I'm NEVER doing this again!

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The alarm went off at six in the morning on a Sunday. A Sunday. The one day of the week when no reasonable human being should see daylight before ten. And there I was, rolling up my mat in the dark, cursing the friend who talked me into it with "it's going to be amazing, I swear." I've practiced studio yoga for years — my mat has more miles on it than my car — but this was something else: an outdoor class at the Macroplaza, in the middle of downtown Monterrey, at an hour when even the birds haven't warmed up their voices. What follows is the full account. And I'll give you the conclusion up front, so you don't waste your time: never — hear me clearly — NEVER am I doing this again.

It All Started Badly

Let's start with the obvious: at six thirty in the morning there is no coffee shop open in your neighborhood. I arrived downtown on an empty stomach, hair half done, in the mood of someone who lost a bet. The grass was wet with dew. I rolled out my mat — my faithful every-Tuesday-and-Thursday mat — onto cold, uneven grass that looked nothing like the perfect floor of my studio.

Around me, people stretched like it was the most normal thing in the world. Women in their sixties touching their toes without bending their knees. A man who had clearly been doing sunrise classes for years. And me — the one who shows off her practice at the studio — stiff as the Faro del Comercio, wondering if there was still time to fake an urgent phone call and escape the way I came.

The first ten minutes confirmed every fear. The instructor said "breathe deeply" and all I could hear were the buses on Constitución. She said "release the tension in your neck" and my neck answered with a crack you could hear from the Neptune Fountain. And my warrior three — frankly respectable on Thursdays at the studio — wobbled so badly on the uneven grass that the woman next to me smiled at me with pity. With pity.

And Then the Sun Came Up

I don't know exactly which minute changed everything. We were in a pose with our arms overhead — the instructor called it "half moon" — when the sun finished climbing over the buildings. Golden light washed over the entire plaza. The colorful mats, the trees, the stone of the historic buildings. The traffic noise was still there, but suddenly it sounded far away, as if the city had politely turned down its own volume.

I took a deep breath. A real one this time.

And here is where I have to be honest with you, because this article has a trick in it and it's time to confess: it was one of the best experiences I've ever had in this city.

Doing yoga outdoors in the heart of Monterrey — the Sierra Madre peeking between the buildings, the plaza nearly empty, that light that only exists before nine in the morning — is nothing like anything I've done between four walls. Years of studio practice and no class had ever given me this: your body stretches differently when the ceiling is the sky. The class lasted an hour that felt like fifteen minutes. At the end, lying in savasana on my mat watching the clouds, I understood why all those people had set an alarm on a Sunday.

We left starving and walked a few blocks to Elena Coffee Shop in Barrio Antiguo for a coffee and a small bite. Delicious — and believe me, coffee tastes different after sixty minutes of poses at dawn. If you want something heartier, the breakfast spots of Barrio Antiguo are on the same walk. I went home in the best mood I've had in months, and with one absolute certainty.

When I said I'm never doing this again, I meant it completely. I am never again doing this: skipping a Sunday morning yoga class in the park at the Macroplaza. Never again sleeping in while the entire city wakes up, stretches its arms, and salutes the sun without me. Never.

If You Want to Try It

Outdoor yoga and fitness sessions appear regularly in the parks and plazas of downtown, almost always in the morning and often free or donation-based. Every group organizes differently, so the best plan is to check the announcement before you go. The Macroplaza events-today page gathers the official channels for what's scheduled at the plaza.

Three tips, yogi to yogi. One: your studio mat works, but dew-covered grass is not your hardwood floor — a thin towel on top solves it, and balance poses on living ground are a humility lesson no studio will ever give you. Two: arrive fifteen minutes early; the best spots, with shade for when the sun climbs, go fast. Three: in summer, Monterrey's heat is non-negotiable after nine, so the early classes aren't an eccentricity — they're survival. And the full ritual includes the after: coffee and a small bite at Elena Coffee Shop, on Diego de Montemayor street in Barrio Antiguo, a few blocks from the plaza.

And if you still have energy after class, the whole plaza is right there at the hour when it looks its best. The list of things to do at the Macroplaza is another way to make the most of the morning — the monument circuit at eight in the morning, without the heat and without the crowds, is a secret few people know.