Hot yoga: heat should not always result in nudity

Last night I completed my third day as a bikram yoga student. The first time I ever took yoga was working with a Beginner's VHS tape when I was 18, and it's slowly graduated to this: bikram yoga, where the temperature is raised to 105, allowing you to really sweat your ass off. If you've heard the workout results in what appears to be the yogee to have jumped into a pool, it's true.

(This often results in a few stares from the community I bike through afterward. I don't blame them: my sports bra sweats through the shirt I wear, leaving these big (or, not-so-big) sweaty prints right over my boobs.)

The class is comprised of many different types of people. We have men, large men, skinny-tall men, (un)flexible men. We have women, large women, skinny-tall women, (un)flexible women. And what I love, we're all scantily clothed as you have no idea how much 105 degrees hits you when your yogic for 90 minutes.

So last night, I was in the Tulandandasana pose (see right). You're supposed to look toward the mirror in front of you, which sounds like a good idea...unless you're Tulandandsanaing behind the same girl I was last night. I look up to face the mirror, and home girl was not wearing any underwear.

I completely understand that your knickers get a little swampy, and I'm all for women's liberation, but OMG...at least wear pants or long shorts. Something other than what a roller skater from the 70's would wear.

Maybe I'm acting a bit prudish about the event, but I couldn't keep my pose. It reminded me of the Friends episode when Pheobe's boyfriend's genitals kept popping out from underneath his shorts. Just knowing it was there, staring at me like I was guilty for being in the second row, I ended up standing most of the pose.

So ladies, men, whatever you do, wherever you go, when you're in yoga class, remember to put your pants on.