware of people who think that the period prior to the beginning of class is actually the perfect time to catch up on what happened in last night's Eastenders or share some scurrilous office gossip, completely ignorant of the fact that the vast majority of people in the room are on the backs with their eyes closed, possibly even snoring gently, and certainly not caring about who Kate from accounts is boffing in the stationary cupboard.

And that's why today I was really quite happy to see that the lovely people at the studio had put out signs telling everyone to shut the f**k up, but obviously in a more polite yoga stylee. While I was chilling out I was actually hoping that someone would start nattering, at which point I had decided I would sit bolt upright, adopt my best angry face, and point furiously at the new signs. Sadly everyone behaved themselves.

What the signs had no power over, however, was the fact that the tapas bar below the studio decided that Friday night would be the perfect time to employ a mariachi band to serenade their patrons. And let me tell you, it's not easy to keep a straight face when you're upside down in standing separate leg head to knee pose and someone strikes up some jaunty latin beats.

Not only that, but no matter how pooped you are it really is quite difficult to follow the teacher's instructions and keep completely still after coming out of posture when every fibre of your being is shouting "RUUUUUUUUUMBA!"

30 days of yoga: Day 19 - supply teacher

If there's one thing I like in my yoga practise it's consistency, which is why I approached tonight's class with a bit of trepidation. Thursdays nights, y'see, are usually taken by my favourite teacher, and in the past when she's not been there I've often skipped that evening's class. This week she's on holiday, but as I'm balls deep in the midst of my 30 day challenge, I don't really have the option of taking a day off.

Well, actually I do, but I don't want to.

Anyway, whenever I have a teacher I've never met before I always slip into that old school mentality that you'd get whenever your teacher was ill and your GCSE maths class was being covered by a supply teacher. Your regular teacher was a known quantity, and it's the same with yoga teachers; Thursday night lady knows what I'm good at, she knows my limitations; I can get away with a bit of back-chat, and she doesn't say anything when I sit at the front of class picking blue fluff out of my belly button.

New teachers aren't like that. You have to impress them, prove to them that you are a good boy and you're definitely putting 100 percent effort in. And no, that wasn't you who farted and made all the other children roll around on their mats giggling like specials.

As it was, though, I had nothing to worry about; temporary teacher was lovely, and the class passed without incident. Although to be honest I am looking forward to my regular teacher's return next week; Thursday evening just wasn't the same without her broadcasting a sarcastic remark to the class about me swan-diving down and kissing Batman.

-----

In other news, I experienced a rather awe-inspiring instance of the detoxing effect of all this yoga last night. Without going into too much detail, let me just say the words 'explosive decompression' and we'll leave it at that.

On the plus side, I do feel about half a stone lighter.

30 days of yoga: Day 18 - Temptation

Eighteen days in and this was the first day where I was tempted to play hooky from my 30 day challenge (I'm officially allowed six rest days, but I've actually yet to take one). Not because I didn't want to go to yoga, mind, but because a band I'm currently a smidgeon obsessed with are playing in town tonight.

That band is OK Go. I've been a bit of a fan of theirs for a few years now - way before the treadmill video before anyone tries to accuse me of jumping on any bandwagons - and a few weeks back I ordered a USB drive off their website that contained recordings of a live electric gig, a live acoustic gig, and their new album. Since it arrived at the beginning of last week I've not actually listened to any other music while rocking out with my iPhone.

Upon hearing that they were in London, then, I was sorely tempted to be naughty and sneak off to see them. But, as it turns out, I'm a dedicated yogi; I went to class, and I was pretty damn awesome. And anyway, I think I've found my yoga theme tune - I had this playing in my head all throughout class:

30 days of yoga: Day 17 - flirtrageous

Going into this 30 day challenge I expected a number of things to happen. These included differences in my body shape and muscle definition, lots of clothes needing to be washed, and getting very sweaty.

What I did not expect was for the yoga to make me more attractive to women.

WHAT?!

OK, I might be exaggerating a bit, but no word of a lie after class this evening I popped into Sainsburys to pick up some food and something to quench my thirst (or rehydrate if I'm being scientific), and after paying I decide to stand in the foyer while I sexily knock back my Lucozade isotonic drink. While I'm standing there, patches of sweat beginning to show through on my t-shirt and inner thighs (nothing turns ladies on more than moist trousers) I get the impression I'm being watched.

