Bikram Infinity

This Thing Called Life

2011-12-07T17:23:00.000-08:00

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life." - Prince, from "Let's Go Crazy"

The teacher could begin every Bikram class with these words, and it would be totally applicable. For various reasons, I haven't been able to write as much in this blog over the past few months as I would prefer. I have no shortage of topics, but life has a way of throwing up all kinds of barriers and confusions. However, I've definitely been going to class, unfortunately not as much as I would like to.

As more and more strange things pop up in my life, the more I realize how valuable the non-physical benefits of the yoga are. The world is filled with traps and distractions and I've had my share of them of lately. There are numerous things in life that are tedious, irrelevant or just plain harmful. Daily existence can be a chore sometimes, work, bills, flakey people, you name it. In the larger scheme of things, practically none of that matters.

However, yoga does matter. It's not superficial or pretentious. You can count on it. Above all else, it's honest. It's truth. Sometimes that 90 minutes in the hot room is the only truth we'll get all day. Art and music have many of the same attributes, as there is plenty of truth in art as well. And it's something real, just like yoga. When you stand on your mat in that hot room, and look at your own eyes in the mirror, it's real. No illusions, no facade.

To be honest, lately I'd taken this gift for granted, I'd been doing it for so long. Oddly enough life can have a way of knocking you around and reminding you what's really important. Well life certainly reminded me lately and I'm truly grateful I always have the hot room to go to. If nothing else, at least I get truth in those 90 minutes, no matter what else goes on the rest of the day.

Greg

Enjoy the Process

2011-10-12T16:58:00.000-07:00

Today before class I heard someone make a comment which I've heard many times before, including by some teachers. The comment is always something similar to, "Well I hate the class itself but it's worth it because I feel great afterwards." I happen to disagree with this line of thought and think it limits one's practice. Do I always enjoy the class when am in it? Of course not. Do I always look forward to class? Definitely not. However, for the most part, I do enjoy being in the hot room, doing the postures and yes - struggling.

Maybe it took me a while to realize it, but I am cognizant of the benefits of the yoga as I'm doing it, rather than just understanding the benefits to come later. I can feel the stretching, the detox, the meditation as it's happening and I enjoy it. If you just "grin and bear it" to get through the class than sorry to say, you're missing out on a lot. The class is often described as "a 90 minute open-eye moving meditation" which is spot-on. Part of that mediation is embracing the struggle and the difficulty and actually learning to appreciate it and enjoy it.

Perhaps that sounds a bit sadistic, as after all, why would anyone want to "torture" themselves for 90 minutes? But that's really the whole point. If you can embrace the torture chamber and accept it for what it is, you've really achieved something. If you continue to resist the heat, the humidity, the postures, etc, then you will continue to be adversely affected by it. The longer I practice Bikram Yoga, the more it becomes a mental exercise rather than a physical one, and as a result, I truly enjoy my 90 minutes in the room each day.

Greg

The Technology of Bikram Yoga

2011-08-16T16:23:00.000-07:00

The Merriam-Webster's Dictionary has four definitions of technology. Two of them are particularly applicable to Bikram yoga. One is "the practical application of knowledge especially in a particular area" and another one is "a manner of accomplishing a task especially using technical processes, methods or knowledge."

Practically everything in life has a technology to it, from cooking to fixing a car. There is an exact manner to accomplish a certain task.

As you can see from these definitions, Bikram Yoga is a technology, but what is it a technology for? We'll get to that shortly. First, let's take a look at the first definition. Bikram is most definitely a practical application of knowledge in a particular area. The knowledge has been gleaned through quite literally thousands of years of experience with hatha yoga and distilled by Bikram into a series of 26 postures and 2 breathing exercises practiced in a hot room. As for the second definition above, Bikram yoga is certainly a manner of accomplishing a task, but which task?

The simplest way to put it is this: Bikram Yoga is a workable technology for healing the body. It doesn't mean it's the best technology, or the only technology, or that Bikram only heals the body and nothing else. It just means it works. One could certainly make a case that there are other, non-physical benefits to Bikram, some of which I have discussed in my blog earlier. However, mental and spiritual benefits are harder to quantify and highly subjective. So for our purposes, we'll stick with the physical healing aspects. Talk to anyone who practices Bikram regularly and they can tell you things that have been healed in their body, plus there are the untold number of ailments that are prevented from practicing.

However there is one caveat with this technology - it has to be applied correctly, by both the teachers and students. This means proper dialogue, a hot room, trying the postures the right way, etc. If some of these points aren't present, maybe the yoga will work and maybe it won't. That's why it's important to try the postures the right way, do all 26 postures in class (both sets) as much as possible and insist on correct dialogue and a hot room. If those points all exist, your body will improve and heal itself.

Greg

Posture Discussion Part XIII - Cobra Pose

2011-08-03T14:44:00.001-07:00

Now we get into the discussion of my least favorite part of class - the spine strengthening series. As you've heard, the postures you like the least are the ones you need the most and all four of the spine strengthening series fit that description for me. As much as I don't look forward to these four postures, they are the ones that completely handled my back pain that existed prior to starting Bikram. They are fantastic for working all the different parts of the spine.

The first of these postures is Cobra pose, which works the lower back, and you can absolutely feel it in your lower back. Once in a while (not very often) my lower back is a little sore going into class but after this posture any soreness goes away immediately. Lower back pain is such a common occurrence that literally millions of people consider it a normal fact of existence and there are innumerable "cures" out there for lower back pain. Special chairs, special beds, special keyboards, pills, chiropractors, you name it, but this posture can put your spine in such good shape that you won't have to worry about lower back pain again.

It took me a while to get the form of this posture and the set up is extremely important. At first I didn't really feel like I was getting much of the posture, and I probably wasn't, but then I had some teachers check out my form and made a few corrections and I noticed a drastic improvement after that. As usual, the dialogue is excellent about what to do, but I would suggest having a teacher closely check out the position of your hands in the set up. It can make a world of difference.

Greg

Have Some Fun

2011-07-20T15:03:00.000-07:00

Recently, two different friends of mine expressed some misgivings about continuing to practice Bikram yoga, at least temporarily. One of them had some disagreements about particular teachers and the other one is just a little burned out and wants a break. I completely understand both of their points and it reminded me of something extremely important in practicing Bikram. It's supposed to be fun.

The fact is, many hours per day each week are spent on things that wouldn't necessarily be considered fun - work, paying bills, dealing with traffic, personal drama, whatever. Above all else, the hot room should be a place of respite, of calm and somewhere you want to be. If it stops being someplace you want to be and something you want to do, then by all means, change things up a bit.

