Miracle of miracles, it looks like a real honest-to-goodness Bikram studio is opening up in New Orleans! Finally, I can get back to working on trying not to die while contorting my body in a steaming hot room. Woohoo! If you’ll indulge me by thinking back to September of 2011, you’ll remember that I tried out the only other Bikram studio in town and found it severely lacking. Not only did I get kicked in the face and not have any room at all between my mat and the others in the room, the teacher wasn’t on script and dangerously forcing people into poses their bodies weren’t ready for, the heat was WAY over its intended 105 degrees, and someone in there STUNK. I later found out that though the studio called itself a Bikram school, it was not accredited with the actual Bikram program. It was a sad experience all around, and it seemed very likely that it might be years until I was next able to work on my practice, if at all.

But lo and behold, I woke up on Friday morning with my typical back and hip pain, and decided it was time to make the switch and find a non-hot yoga school if I had to. I’m too young to be laid low by lingering pains. So after looking up yoga on Yelp, and reading a bunch of descriptions and pricing, I decided to just try looking for the closest school via Google Maps. I figured if it wasn’t really what I wanted to do, it might as well be close, right? As it turns out, the new studio, Bikram Yoga New Orleans, is under construction only about four blocks from my house in the CBD.

The school’s website isn’t fully functional yet, but from checking out their FB page I know that it’s going to be legit. I’ve seen photos of the studio (beautiful), the mirrors (full length), and the heating system (Reznor = bad ass). The bones of the website are pleasing, and whoever designed the school’s logo did a great job. I’m just so very ready to get back to class. No idea when their first day open will be, but it looks like it could be as soon as a week or two from now. I really hope they have some early morning classes, instead of being like so many places in New Orleans that only have classes during normal working stiffs’ work hours. Any way it goes, I’m going to do my best to make it there and get these kinks worked out. I’m ready to start sweating again.