My Hot Yoga Nightmare

by Kris Pitcher

The scenario went something like this: I was on a trip and being hosted by someone else, so I was a guest. I was also in a warm, tropical even, climate. Sounds nice...

As such, I was still training for my competition and keeping myself on track. My host and several others wanted me to join them in a hot yoga class. Now, for many reasons I didn't want to do the hot yoga class.

I was thinking to myself - that will kill me! There's no way I can do that and still lift later. My hosts were showing me the courtyard where the class would take place. It was an open air, beautiful space. I smiled and wondered how would I get out of this.

In my dream, I negotiated my way out of participating in the hot yoga class. What's the big deal you're wondering? Why didn't I just do the hot yoga class with my hosts and call it good?

Even in my dream, I knew that doing the class would be a conflict with my goals. It's a conflict because it would completely dehydrate me leaving me without energy to do what I need to do in order to meet my primary goal.

So, can't I do both? Well I could do both. But I wouldn't really be able to either one really well. And that's the whole point. In my dream I was protecting my primary goal of building and maintaining muscle for competition.

I find many competitors want to "do it all". The challenge is many of those activities are competing - competing for energy, for muscle fiber type (search it and read my blog), and competing for time. The reality is if you want to compete and do "just ok" you can do both.

But if you want to compete and bring your "A" game...you need to focus your energy on one thing. Focus your energy on bringing your best to the stage. The extra curricular activities won't matter when you don't place. And that is my hot yoga nightmare.