I know exactly what it feels like to be burned out, and I've blogged about it more than once. One thing that worked for me was to stop coming every single day. I've settled in to a pretty good groove of coming "only" six days a week, sometimes five, sometimes seven. I also like to get a nice variety of teachers every week, so I'm not just taking one or two teachers in a week. My studio has enough variety that it works out ok. Plus now with my work schedule, I get to take at different times and see a larger variety of other students, which is nice. Above all else, I just don't take things too seriously in class. I try my best but I don't stress over the postures. I certainly pay close attention to what I'm doing and always try to improve, but yoga lasts forever, so I'm not going to get too concerned if I'm having a rough class on a particular day.

Of course, what I describe above is what works for me. Plenty of people could be burned out coming six days a week or need to do something else to keep things interesting. If coming to class isn't fun anymore, then by all means, do something to change it up. Talk to your teachers about it, talk to other students and see what works best for you. If you've been coming a long time, you already know the benefits, but sometimes, you can have too much of a good thing.

Greg

Making Shapes

2011-07-06T15:11:00.000-07:00

The following is a guest post I did for the Bikram 101 blog about a year and half ago. I've updated it a bit and added a few things. It's one of my favorite posts I've written and I was thinking about it recently, as our studio has another 30 day challenge going on and a number of people are dedicating themselves to the 30 day (or longer) journey. Plus I've picked up a number of readers over the past year and half (thank you!) and I want to make sure they can see this posting I did, since it technically never appeared on my website before.

"I had a very interesting discussion with a teacher a few weeks ago about the difference between practicing Bikram yoga vs. making shapes with your body. This topic came up as I was lamenting my lack of flexibility, and complaining that there are so many students that are more flexible than me. While many of these students are indeed very good, a few of them are just, well, making shapes. Having a good practice isn't just showing up and moving your body into different positions for 90 minutes. Just imagine doing the postures in the right sequence in the heated room, but add in loud music, people talking, wandering around the room, leaving the room, drinking water whenever they want, etc. Do you think you'd get a lot of that class? Of course not!

Of all the things I pay attention to when I'm practicing, it all begins with my focus. When that's good, then the breathing is good, the discipline is good, and the class just flows. If my focus goes out, you guessed it, I start just making shapes with my body. My focus is the thing I have the most control over. I don't know how my body will react to each posture, or if the room feels too hot or cold that day, or if the person next me is wandering around their mat. I can control if I'm in the room and focused and if I do that, it's a smooth ride for the whole class."

Update July 6th 2011: Over the nearly two years I've been doing this, my practice has evolved to a point where I'm no longer fixated on the mechanics of each posture while I'm in class. Oh believe me, I appreciate corrections and I want them (and complain sometimes if I don't get corrections), but it's not the most important thing. It really is a 90 minute moving meditation, not a workout program, and for me that evolved over time. There are some nice external physical benefits to practicing regularly, and more internal physical benefits that I probably even realize, but ultimately the focus, discipline and moving meditation are where the magic happens.

Greg

Posture Discussion Part XII - Wind Removing Pose and Sit Up

2011-06-22T15:49:00.000-07:00

Wind Removing Pose:

One of my favorite postures to do. It's well placed right after the first savasana and right before the spine strengthening series. For a few months I thought that "Greg, pull harder!" was part of the dialogue for this posture. I eventually did start pulling harder and now I enjoy the posture. The dialogue is pretty clear what to do but there are a few points worth noting: 1) It's one of the only postures where you don't look in the mirror at all, so you really have to pay attention to what you're doing. It helps to have a teacher look at this one before or after class as you can only partially see what's going on. 2) The grips make a big difference, with the individual legs and with both. A strong grip greatly improves the benefits.

Sit Up:

This is a very underrated part of the class. Considering you do this twelve times in class, it's worth paying attention to it. Again the dialogue is very clear what to do. If you give a good effort then you end up having some more energy for the next posture, not to mention the other benefits the stretch gives you. One thing that I've had a few teachers point out is holding it for a second or two once you've grabbed your feet. It gives a little better stretch. And the breathing is what helps give you that extra energy. The first sit up helps quite a bit to get you ready for the spine strengthening series, and you definitely need all the energy you can get for those four postures.

Greg

The Decision

2011-06-15T16:21:00.000-07:00

Bear with me in this posting if you're not a sports fan. I'll bring this back to yoga as I always do, but the events in the world of sports this week made me think of my own journey and yet another example of how Bikram yoga has helped me in life.

This past week, Lebron James and the Miami Heat lost the basketball championship to Dallas. To give you a bit of background, Lebron is perhaps the most famous (or infamous) and talented basketball player in the world. For the first seven years of his career, he played for Cleveland, then last summer he left Cleveland to go play in Miami with another fantastic player, Dwayne Wade and another very good player, Chris Bosh. He made his announcement on a prime time special on ESPN, which was so poorly thought out and executed that it turned Lebron from a beloved athlete into the biggest villain in perhaps all of sports.

What's lost in the endless analysis of Lebron's decision and performance since then is that he did something almost unheard of in sports. He decided he didn't want to be THE MAN anymore. Most professional athletes have egos the size of football fields, which is both a blessing and a curse. So when Lebron decided that he didn't want to have the weight of an entire team and city on his shoulders it was unprecedented. He needed help and did what he felt was right, negative PR be damned.

About three years ago, I left Los Angeles and moved to Vegas. For the past few years I was in L.A. I had a job were I was most definitely THE MAN. I had authority over nearly 1,000 people and my word was law. It was great for my ego, but I was miserable. When I left, it came as a huge surprise to the people I worked with, and needless to say many of them weren't very happy about it. Just like Lebron, I made some enemies along the way, but ultimately I had to do what was right for me. I was falling apart physically, mentally and spiritually. It was time for a new game.

To bring this full circle, Bikram yoga has been an essential part of my new life. I started doing it about a year after I moved to Vegas and besides the astounding physical benefits it has given me, it helped me find peace. Peace with who I am, peace with my new goals and peace with life. Life is full of decisions and the most important ones are seldom easy. I'm fortunate to have Bikram yoga in my life to easy the decision I made a few years ago and any future ones.

Greg

Good Morning Bikram

2011-05-28T16:45:00.000-07:00

In previous posts on my blog, I've mentioned how I hate morning classes and preferred night classes. Well, as fate would have it, my new job has a very different schedule so...you guessed it, I have to take class in the morning almost every day now! I end up usually taking the 9 AM or sometimes the 11 AM. Once in a while I end up taking a night class, but I'm pretty much a morning yoga now. The amazing thing is, my body has started to adjust nicely to the change. I thought I'd list out some of the main differences for me that I've noticed between the morning classes and night class, in no particular order.

1. I love doing yoga before work, because I feel great all day. I used to go to yoga directly after work before, which was fine, but it really helps get me through the day after doing class in the morning.

2. It's colder. Ok, this is a good thing for some people, but not me. However, with certain teachers, it's still fairly hot. Of course, this is related to...

