Raff's Brain

November is gratitude month, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to reject the adult partridge. After another humbling hot yoga class, I assess my progress: heart reluctantly opened, baby partridge retained, headstand monarchy briefly destabilized. Practicing nearly every day apparently doesn’t exempt you from struggling with something you used to crush. Meanwhile, my Oura ring has collected enou...

The back corner of a yoga studio is valuable real estate. Rob learns this when another early bird beats him to his favorite spot—and he has to practice acceptance before class even starts. Fresh from another survivable yoga sculpt session, Rob rambles through workout reluctance, a school-bus traffic question, gloriously scrambled mythology, and his lifelong connection to Anthony Michael Hall’s mov...

The soreness showed up. The brain went somewhere else. One day after Yoga Sculpt left him wrecked, Rob Raffety returns for Class 402—and has a suspiciously manageable morning. His body follows the instructor. His mind runs contingency plans for the day, the month, and possibly the rest of his life. On this episode of Raff’s Brain: Hot Yoga Problems, Rob wonders whether an easier-feeling class sign...

Last episode, I celebrated 400 CorePower Yoga classes. This episode, class 401 would like a word. A punishing Monday morning Yoga Sculpt session sends me into a sweaty reckoning with Halloween indulgences, insufficient sleep, and the deeply inconvenient fact that experience doesn’t make every workout easier. There are three-pound dumbbells. There is wounded pride. There is an attempt at an inspira...

Rob’s 400th CorePower Yoga class begins in corpse pose. Considering what comes next, that feels appropriate. In this Halloween edition of Hot Yoga Problems, Rob celebrates a personal milestone with Frankenstein rises, suspiciously seasonal yoga poses, and a playlist that opens with Beethoven instead of “Thriller.” Between the sweat and the spooky soundtrack, he revisits the work trip that introduc...

Three students. One very attentive yoga instructor. Zero opportunities to phone it in. Rob tries a noon hot yoga class and emerges ready to conquer the afternoon. The school bus ahead of him has other plans. This installment of Hot Yoga Problems takes the scenic route through small-class accountability, school-day traffic, and Rob’s proposed book of parenting advice from a middle-aged non-parent....

Rob Raffety has a December doctor’s appointment to prepare for, three-pound weights to contend with, and absolutely no desire to attend today’s Yoga Sculpt class. He goes anyway. In this episode of Raff’s Brain’s Hot Yoga Problems, Rob reflects on the health wake-up call that pushed him to take fitness more seriously—and the humbling business of making small improvements while everyone around him...

Two yoga classes. One tired brain. An unnecessary amount of internal debate. Rob arrives at the studio without a reservation and faces a Monday-morning dilemma: C2 or Yoga Sculpt? He chooses Core 2, briefly accuses himself of taking the easy route, and then gets thoroughly corrected by the actual class. With only one other student in the room, slacking off suddenly feels very conspicuous. Also on...

Fifty-one doesn’t come with much ceremonial significance. I’m celebrating anyway—starting with hot yoga and an honest assessment of the ongoing situation that is me. On this birthday edition of Raff’s Brain, a post-yoga ramble becomes a reflection on getting older, making incremental progress, and appreciating another year of being here. My health gadgets have plenty of feedback. My yoga instructo...

Rob makes it to 6 a.m. hot yoga. His consciousness arrives separately. After taking melatonin the night before, an already sleep-deprived Rob Raffety battles the snooze button, drifts toward sleep mid-pose, and attempts to explain a mermaid stretch with a brain operating on emergency power. Also entering the picture: a birthday health-tracking ring, because apparently his wellness situation needs...

A Yoga Sculpt class without cardio sounds like a gift. Rob’s lungs would like to dispute that. This week on Hot Yoga Problems, Rob discovers that removing his least favorite part of class doesn’t necessarily improve the experience. Between squats, curls, and whatever “hammer toes” are, a lesson emerges: stop trying to predict the workout and just show up. Plus: chilly mornings, the seasonal return...

A surprisingly successful hot yoga class leaves Rob Raffety energized, opinionated, and ready to debate whether “I Want Candy” belongs on a Halloween playlist. First, there’s a mystery yoga maneuver he christens the “killer rabbit.” Then an early birthday present introduces the prospect of a smart ring tracking his sleep—and potentially giving his anxieties a dashboard. A discussion of wearable te...

