Three Wheel Burning: HIIT and Hot Yoga in Old Town

The weeks around Christmas and New Year's is a time to visit family and friends. For me, visiting friends means at least one brutal workout. Often, it involves two.

I came up the weekend before Christmas and timed my departure from Virginia Beach to be an hour ahead of the 69-car accident near Williamsburg. I'm so sorry for those injured and hopelessly delayed, but I am so glad I was ahead of it.

John was out of town until Friday, and our (for the time being) ex-pat Wheeler was in warmer climes, so we didn't have a quorum until Saturday morning. After a brief debate it was decided to do two workouts. The first would be at our old trainer's studio in Old Town. After that we would go to a hot yoga place nearby.

GetFit Studio is owned and operated by Carlo Pascasio, a trainer we all know from our UFC days. After he left UFC, most of us worked with him off and on individually. He eventually opened a studio in a great location in Old Town.

His specialty is group classes. Iron HIIT is what we took. The class started at 9AM, and that's about the time the instructor opened the studio. To be fair, Carlo was never the most punctual trainer, so it stands to reason his trainers would be the same. In the end, it didn't matter. We all found space and got ready to warm up.

The warm-up is enough to get the right muscles warm and blood flowing without wearing you out. The exercises themselves seem to focus on muscle groups but also provide balance work. There are usually two exercises in each minute set, meaning each exercise lasts 30 seconds. The sets are repeated three times. We seemed to focus a lot of shoulders in this class, which is fine with me because my shoulders always need work.

One set was a combination of kettlebell swings and weighted squats. The combination, or more likely my transition, aggravated an old hip injury. I suppose not doing kettle bell swings for so long was the issue. I selected a light enough weight; I just did something wrong. It wasn't crippling, so I managed to get through the rest of the workout.

As with any of Carlo's workouts, there's a bit of time at the end reserved to stretch. Carlo always stressed the importance of stretching and showering after a tough workout.

All in all, it was challenging and rewarding. If I did the workout all the time, I'm sure it would seem easy, but it's been years since I've done a HIIT class like this.

After a quick regroup we three agreed to meet at Zweet.

Zweet is, among other things, hot yoga. The company states that zweet is a Dutch word meaning to sweat. I have some amount of Dutch ancestry and I sweat like a pig farm in south Louisiana on the hottest day in August, so I expect the Dutch have a word or two for sweat.

The first challenge at Zweet is getting in the studio. The main entrance facing Henry Street opens directly into the studio, so it's locked. The door on the side is also locked for the same reason. Each door has a sign to enter in the rear of the building. The rear of the building has a door colored the same as the building with a numbered lock. As rude as it may have been to try the other two doors it seemed criminal to try the other until I saw a woman use it to get in. No alarms went off, so I followed.

My first impression was it was warm and under construction. It's a small space and most of it is dedicated to the studio, as one would expect. It was casual though. People were milling about, taking off their shoes, waiting for the earlier class to dismiss. It felt like a place where people just know what to do and that's comforting. Especially since I was the only newbie.

Lisa explained we needed to get in quick and take the spots nearest the door because that's the only place with even a breath of air. I wasn't going to argue since the first thing I felt in the studio was how much hotter it was than in the lobby. The difference between 80 and 103 degrees is enormous!

Our Meg of the day came in and adjusted the temperature down to 95. I suppose the previous class was more advanced. She introduced herself and made a point of learning our names. I made a point of telling her this was not only my first hot yoga, when she asked, but my first any yoga. My only experience to date is tying my shoes and I break a sweat doing it. She was very nice and said we don't have to try to do everything. I was glad to hear that, especially when I saw some of the advanced poses.

I've wanted to try yoga, but never had the nerve to walk into a class with no experience, surrounded by impossibly thin people who are all at peace. This was a good opportunity. Lisa and John are familiar with the studio and yoga in general and they, as well as Meg, assured me anyone can do most of the poses.