3. My muscles are tighter in the morning, especially my hamstrings. I generally feel sluggish and tight for the first few postures, but this generally is ok by the time we get to Standing Head to Knee. At night, I'm already loose from moving around all day, so the beginning postures go smoothly. My body is getting used to this change and I'm already feeling looser in the morning classes.

4. There are less people in the room. This is nice for getting a good spot in the room and it's rarely cramped for space. Of course, the energy at night tends to be better just because there are more people.

5. Less drama. We generally get a more experienced group of people in the morning classes. I guess it's less likely for new people to come to a random Tuesday 9 AM class. They tend to show up for the night classes. I love new people coming to class, but it is nice to have a veteran group with good energy.

6. I do much better on the floor series in the morning for reasons I don't totally understand, but it's nice. At night, I tend to have a strong standing series but not a great floor series. In the morning it's evenly balanced. However, the one exception so far seems to be...

7. Rabbit pose. I have no idea why this is so hard in the morning, maybe because my spine just isn't as loose in the morning. I can do this posture pretty well when I'm warmed up, it's just been a struggle in the morning so far.

All in all, I love doing class in the mornings now, and I hope my schedule allows me to continue doing it for the foreseeable future.

Greg

Posture Discussion Part XII - Savasana

2011-05-19T15:43:00.000-07:00

Everyone loves Savasana, for obvious reasons. The first time you do it in class you've just finished the standing series and are ready for some relaxation, and of course you do it between each posture in the floor series. The teachers make it very clear what the benefits of this posture are, a rest stop, a chance to refuel after each posture, etc. There is one other major benefit that you may not have considered, which I'll discuss in a moment.

Before I get to that, I'll share one of the best pieces of advice a teacher has ever given me. At one point after practicing for a few months, I was still having a very hard time with the floor series. I was really tired and could barely do anything in the floor series. So this teacher told me to get into savasana as fast as possible after each posture. Don't drink water before savasana and don't delay getting right into it. If you need water, go ahead and drink some after savasana and before the next posture. I started following this advice and it made a tremendous difference in my practice. I had more energy and the floor series was much easier to get through. Still not easy and it's harder for me than the standing series, but at least I can DO the postures now.

As for the other benefit of this posture that you may not realize, savasana teaches you to hold a position in space without having to worry about balancing or stretching. The key here is that the power of an individual steps from their ability to hold a position in space. Let that sink in for a second. How does one generate power? By being there comfortably and holding their position in space. The implications are far reaching, from your job to relationships. If you can hold your ground and be there in any situation, you generate power. No one can strike you down, and you can accomplish almost anything - including the floor series:)

Greg

There's No Place Like Home

2011-05-10T12:19:00.001-07:00

Recently, I’ve had quite a few things going on in my life, both personally and professionally. Some good, some bad, and many ups and downs in just the past couple weeks. It’s been a tumultuous time for me. Many people have said that the hot room is a good place to go to “escape” from reality, take a break from the world, etc. I don’t do yoga nearly every day of my life as some sort of respite from the world. I don’t go there to forget about my troubles.

I go there because it’s home.

It is a place of hope, a place of love, where anything is possible. There’s a great familiarity hearing the same dialogue every day, doing the same postures, seeing many of the same people. We are often told to stay in the moment in class, and that’s certainly true, but there’s also an element of the future, of what can be. The past doesn’t matter in the room. Heck, your present state of affairs doesn’t even really matter. The words and postures and meditation matter. Most all of to me, the future matters.

In the room every day, in that time and place, the future is endlessly beautiful, and it’s why it will always be home to me.

Greg

Confronting

2011-04-28T10:14:00.000-07:00

Look at your own eyes in the mirror.

We hear this every time we take class, but why is it so important? There’s quite a bit going on by following this part of the dialogue, and it all boils down to confronting. Now this is not referring to the common definitions of confronting, which involve adversarial confrontation, or meeting face to face with someone or something, but rather some lessor known definitions of the word “confront.” Here are two that I dug up which are applicable to Bikram yoga.

“To bring together for examination or comparison”

This one is fairly obvious, and you could look at it a number of ways. We are all coming together in the room, or your mind, body and soul are coming together for examination or comparison. Pretty interesting way to look it. As we progress in our practice, we constantly exam or compare how we are doing to previous classes and only be confronting can we truly make meaningful improvements or changes. If you never saw how your postures look in the mirror, you wouldn’t have a very clear idea how to improve them.

“Face without flinching or avoiding.”

I like this definition, because it’s exactly what we’re doing in the room. In life, we all have situations we avoid or draw back from, whether it’s your own body or another person, a job situation, credit card bills, whatever. In the hot room, we confront ourselves without flinching or avoiding, or at least that’s what we are striving to do.

I had various physical problems before I started doing Bikram, long since handled. I was able to address them because I would go in the room everyday and face myself in the mirror. By confronting myself, I was able to handle these problems, and it became very simple. For years I had simply avoided things and didn’t confront, and this made everything very complicated. Only by confronting myself, did things get simple and finally resolve.

Greg

Posture Discussion Part XI - Tree Pose and Toe Stand

2011-04-22T09:52:00.000-07:00

I’m putting these two postures together in one post for obvious reasons. They are the final two postures of the standing series, done in fairly rapid succession. They happen to be two of my favorite postures, even though I’m not particularly great at them. Let’s take a look at each one separately.

Tree Pose:

My two favorite things about this one are 1) it’s a great hip opener and 2) it slows down the heart rate. For the hip opener benefits, getting the foot up as high on your costume as possible is how you get the most out of it. My teachers point out all the time that it’s more important to get the foot up high than get both hands in prayer. As for prayer position, I still can only get one hand up comfortably. I still have to hold my foot to get maximum benefits. I can let go of my foot, and I do sometimes, but then I don’t feel like I get a good hip stretch.

The heart rate slow down shouldn’t be overlooked, especially if you’re having a rough time in class. Many times, I’ve been dying in the room and just want to sit down, but I always make sure to do Tree and Toe because it really does slow down your heart rate and make an easy transition to the floor series.

Toe Stand:

This is one of my favorite looking postures from the beginning series, it just looks wonderful when done correctly. A little oddity on this posture for me is that I’m not good on one side (the first one, balancing on left leg) but very good on the other side (balancing on right leg). One note on this, especially if you have bad knees is to put your hands on the floor before bending your knee. You can actually hurt your knees if you don’t follow this point of the dialogue. In the advanced series, you do Toe Stand without putting your hands on the floor (you stay in prayer the whole time going down and coming up), but of course this is the advanced series and isn’t something your average student should attempt. If you’re feeling up to it, by all means go for it, but ask a teacher to supervise it so nothing goes wrong. I can do the advanced variation on the right leg and once in a while I’ll do it in beginning class just for fun.

Greg

The Bikram Hangover

2011-04-15T08:39:00.000-07:00

Many of you that have read my blog for a while may have noticed that I used to keep a running count of the number of classes I did compared the number of days. I started doing that from the beginning of my blog. About two months ago I stopped putting the count on my blog posts, because, well, I stopped counting altogether. Even more important, I stopped coming to class every day.