Rob likes to think he’s an independent adult. Then the yoga instructor walks toward his mat, and suddenly he wants a gold star. Following yesterday’s core-crushing Sculpt class, a quieter Friday session sparks a question: why pay for group exercise when free workouts are everywhere? For Rob, the answer is being in the room. Other people—and the possibility of a well-timed “Good job”—help him hold...

A bear claw is a delicious pastry. A bear plank is an ungodly exercise. Rob would like to register his preference. Today’s Hot Yoga Problems begins with a Yoga Sculpt reckoning: just when Rob thought he was improving, bear plank twists arrived to correct the record. What follows is a sweaty appreciation of cheerful instructors, a detour into squirrel risk management, and a campaign to bring “squir...

The chair is invisible. The pose names are suspicious. The sleep debt is very real. Rob Raffety emerges from hot yoga with questions: What exactly is “bobcat tail”? Why are we doing frog pose three moves into class? And who decided a prayer twist needed a one-legged butt kick? After more than a decade of practice, Rob suspects his instructors may be improvising. Meanwhile, his own questionable dec...

To clap or not to clap? That is the post-yoga question. Rob emerges from another Yoga Sculpt class with sore muscles, a small but encouraging sign of fitness progress, and an etiquette dilemma: when the instructor says “Namaste,” should the room break into applause? He hasn’t joined the clapping contingent. But is everyone celebrating survival, thanking the instructor, or interrupting a perfectly...

Rob doesn’t want to attend 5:30 a.m. yoga sculpt. He certainly doesn’t want to become its instructional model. Fresh from another punishing Monday workout, Rob recounts a potential fire-alarm mishap, the indignity of finishing cardio with burpees, and the unsettling suspicion that a neighboring student is looking to him for proper form. Naturally, this becomes an elaborate theory about spreading b...

One hot yoga class. One hardware store run. One allegedly “37th annual” block party. Rob emerges from Saturday morning yoga with a question about loyalty: does he choose classes for the instructor, or because 8 a.m. fits his schedule? While sorting that out, he remembers an urgent errand — orange tape for the neighborhood block party. This edition of Hot Yoga Problems wanders through fitness membe...

Raff’s Brain hits the streets of New York City. Recording from Midtown Manhattan, Rob checks in during a visit with the Moving Picture Institute and celebrates the arrival of October by launching his newest creative experiment: Panic Patrol , a short-form historical comedy series about inventions and cultural changes that once inspired genuine public panic. That launches a broader riff on how quic...

Rob survived CorePower Sculpt. Barely. After an early-morning encounter with burpees, mountain climbers, push-ups, and the general indignities of exercising aggressively in a heated room, Rob discovers something alarming: he might actually be making progress. In this episode of Hot Yoga Problems , he reflects on building momentum, making better everyday choices, dropping five pounds, and discoveri...

Rob checks in from a Monday night edition of Hot Yoga Problems with a report from the front lines of diet, exercise, sleep, and podcast consistency. He’s about 10 days into a healthier routine, avoiding chips and fries and showing up for workouts—but one late football game and a restless night derail his plan for a brutal 5:30 a.m. Yoga Sculpt class. The conversation wanders, as it should, through...

Rob voluntarily walks into a Sunday evening yoga class looking for something a little easier. He chooses Yin yoga. This turns out to be a misunderstanding. On this episode of Raff’s Brain: Hot Yoga Problems , Rob recounts his first Core Restore/Yin experience: long-held poses, creeping discomfort, negative self-talk, extremely slow-moving time, and eventually a bizarrely peaceful state in which hi...

Rob is back with another episode of Hot Yoga Problems , freshly crushed by a 9:30 a.m. class and contemplating one of yoga’s recurring themes: transitions. After his second shingles vaccine wipes out most of Friday and causes him to miss both a sculpt class and his preferred early Saturday yoga session, Rob nearly writes off the weekend. Instead, he pivots to a later class — a small decision that...

Rob emerges from another hot yoga class with not one, but several revelations—including the disturbing possibility that he’s been doing pigeon pose wrong for roughly a decade. A well-timed hands-on adjustment changes the entire posture, prompting a larger realization: no matter how long you practice yoga, there always seems to be something new to learn. Then comes the real lesson of the day: trans...

Another morning. Another 100-degree room. Another voluntary beatdown. Raff is back for Day 5 of his latest hot yoga run, fresh off a recovery day after four consecutive CorePower sessions. This time it’s Yoga Sculpt, where the weights may be light but the suffering is apparently world-class. The fitness push has a little more urgency behind it these days. A recent conversation about high blood pre...