As much as I wanted to try yoga, I never thought I'd want to try hot yoga. I may have mentioned my enormous capacity to produce sweat. Years ago I was taking a morning HIIT class and towards the end of the hour I smelled like coffee. It's all I had to drink that morning and apparently all I had to sweat.

My theory on why I sweat so much is related to my body temperature. Normal is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, yes? Not really. 98.6 is the average normal temperature, meaning it can vary. My body tends to run at 97.4, give or take. It may be because I put out more heat. My ex-wife appreciated that on cold nights. In fact, I could raise the temperature of a room just by being in it. It's probably not efficient to give away my heat. Anyway, it’s a theory.

I was relieved to see a good cross section of humanity in this class. There were those who were in spectacular shape and had mastered various forms of levitation, and there were those like me, all the grace of a plumber working under a sink. There were plenty of in between as well. Folks who knew what they were doing and did it well, but not quite movie stars yet.

I won't go into the poses mostly because I don't know them. I followed one super star in front of me and Lisa for most of the work except levitation. I mentioned Meg was also great about correcting my form when needed. The things she showed me made a difference and I can see why yoga is so effective. She also provided less advanced poses for anyone not as limber or more impacted by gravity than the stars in the class.

I heard from yogaholics over the years that yoga cools them down. Meaning, regular (not hot) yoga could make them chilly. I didn't experience that. I did get a chill once though. I recognized it from the days running half marathons in 95-degree heat. It's the equivalent to a red flashing light telling me to drink water immediately. And like those times running, my first reaction was, "Oh, this is nice." followed by, "No wait, I'm dying." You lose no points for taking breaks and staying hydrated, but you will not get a refund if you pass out halfway through the class. I'm only guessing that second part.

I was a faucet. I wasn't dripping, I was flowing. In fact, if I had a faucet that was leaking as bad as I was I'd turn off the water under the sink. Think about that if you're considering whether to buy your own mat or use one the studio provides. I did use a studio mat and it smelled a lot like feet. A lot of feet. I figured out to keep my towel under my face for certain poses. Speaking of towel, the bigger the better. I brought my standard gym towel, but I should have brought a beach towel. Not just because of the sweat, but it's easier for sweaty, bare feet to get traction on terrycloth than on a yoga mat.

Once we finished, we walked out into the 80-degree lobby and shivered. It felt amazing. I recommended they burn my mat but stay at a distance because my sweat has a high alcohol content. No one ever gets that joke.

I learned a lot about yoga and myself. Maybe the biggest lesson is, if you're doing yoga alone, you're just stretching. It may be this studio focused on the spiritual aspect of yoga than some, but it did seem important to be in a group and match each other's breathing. It's a little hard for a newbie to do the poses and breathe in time without grunting, but I noticed the difference when I got it right. The final, flat on your back pose, was also more relaxing than if I just did it on my own. That may have been due to exhaustion.

I thanked Lisa for arranging the yoga after the Iron HIIT class and she agreed we'd never be able to do it the other way. Not without an IV, at least.

I was glad to get to see GetFit Studio and how far Carlo has come. The workout is pure Carlo. It's effective, satisfying, and challenging. The equipment is clean, and in good shape. It's a good place to empty your tank and work your muscles.

Zweet's hot yoga class was a great place for me to get started. I was surrounded by experts but never felt intimidated. It was hot, that is beyond question, but I've had workouts that have made me sweat that much in cooler temperatures. This is yoga, which is more about mind, body, and spirit and less about resistance. The heat seems to raise your heart rate and make things slippery, but I’m not sure what other purpose it serves. There is something to having to strip down to a pair of compression shorts in a non-judgmental atmosphere to survive that is a bit liberating.

It’s a good combination. The sore muscles from the first workout are helped by the yoga. My hip was sore, but it didn’t prevent me from participating. The day after I was wrecked, but that would have been the case if I had bailed out when I felt the injury. That being said, if you ever feel an injury, even a familiar one, stop. I knew I paid for to hours and I wanted to do it all. It helped that nothing else in either workout aggravated the injury, but I should know better.