Ok, relax, I still come all the time, usually six days a week, sometimes seven, sometimes five, but no more “streak”, no more 30, 60, 100, 200 day challenges. In case anyone cares, I did get to 600 classes in 600 days. My studio is currently doing a 30 day challenge and one of my favorite teachers asked me if I was doing it, and I just told her I was retired from challenges. She told me that was a good idea!

There are two reasons I stopped coming every single day, both related to each other. The first is I simply don’t need to come every day anymore. When I started doing Bikram yoga, I had all kinds of things wrong with my body, which I’ve discussed in detail in previous posts. All, and I mean all of those problems are long gone. I had a bit of a realization when a few months ago I fell down some stairs and landed hard on my knees. The amazing thing was absolutely nothing bad happened. It didn’t hurt, I had no bruises and wasn’t even sore the next day. The few people that saw it couldn’t believe I was fine. It was then that I kind of realized, “Ok, I’m good, I don’t need to come every day anymore.”

The other reason I stopped coming every day was, quite frankly, I was getting burned out. It wasn’t fun anymore and I wasn’t enjoying coming to class every day. Physically it was rough as well. While I was obviously getting fantastic benefits, class itself was harder than it should have been. For a lack of a better description, it was a Bikram hangover.

So a few months ago I decided to start skipping at least one day a week and I couldn’t be happier with my decision. Since then, my body feels great, I don’t get burned out physically or mentally and my practice has actually gotten better. I have more energy in class and I’m excited to go again. I also had some great things happen to me in life outside of the room, and it’s not a coincidence.

Will I ever do another challenge? 30, 60 days or more in a row? Who knows? I’ll always have that choice, but I’m in a good place with the yoga now, and I plan to keep it that way.

Greg

Posture Discussion Part X - Standing Separate Leg Head to Knee Pose

2011-04-11T11:05:00.000-07:00

Standing Separate Leg Head to Knee Pose is often referred to as “that posture after Triangle”, but I like to refer to it as “the posture almost no one does correctly.” I have a bit of a pet peeve with the posture not being corrected by teachers very much, at least in my experience. Let me explain…

What’s one of the first parts of the set-up of the posture? Arms above your head, hands together and palms flat together. Palms flat. Next time you’re in class, see if you get your palms flat and look around the room and see how many people, if any, get their palms flat together. Now as with any posture, I understand if you can’t physically do it right away, but for some reason it’s not corrected by teachers very much, if at all. The closest corrections I ever hear are to fix people that interlock their fingers instead of putting the palms flat together.

Is this really a big deal? Maybe, maybe not, but I think it is. I’ve discussed this point with numerous teachers and correctly so, they tell me they have to focus on getting people to keep contact of their forehead and their knee. And it’s true, that’s by far the most important part of the posture. However, if you closely listen to all of the dialogue, you’ll see it is important to keep the palms flat. Bikram did realize how difficult it can be for people, because he even tells you to bring your palms back together again near the end of the posture before you come back up.

If you can keep your palms together the entire time with your forehead on your knee, you’ve really done a good job on this one, and you’ll get fantastic benefits. You get a much better stretch of the shoulders and you work your core much better as well.

As a note, in the advanced series, any of the postures you interlock your fingers together in are replaced (ideally) by putting the palms together flat. In other words, in the advanced series, you do half-moon for example with palms flat, instead of interlocking the fingers together.

One other point on the posture is ask your teachers sometimes for the full list of benefits from this postures. There’s quite a bit, so even though you’re probably nice and tired at this point of the class after Triangle, do your best to give 100% effort on Standing Separate Leg Head to Knee Pose.

Next up (after some other topics)… Tree Pose and Toe Stand.

Greg

Kurt Cobain, Yoga and Rebellion

2011-04-05T12:52:00.001-07:00

“I’d rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.” – Kurt Cobain.

Seventeen years ago today, the world lost one of its great artists, Kurt Cobain, singer and guitarist for Nirvana. I will never forget the first time I heard Nirvana. It was like being hit over the head with the reality of what was and the possibility of what could be. Nirvana arrived into a musical world dominated by mostly meaningless hair bands and electronic pop of the 80’s, music with no heart and soul. Whether you liked the music and lyrics of Cobain and Nirvana or not, you could never deny one thing – it was real. No sugar coating, no fake smile, but rather the music was a real communication and it resonated with people unlike anything heard in years or even decades.

His music and lyrics had a profound effect on the way I viewed the world. When I first heard Nirvana in 1991 I was nearing the end of high school and had various options ahead of me. I could have gone with various safe options, but like Cobain I didn’t take the easy or safe road. I ended up leaving my comfort zone of Cleveland, Ohio and moving 3,000 miles away to southern California, much to the surprise of my friends and family, who all assumed I would stay in my little corner of the world like they all did. It was the best decision I ever made, and I’ve never looked back.

Cobain never agreed with the way things were, he was a rebel who wouldn’t confirm to society’s supposed ideals. He saw beyond the horizon whereas so many others just saw the four walls that surround them. So what does this have to do with yoga?

Everyone who practices yoga is rebelling. Against illness, age, exhaustion and the false idea that you can’t change your body, mind and soul for the better. Greatness and real change is not achieved by conforming, going along for the ride or sticking to the status quo. It is done by pushing beyond your boundaries and past the accepted norm. When we step into the hot room, when we push ourselves to go a little further in a posture, when we hold a posture a little longer, we are all rebelling against the status quo. And at that moment, there’s a little bit of Kurt in all of us.

Greg

Posture Discussion Part IX - Triangle

2011-04-05T09:31:00.000-07:00

Everybody’s favorite, Triangle pose! You’ll often hear teachers say it’s the most important posture in the standing series, and it’s very true. If you think about it, it does everything – stretching, strength, balance and you even get a spine twist in there if you do it correctly.

To give you an idea how much there is to this posture and how much there is to work on, one of our best teachers told me recently that the only thing I was doing right in the posture was touching my toes! And she was only partially kidding. Here’s a few observations from my experience and corrections I’ve had.

1) Try not to sit out this posture! It’s way too common for people to sit out one or both sets. I never advise sitting anything out, but if you must, choose another posture besides this one, it’s way too important.

2) The set-up makes or breaks this posture. Listen closely to the dialogue. Hopefully your studio has lines on the carpet so you can properly align your heels. When bending your leg down, really try to get to a 90 degree angle like the dialogue says. Believe it or not, it’s actually easier when you do this. The posture becomes unnecessarily difficult if your leg is bent at something like a 75 degree angle. And yes, it will hurt until your hips open up enough.

3) When you get around to flipping your arms, again pay close attention to the dialogue and try not to collapse over sideways. Try to look like the picture above, and yes I know it’s hard!

