After tomorrow, I will have hit 100 Corepower Yoga classes. Having reached this milestone, I took a moment to reflect. Here is what Corepower has done for me over the past two years.

1. Curing my procrastination. During the heat of the college application season, it was my way of escaping my college counselor’s deadlines, because, in my eyes, working out was still being productive. Even in the middle of July, I would have to start my day with a 100+ degree Yoga Sculpt.

2. Therapy. As a person who chooses not to invest in true therapy sessions, a Corepower class has often been the only thing to completely clear my mind. I have no choice but to fill my brain with thoughts of how many seconds are left to hold my side plank or focus on my favorite instructor Bridget Anderson’s pre-class motivational speech. If any instructor had made an impact on me, it is Bridget. Bridget is one of the University of California, Los Angeles’ Track and Field coaches – being a Corepower instructor as just a hobby. Her class is always completely packed, with her twenty regulars claiming the front of the class twenty-five minutes before the class starts. Bridget is nearly six-feet tall, with bleach blonde hair highlighted with gold tassels, and rock-hard abs. She cranks the temperature to at least 107 degrees, and blasts electronic dance music that nearly bursts your eardrums. This might sound like a form of torture to some, but there is no better feelings than stepping out of her class and walking out into the cold air (at least compared to inside the studio) of Ventura Boulevard.

3. Enhancing my friendships. Despite my love for hot yoga, going to class can sometimes feel like an obligation. Getting ten of my friends to go to Bridget’s Black Friday class feels more like a group hangout even if we were borderline passing out by the end of the hour. Burpees are always a little less painful when you are doing them with a friend struggling next to you.

Four studios, seven class-packs, and probably infinite liters of sweat later, I can confidently say that Corepower is so much more than a workout class to me. It is an integral part of my life. So much so, that I might have to create the Ann Arbor location because I can simply not live without it.