Turns out I'm right.

A lovely young lady is looking at me a bit funny (funny as in like she's trying to make sure I am who she thinks I am, rather than funny with clown makeup and eyes that boing-boing out on springs). And then she says:

"Did I hear you say in the studio that you've done 18 straight days of yoga?"

"Oh, it's 17," I reply, shrugging my shoulders as if it's no biggie.

"Wow, that's amazing - I can barely manage two." She says this while turning her face down a little and tossing her hair back, actions that TV shows and movies have taught me are universal signs of instant attraction. I then proceed to impart some of my newfound yoga wisdom on her, scattered throughout with pseudo-macho phrases such as "it's nothing really" and "you just get into a natural rhythm" (hubba-hubba).

Anyway, so we chat for a couple more seconds and then she heads off to do some shopping of her own, but not before turning to me one last time to say "let me know how you get on, won't you?"

If this was an eighties movie that moment totally would've been in slow-mo with fans whipping her hair around her while she blew me a kiss.

30 days of yoga: Day 16 - level up!

Possibly as a result of being a rather chubby youngster with child-sized man boobs who excelled academically but failed epically at sports, I now find myself, as an adult (physically if not mentally), seeking affirmation of my sporting prowess whenever and wherever possible.

Of course, when I'm running I have my Nike+ kit to tell me how good (or not) I'm doing. Alas, Nike+ does not work with yoga, so I either have to go with my gut reaction as to how I did, or badger the teacher after class until they give me a verbal pat on the back and send me on my way.

Tonight, though, I didn't have to fall back on either option.

I went into class this evening resolved to taking it easy somewhat. Yesterday in particular was a bit of a rubbish session for me, so I decided to take it down a notch in this class - effectively to allow my mind and body to regroup, although you also wouldn't be wrong in saying I wouldn't be running on all cylinders and would just be going through the motions.

As a result I had what I thought was a decent if unremarkable class.

As I walked out of the studio, however, the teacher looked at me and said "there was a bit of a competition between a few of the guys in the front row there - and I think you came out on top."

I stopped and looked around like a bit of a special before pointing at myself and mouthing "me?"

"Yes," she said.

"B-but I was taking it easy tonight - I hit the wall!"

"I don't think you did - you were doing very well in there tonight."

I continued to stand there with a bit of a dumbfounded look on my face, at which point she said:

"You're Tim, aren't you? I could tell by the Star Trek towel."

Ah yes, the legendary Star Trek towel - evidently the source of all my powers.

30 days of yoga: Day 15 - Halfway

WHOA! I'm halfway theeeeeere, whoa liv-

Let us never speak of me quoting Bon Jovi lyrics again. We shall assume I'm delirious from too much yoga.

30 days of yoga: Day 14 - wall

I knew it was coming, but that doesn't make it any less annoying: I think I've hit THE WALL (and I don't mean one that leaves me with bloody knuckles and tears in my eyes).

Some of the teachers and staff at yoga warned me that I might reach a point where I feel I can't quite go any further, and while I don't think I've actually reached THAT point - I'm still enjoying it and I'm still doing everything quite capably (I think) - I don't feel like my practise has actually been advancing over the last few days. Basically that means I feel like I'm going through the motions a bit.

On the plus side, bad yoga at the moment is actually still a bit like decent yoga from a few months ago. And to be honest the situation's not helped too much by Friday's class being in the evening and Saturday's being first thing in the morning with only about 13 hours between them. Still, I do get a nice long rest between Saturday's morning class and Sunday's evening class, so hopefully my powers will be restored by this time tomorrow…

30 days of yoga: Day 13 - snigger

Some bullet points for you:

• Genuinely almost fell into a proper deep asleep before class started. At one point I might've entered a micro-sleep; I certainly jolted awake somewhat comically about 10 minutes before we kicked off.

• Someone farted halfway through. This made me laugh. Lucky I wasn't in posture at that point.

• I hit a little bit of a wall and struggled a smidgeon halfway through.

• And I'm doing it all over again at 9:00 tomorrow morning.