This posture takes a lot of persistence and paying attention to the dialogue. I would highly recommend getting with teachers before and after class to take a look at it. I’ve literally done it thousands of times and I still have plenty to work on.

Next up (after some other posts)… Standing Separate Leg Head to Knee Pose.

Greg

Bad Habits

2011-03-31T09:05:00.000-07:00

Last week a friend of mine suggested I write a blog about bad habits in postures and how bad habits should be knocked out as early as possible in your practice. This was a good idea and I decided to expand on this a bit. I’ll cover a little bit about postures, but frankly, I could devote an entire blog to things you can do wrong on postures!

So below I’ve listed out five bad habits to avoid that will help anyone’s practice:

1) Breathing incorrectly – I’ve been asked many times for advice by people just starting out in Bikram and I always tell them to improve their breathing and do what the dialogue says for the breathing. It’s not just breathing in and out through your nose, but controlling your breath, breathing slower, doing things like “inhale breathing come up one more time!” when the dialogue calls for it, etc. The teachers at my studio do a good job hammering these points home. Breathing correctly actually makes it possible to do the class and helps with the other four points below.

2) Unnecessary movements – This covers all kinds of things, from fidgeting between postures to wiping sweat off to pouring water on your head. Recently we’ve had some teachers crack down on students getting up to grab a Kleenex in the middle of class, and this was a welcome improvement. This also includes leaving the room during class, something my studio tries to enforce as much as possible.

3) Screw loose brain – This is a tricky one and often the hardest one for me. If you’re all dispersed all over the place mentally, thinking about work, kids, shopping, whatever it makes your class much harder. This can also include blocking out distractions in the room, too hot, too cold, annoying people near you, drama, bad teachers, whatever.

4) Sitting out postures – This is a bit controversial because there are plenty of people with a good practice who regularly sit out postures. Look, I understand needing to sit out postures sometimes. I’ve sat out postures plenty of times, but it’s pretty rare now. I get it if there are physical situations or injuries or you’re just exhausted. The problem is when it becomes a habit. For example I know some people that have been practicing a while who always sit out the first set of Triangle. That’s a bad habit.

5) Incorrect posture form– My advice on this is to listen to the dialogue. Most of your questions about postures can be answered with the dialogue. I’d also suggest getting with teachers before and after class to go over postures, ask questions, etc. I’ve spent a lot of time with teachers looking at my postures one on one. There’s a lot going on in class and the teachers won’t always be able to make corrections, but even if you don’t ask teachers individually, if you pay close attention to the dialogue you’ll be able to fix a number of things. The sooner in your practice you can get the set-up and form right the better. I’m still trying to fix a few (minor) bad habits that I picked up from the beginning.

Greg

Bikram Yoga Green Valley and Details Magazine

2011-03-29T08:10:00.000-07:00

The following was published a few months ago but I never put the link up here on my blog. I'm finally just getting to it now. One of the top ten studios listed here is the one I go to and the one with the little logo on my blog - Bikram Yoga Green Valley.

http://www.details.com/culture-trends/critical-eye/201102/10-best-bikram-yoga-studios-in-america

Greg

Posture Discussion Part VIII - Standing Separate Leg Stretching

2011-03-25T13:28:00.000-07:00

Ahh yes, Standing Separate Leg Stretching. This is the hardest posture in the entire series for me. It's not my least favorite posture, since I know my body obviously needs it, but it's very hard for me.

One of the most difficult parts of my body to deal with in Bikram are my hamstrings. They tighten up very easily (one reason I need the room really hot) and they will tend to hurt quickly any time I lock my knee. Obviously I work through the pain, but it's certainly not easy.

I can actually do this posture correctly, with the proper grip of my hands around my heels and head touching the floor, but I spend most of the time concentrating on locking my knees. This is what ultimately helps my hamstrings. Most of the time I don't even worry about getting my head on the floor, and just focus on locking the knees. I'm not saying this is what everyone should do, it just helps me in particular. The dialogue is pretty clear about touching the forehead to the floor, so by all means listen to the dialogue.

There are a few common points I see people omit in this posture which if corrected help increase the gains from it.

1) Not locking the knees. This seems to be the most common thing to fix, including and especially with me. It's hard to keep your knees locked, especially since you're doing an inversion posture, which by itself can be uncomfortable.

2) Doing the proper grip of the heels. This gets messed up quite often, with people grabbing for their ankles or lower legs. The problem with not grabbing the heels (or at least the outside of the feet) is that you have nothing to pull against. And as we know, pulling is the object of stretching!

Another point which seems to have differing opinions is whether or not to put one or both feet on the mat and towel. My studio strongly encourages everyone to stradle their mat, but I know some people and studios are fine putting one foot on the mat, and in some places even turning sideways and doing the whole posture on the mat. I personally hate putting one foot on the mat in this posture because I think it makes it too easy. If you don't use the mat or towel, you really build up leg strength on this one (and Triangle).

Next up...everyone's favorite, Triangle. I may have some other posts before I get to that one, so stay tuned!

Greg

Posture Discussion Part VII - Balancing Stick

2011-03-21T15:14:00.000-07:00

Ok, I started doing this a few months ago, so I'll try and finish my posts about the different postures. Remember, these are just my experiences and data with the postures. If you have detailed questions ask your teachers!

Balancing Stick is "only" 10 seconds, but try timing it sometime and I bet you'll come up with more than 10 seconds. Some of my teachers like to joke that it's "10 Bikram Yoga seconds." For me, this posture is a great example of a posture that is much harder due to the sequence it's in. It comes after Standing Head to Knee and Standing Bow, which if you're working hard take a lot out of you. Especially if the room is hot, because you'll be nice and warm by the time you get to Balancing Stick.

First off, this is another posture where you have to put your hands above your head and interlock the fingers, palms flat. I feel like this doesn't get enough attention, as it provides a much better stretch if you get your palms flat against each other.

The second point is locking the knee. This often gets neglected (including by me) yet it's just as important in this posture as it is in Standing Head to Knee and Standing Bow. In fact, I've noticed that concentrating on locking the knee in this posture has helped me quite a bit in other postures where you have to lock the knee.

The other points of "T as in Tom" and "No broken umbrella" get hammered home pretty well by the dialogue, the key is maintain it for the whole time. This is one of the postures where you can't really see what you're doing too well, so it's nice if you can get someone to take a picture of you so you can see if you're a broken umbrella or not!

Next up...Standing Separate Leg Stretching.

Greg

Charlie Sheen and Yoga

2011-03-11T13:53:00.000-08:00

Say what you will about Charlie Sheen, but he certainly provides some interesting quotes. I rounded up a few of these which I thought were applicable to Bikram Yoga. Below are some actual quotes with a few comments from me.

“If you try it once, your face will melt off and your children will weep over your exploded body.” (This is what some of my friends think about trying Bikram.)

