I’ve done yoga before, but never like this. Over the weekend, my friend took me to her “hot yoga” class. Bikram yoga, as it is professionally called, is essentially doing yoga in a room that reaches 100 degrees. And yes, it was as disgusting and as hard as it sounds.

I recently just lost 15 pounds, so I’m really into exercising and trying new and interesting ways to change up my routine.

I have always heard about Bikram yoga, but always shied away from the aspect of sweating more than you normally would on the elliptical. But when you think about it, when you sweat, you’re ridding your body of impurities and toxins. With this in mind, I dove head first into the class.

5 minutes in: I was a faucet. In between taking breaks to towel off my face (which happened a lot), I looked around the room. The yoga masters in the front row were barely dripping, but the shirtless 50 year old man behind me was drowning in a pool he had made on his mat.

I don’t want it to sound like I am opposed to Bikram, because I actually really enjoyed it. After the 50 minutes were over and we stepped outside, I began to feel more relaxed than I had ever felt. Yes, my arms were sore (a lot of the poses we did entailed holding our arms out for long periods of time), but in a good way!

This type of yoga was created to help increase the circulation of all organs in the body and claims to prevent heart disease and other organ diseases. It also helps with injury prevention, stress, oxygen intake and blood circulation. Lady Gaga even does it, in heels none the less (see photo, above)!

Lets recap: you sweat out impurities, you’re working muscles that you never knew you had, you’re relaxed and you burn a ton of calories (500-1500 depending on the person). I highly recommend trying a class (only if you’re more of an advanced yogi) and you’ll see what I mean.

Would you take this class?