That's it for now; I've got the new Scott Pilgrim book and I intend to spend some special* time with it tonight.

*Not that sort of 'special.'

30 days of yoga: Day 12 - blow me

Let's get one thing straight: I am awesome at toe stands. So awesome, in fact, that my teacher tonight asked if I practised them while sitting in front of the telly because I did it so naturally. I don't, but maybe I should - not because I need to, just because I can. I am rock-solid when balanced on one foot, my bum raised above my heel (NOT resting on it).

What I'm not so good at these days is using my patented 'I WANT' expression to get the teacher to open the window. This expression has served me well throughout my life - from getting Sparky Ma to buy me new toys when I was a kid (not now, obviously; I can afford my own these days), to wangling free coffee; it's the same sort of expression that Princess Diana used in that interview with Martin Bashir, though with less mascara. It used to work on the yoga teachers when I was new and inexperienced and obviously close to overheating, but now they just look at me like I'm making a fuss.

I tried desperately to get that look to work tonight, but to no avail. I did actually do everything in class, but I really just wanted a blast of cool air. I would've turned to the person next to me and asked them to blow on me, but apparently the one thing people hate more than someone making a fuss these days is Mel Gibson.

30 days of yoga: Day 11 - poop

Don't go thinking I went into this 30 day yoga challenge blind; I did my planning, and I did my research.

The planning entailed making sure I had a comprehensive idea of how many pairs of kit I'd need, and exactly when they would need to be washed.

The research involved Googling other people's experiences of doing the 30 day challenge, and reading up on how it effected them. The results were overwhelmingly positive as you might guess, because otherwise it's highly unlikely I would've bothered with the challenge and this post would instead be about something inane like stroking a kitten or buying a solid chocolate KitKat (love those - as I kid I convinced myself they were so rare that they could imbue me with magical powers).

There was, however, one comment on a message board that did ring some alarm bells. I can't for the life of me find it know, so trust me when I say the gist of it was:

"Wow, I find Bikram yoga has so many positive benefits. I can just feel the toxins flooding out of my body - I even have to go to the toilet (no. 2) around four or five times a day!"

Now, I love a good poo as much as the next person, but four or five times a DAY?! I'm a busy man - I don't have time to keep popping off to the toilet because my body's running at peak effieciency! Four or five times a day? That can't be good, can it? Surely by about the third or fourth time you'd be straining your spleen and colon out? I've had diarrhea less potent than that.

Fortunately, my worries have fallen by the wayside. Eleven days in and I genuinely don't feel the need to recreate the end fight sequence from Aliens where Ripley flushes the Queen out of an airlock over the toilet bowl on an hourly basis. Although, in one class last week, the teacher did use the word 'hemorrhoids' and the phrases 'constipation-relief' and 'follow-through' in quick succession, so maybe there's something in it after all?

30 days of yoga: Day 10 - Benjamin Button

As I said yesterday, there are some aspects of yoga - particularly the whole zen part - that I don't quite get. But then there are other aspects I totally get - aspects that have been far more noticeable as I continue my way through my 30 day challenge.

One thing I knew would happen was a change in my body shape - shoulders, biceps, that sort of thing, because I know from past experience when I've gone three or four times a week for a couple of weeks that it has a noticeable effect on those areas.

What I was not expecting was to start growing younger. But that, apparently, is what is happening.

The first inkling I had was when I noticed that the rather deep line on my forehead from where I raise my eyebrows incredulously at people rather too often had softened somewhat, and gotten a little bit shorter. Then I noticed that the laughter lines around my eyes had decreased in size, and the dark rings under my eyes had disappeared altogether. My jaw line is more defined, and I'm finding it increasingly difficult to produce mock double-chins. I've begun to look like that bit of dodgy CGI they used in X-Men United to make Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen look younger.

And then today I walked into the office only to hear the phrase "holy shit, have you gotten taller?!" hurled at me by Scanner. Apparently I have.

So, while I'd previously scoffed at anyone telling me that yoga could make me look younger rather than just feel younger, I now can't deny the evidence - because it's staring right back at me every time I look in the mirror.

And all this after just 10 days. At this rate I'll be back in nappies by the time I hit that final class.