“I have Tiger blood, man.” (Bengal tiger strength.)

“Know that I’m better solo. I invented solo.” (Look at your own eyes in the mirror.)

“Plan better.” (Get to class on time!)

“We beg for nothing. Beggars beg. Winners win. Period. The end. Suck it. Didn’t make the rules.” (Wait, didn’t one of my teachers say this once?)

“You’re either down or you’re up.” (Floor Series, Standing Series…)

“I don’t believe in panicking.” (Stay in the room! Breathe!)

“Bring me a challenge. Somebody.” (30 days, 60 days…)

“I’ve got mad energy for days. That’s what people can’t get their minds around.”

“Winning? 24/7.” (Absolutely!)

Greg

First Timer Class

2011-03-08T15:23:00.000-08:00

My studio offers a "Free at Three" class every Monday which is where people coming for the first time can come for free. It's not open to the general public, just first timers and a few experienced people up front so the new people can see good examples of the postures.

Yesterday due to some scheduling reasons, I took this class. I went up in the front row. Our studio owner, Stacey taught. She is absolutely fantastic dealing with new people, answering their questions, calming them down, etc.

It's a very unique class for an experienced person and I really enjoyed it. There were about 8 first timers and four experienced people. I definitely could tell the people behind me were paying attention to my postures and of course this gave me extra incentive to do a good job. It was a very low key atmosphere which I think is great for first timers. I survived my first class, but I was certainly intimidated walking into a room with 40-50 people who all done this before. I would have loved to do a first time class like this.

Hopefully I can do this again, it was definitely an enjoyable class.

Greg

National Competition

2011-03-03T09:36:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in a few weeks, but I'm still here, still practicing, but very busy. I have a few posts I want to get to in the near future. Just a reminder to everyone that the U.S. national competition is this weekend in L.A. Three people from Vegas will be there competing, two guys and a girl. You can check out usayoga.org for details on the event. Apparently they are going to stream it live on line too, so check it out!

Greg

A Story

2011-02-11T12:14:00.001-08:00

563 classes (19 advanced) in 545 days.

In one of Bikram's books (sorry I don't remember which) he discusses meditation and how anyone can meditate in a peaceful room with soft music playing, but the real test of meditation is if you can remain calm while driving on a jammed freeway in 110 degree weather while running late for something. Kind of like a Bikram class.

This past Christmas I was in Cleveland visiting my family. The day I returned I arrived at the airport with about 5 hours of sleep and no food. There was a big line at the check-in. Once I got through that I had to wait in a huge line to get through security and was in danger of missing my flight. So here I was, tired, hungry, having to use the bathroom and waiting in a big line with possibly missing my flight.

I was getting very frustrated and then I thought, "Well, I've certainly had classes that are a lot harder than this!" Just like that, I calmed down and stopped being tired or hungry and the line started to move faster. I made my flight on time with no problems. A true "open eye moving meditation."

Greg

Inspiration

2011-02-04T09:25:00.000-08:00

556 classes (19 advanced) in 538 days.

Various things inspire me (or not) in class and thought I would list five of each here. I’m sure everyone has their own list.

Things that inspire me:

1) Heat. Not to be confused with excessive humidity, but there’s nothing I love more in class than a nice hot room. As discussed numerous times in my blog, I love the heat. Warms up my muscles and joints and makes for a productive and happy class.
2) A favorite teacher. I make no secret about the fact that I will try harder when one of my favorite teachers is teaching. At this point my favorite teachers all know my practice really well and can tell if I’m slacking off and they often don’t even have to say anything. They can just give me a look and I’ll correct things.
3) Being surrounded by people with a really good practice. Teachers talk about energy in the room all the time and it’s completely true. It’s palpable and when I’ve got really got people around me, I have a better class.
4) Having new people behind me. I blogged about this recently, but having new people watch me always will force me to concentrate more and work hard, even if I don’t feel too good that day.
5) Major drama. Kind of an odd one, but if there’s a lot of drama in the room, lots of people sitting out or leaving the room, it gives me an incentive to work harder. Maybe to give them more energy, I don’t know, but when I see people dying on their mats I get inspired.

Things that don’t inspire me:

1) Cold. This is a deal breaker for me. If it’s cold in the room I can’t get very motivated. I even have a whole way that I do class if it’s too cold. Basically I just work on the form for each posture and don’t worry about depth. And I try to avoid getting injured.
2) Bad teaching. If the teacher has no energy, poor dialogue, etc. then I just check out mentally. Not very common, but it does happen.
3) Low energy around me. This is hard to quantify because it doesn’t necessarily mean having new people around me, or even drama. Sometimes you’re just surrounded by people with no energy. Maybe they just don’t have energy that day, but it’s contagious.
4) Food problems. This can consist of being too hungry, or having some bad food earlier in the day. I’ve become good at figuring out what to eat and when before classes so I don’t run into this problem too much anymore.
5) Morning classes. For me this means any class before 1 PM. I’ve gotten much better at morning classes but I think I’ll always prefer the night. I’m looser and have had all day to hydrate. It’s hard to do either before a 9 AM class. And 9 AM is the earliest I’ve even taken. My studio offers 5:30 AM and 7:00 AM classes and I think you’d have to pay me a lot of money to take one of those.

Greg

Fans

2011-01-27T10:16:00.000-08:00

547 classes (18 advanced) in 530 days.

I had a class recently which got me to thinking about a favorite subject for many students - fans. Some studios and teachers use them a lot and some studios don't even use them at all. At Green Valley, we have some very nice and powerful fans and they are used quite differently depending on the teacher.

I have an interesting theory after watching the use fans. I'm convinced they don't do much to get people to do the postures if they're sitting out or about to sit out. I know sometimes teachers like to turn the fans on in the hopes that the people sitting out will go and do the posture. Unfortunately this seems to have mixed results at best. If you're at the point where you need to sit out, then a little bit of air doesn't make much difference. I know that on the rare occasion I need to sit out a posture, it has nothing to do with whether or not the fans are on. It's generally because of something like eating bad food earlier, being dehydrated before class, etc. So you can turn the fans on all you want, and I would still sit out. What's worse is that excessive fan use drives me crazy, dries up my sweat, makes me cold, etc.

I like a little air flow here and there, but any idea that it makes the postures more doable is a mental reaction, not physical.

Greg

The Grind

2011-01-20T14:28:00.000-08:00

539 classes (17 advanced) in 523 days.

I’ve been in a grind for the past couple of weeks with my practice. I haven’t felt good physically for weeks, I’m very tired in class and I just slog through class lately. And mentally I’m just not anywhere in the room. What’s interesting is that I’ve developed so much muscle memory for the postures that I can barely pay attention to what I’m doing and still look respectable, but teachers who know my practice can tell something is off. I had one of them earlier this week tell me that my postures looked fine but she can tell I didn’t have much energy. True enough.

This recent phenomena is a bit disturbing to me, but I’ve gone through this before. I’ve even taken a few days off in the past month and it hasn’t really handled anything. I can’t take too much time off, as my body is quite addicted to this, even if mentally I’d just as soon take off a month.

The one thing this recent experience has reminded me is that I do this yoga for myself. I only care to a certain extent what anyone else may say about my practice on a given day. I know how I feel and even though I’m feeling lethargic these days, I still get benefits and I do what I can do each day and each posture. Teachers can give corrections and suggestions and I do what I can that day. If it’s not perfect, then so be it.

Greg

The Goodness in the Bad

2011-01-10T13:29:00.000-08:00

529 classes (17 advanced) in 513 days.

There are numerous ways one can gauge their practice and improvement in Bikram yoga. There are obvious ones like getting more flexible or stronger, doing certain postures better, being calmer, etc. While I use these things as a benchmark as well, one of my favorite ways to gauge my progress is how I do in classes when I don’t feel very good walking in, such as being really tired, a little under the weather, have some nagging soreness, etc. When the conditions are perfect, room feels great, I feel great, then of course I can do the postures better that day. This is one way to measure improvement, but it’s a fairly easy one.

The real trick is to not feel good at all and still keep your focus and get something positive out of the class. Yesterday was a great example of this. First, I took the normal class at 9 AM and I absolutely did not want to be there. I was tired and fighting off a cold. The class was packed and I was right in front of the podium. Before class the teacher (Jen) was talking to some first timers who were right behind me and she made a big point that they should watch me! Normally this is no big deal, but I was not in the mood for this. However, it served as a nice motivating factor for me, and I overcame my obstacles and did well, and hopefully I set a good example for the people behind me.

Then later in the day after debating whether I should go at all, I took advanced class. I was concerned going in since I was still fighting off this cold, but amazingly I didn’t feel sick for one second during the class and it went fine. Funny how that works sometimes with class.

Greg

The Road to 500

2010-12-28T12:37:00.000-08:00

514 classes (15 advanced) in 500 days.

I shouldn’t even be here. By all accounts I should have been gone a long time ago, broken, dead, jail, you name it. Anywhere but here, and I certainly shouldn’t have recently completed 500 Bikram classes in 484 days. But I am here and I did my 500th class a few weeks ago despite a million reasons why it was impossible.

Long before I ever walked into the Green Valley studio for the first time my journey in this life could have come to an abrupt end. Falling off a cliff, capsizing in a boat, suffering severe burns on my arm, nearly being shot and having guns pointed at my head – all before turning 18. Yet I did survive.

Years later my body starting slowly falling apart, resulting in two dire situations that came to a head slightly before I started Bikram. The first was a situation with my adrenal glands whereby they had almost shut down completely. This led to all kinds of physical problems and a severe lack of energy. The second problem was my back, which had become more and more painful. When I walked into my very first class it was painful to even sit down and I couldn’t do much of anything with the postures. After these problems came up a friend of mine who had been trying to get me to come to Bikram practically dragged me into the studio. I’ve never looked back.

I give you this background not to sound impressive, after all there are people with way more impressive stories about how Bikram saved their life. Rather I’m describing the above to give you a better understanding of why I dedicate so much time to this yoga. I’m grateful every day that I even have the opportunity to come to class, to work on my postures, to improve myself. I don’t take it for granted for one second. I’m not going back to being in pain and having a hard time just getting through the day. I appreciate the fact that I can even do the postures. In the beginning I could barely do anything and in a little more than a year I ended up competing!

There is no turning back for me, and while I’m proud of my 500th class, it’s only the first few steps of this journey.

Greg

Back Bending Bliss

2010-12-08T08:54:00.000-08:00

497 classes (14 advanced) in 480 days.

“Drop your head back. You’re back is going to hurt like hell!” Words I hear every day in class. When I first started, backbends were high on my list of least favorite postures, which of course means that I really needed them. I still need them, but at least I enjoy them more these days.

A while ago I started doing “wall walking” which I blogged about previously, then of course I entered a whole new realm of back bending when I started doing advanced. There is no shortage of great postures to back bend and work your back. Recently I was able to do back bending to the floor, which we do in advanced. It’s basically like the back bend from the normal class except your feet and legs are apart and you bend back backwards until you land on your hands on the floor. It’s absolutely terrifying at first but with a little practice it gets easier and you get over your fear. Then you get the benefits, which are your back feeling good and also a massive head rush which makes you feel fantastic. The first time I did the back bend to the floor I was hooked. It’s addicting actually.

So here’s to more and more back bending bliss!

Addicted to Advanced

2010-11-30T09:09:00.000-08:00

488 classes (13 advanced) in 472 days.

Well, I figured this would happen eventually. I’ve been doing advanced class once a week almost every week since August. This is of course in addition to the normal class I take every day. I take advanced on Sundays, as that’s the only class I can make due to my work schedule. This past Sunday unfortunately I wasn’t able to make it. I had a little eye infection which would have made advanced nearly impossible. Anyways, my eye is ok now, but yesterday my body felt awful all day, sluggish, muscles tight, etc. As if that wasn’t bad enough, class last night was pretty terrible by my standards. I was out of it, felt really stiff and had a (relatively) hard time.

As this was happening in class last night I kept thinking, “What is going on?!”, but then I realized the problem – I didn’t take advanced on Sunday. You know how you get to a point where your body is addicted to the normal class? Apparently the same thing has now happened to me with advanced. My body now expects it every Sunday and if it doesn’t happen, you get the results from yesterday. You would think that the “rest” from not doing advanced would be a relief to my body, but it’s quite the opposite. It throws it off, gets me off my rhythm.

I know from talking to many people that everyone is different when it comes to taking a day off or not. Some people really benefit from taking regular days off, whereas I don’t. It’s the main reason for my “streak” of classes, it just doesn’t feel good when I take days off, and now that’s spilled over into advanced! There are certainly far worse things to be addicted to, so I guess I can’t complain too much.

Greg

Funny from Vancouver

2010-11-16T08:31:00.000-08:00

473 classes (12 advanced) in 458 days.

I had to post this. Full credit to Bikram Yoga Vancouver, www.bikramyogavancouver.com.

"We still know, according to Cosmopolitan and Men's Health magazines, that one of the best places to meet your soul mate is where you work out. Single? Then let's review some of the benefits of dating one of your fellow Bikram Yogis:

1. If they can handle a Bikram Yoga class, you know they can handle any adversity. Strong spine, strong character.
2. They can help you locate the nearest healthy hot spots.
3. They are a very cheap date!
4. They perform well with minimal clothing.
5. They know how to work under hard conditions.
6. You only have to clap twice to turn them on.
7. They have excellent flexibility and stamina.
8. They like it really, really, really hot. (They don't mind a little sweat.)
9. They will bend over backwards for you.
10. Just when you think it's over and you're about to light the cigarette (ick! stop that!), s/he says "second set!"

We thought it would only be fair to include both sides of the coin. So you might want to stray elsewhere after reading some of these:

10 Reasons Not to Date a Bikram Yogi!

1. They get aggro if they can't see themselves in the mirror.
2. They do yoga all the time, even on vacation.
3. You will always be second to their water bottle.
4. Every problem you have they will assume can be fixed by yoga.
5. They’ll never lose another game of twister.
6. They like to take themselves to the edge. Homebodies beware.
7. They need to go to bed early.
8. They will always put Bikram's words before yours!
9. Their idea of a romantic dinner is half a Japanese ham sandwich.
10. They constantly mumble beneath their breath "kill yourself!"

Namaste,

Bikram Yoga Vancouver"

Look up Towards the Ceiling

2010-11-11T08:00:00.000-08:00

467 classes (11 advanced) in 453 days.

"Look up towards the ceiling", "Eyes focused on your own eyes in the mirror", "Throat choked, eyes open, breathing normal." Just a few of the times in the dialogue when "look" or "eyes" are mentioned. I never thought much of this, it's just part of the dialogue, right?

I often got annoyed during the spine strengthening series about the dialogue to look up towards the ceiling, there's so much going on, why do I have to worry about my eyes? Well it turns out there's some benefits to all of those instructions about the eyes.

I recently went to the eye doctor for the first time since I started Bikram yoga about a year and a half ago. I was just getting a normal check-up and prescription updated. During the examination the doctor got quite confused at one point and finally told me that my astigmatism improved.
He said that kind of thing just didn't happen. He had to change my prescription to fit the improvement. Of course, I immediately thought of the dialogue and all the times we are told to do things with our eyes. Those little details matter and in this case, produced a very noticeable improvement in my body.

Greg

Yoga as a Competitive Sport

2010-10-28T09:15:00.000-07:00

452 classes (10 advanced) in 439 days.

As many of you may know, it is a goal of Bikram and his wife to get yoga into the Olympics as an official sport at some point down the road. This would of course greatly increase the visibility of Hatha Yoga in general and Bikram Yoga in particular. It would also make it possible to get Bikram Yoga being taught in schools because it would be considered an official sport, which would be absolutely fantastic. There are a few points which I believe would greatly facilitate this and make it happen much sooner.

The first point is there needs to be a clear distinction between Bikram Yoga as a form of exercise/healing/meditation and Bikram Yoga as a competitive sport. This can be quite a difficult task, as practically no one considers yoga as a competitive sport, including many people who practice it. Some people even have large objections to yoga competitions in general. I’m not going to get into those arguments here other than to say that promoting yoga as a sport would introduce more people to yoga than practically anything else.

Making the distinction between the practice of yoga for its many benefits and yoga as a competitive sport really isn’t that difficult. Almost every competitive sport you see is also done by people just for fun, or for health benefits. There are far more people that run or jog for fun and health reasons than run in competitive marathons. The same goes for anything you see in the Olympics, ice skating, skiing, basketball, whatever. Just because some people compete in those sports doesn’t mean the sports don’t have their own intrinsic benefits to anyone who wants to participate.

The second point is that in order to promote yoga as a sport, it needs to be covered in the media as a sport. This is almost entirely non-existent as far as I can tell. I scour the internet often for media on Bikram Yoga and it’s always covered as some sort of human interest or health story. This is fine, except even yoga competitions in different areas get covered as some sort of cute and quirky activity and not as a sport. There is an excellent website called usayoga.org which does provide data on the different regional competitions in the U.S., but the media coverage really needs to be expanded to the sports world.

Look, in addition to the “main” sports in this country, ESPN covers things such as fishing, bowling and poker. I think we can fit in yoga competitions somewhere in the sports media if these other activities get coverage. I’m not suggesting ESPN starts covering regional yoga competitions, at least right away, but local sports media should absolutely be informed when a yoga competition is going on, not to mention maybe some other websites dedicated to competitions (I already have some of my own ideas for this).

One more thing, if any of these media types balk and scoff at the idea of covering the yoga competitions as a sport, just bring them to the hot room for a class:)

Greg

Three Minutes

2010-10-18T09:43:00.000-07:00

442 classes (10 advanced) in 429 days.

Three minutes – that’s how long the routines are for the yoga competition. As discussed earlier, you do seven postures, five compulsory and two optional generally taken from the advanced series. The five compulsory postures are Standing Head to Knee, Standing Bow, Bow, Rabbit and Stretching. You do these seven postures in a routine that has to be three minutes or less. This weekend we had the Nevada Regional Championships and I got to experience the longest three minutes of my life. Not even three minutes actually, I was a little under that. To end the suspense, no I didn’t win. Both the men’s and women’s winners were from Reno, and they were excellent. Second and Third went to people from Vegas, who were also awesome.

But back to the three minutes – I can assure you there is quite a difference doing postures in class in a nice hot room and doing postures outdoors on a stage in front of a bunch of people. We’re one of the only places I know of that holds the competition outdoors. We’re able to do it, because of the climate, but it was “only” about 75-80 degrees when we went on. While I was up there doing my routine, I got to hear traffic going by, a cell phone (turn off your phones!!), some kid screaming, and oh yeah, a big gust of wind while I was in Standing Head to Knee! I held Standing Head to Knee fine, but that wind freaked me out for a second there.

I knew I would be nervous, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought. I was quite calm when I walked on stage which was a nice. The big surprise for me was how I felt when I finished my routine and walked off stage – utterly euphoric. Hard to explain, but it was one of the best feelings of my life. It hit me at that exact point what I had actually accomplished. Countless hours of practice, doing advanced class, practicing my routine, etc. I saw various people waffle about competing and then drop out. Most people won’t even consider competing, but I stuck it out and in the end it was absolutely worth it. My practice is so much better because I trained for competition and I got to train with some absolutely wonderful people who went through the same things as I did. You get to know people pretty well when you spend lots of time in the hot room together!

The picture above is of me practicing my routine at my studio.

Thanks to my studio Green Valley, all my coaches (especially Sheri), all my fellow competitors (special shout out to Melissa who I think came to every single coaching session) and everyone who encouraged me along the way. And yes, I’ll be back next year, already working on my routine…

Greg

Never Too Hot

2010-10-06T09:43:00.000-07:00

432 classes (9 advanced) in 418 days.

These are some actual conversations I’ve had:
Friend: “Was she hot?”
Me: “Not really, 106/35, I was really sore the next day.”
Another one:
Friend: “How was she?”
Me:”Smokin’, 114/45, thought I was going to die!”

I have conversations like this all the time, and they’re not some strange rating system for women, but of course discussions about the yoga room and how hot (or not) it is. This is most obvious talking point when asking how somebody’s class was. Word spreads fast about a particularly cold or hot class, and all of the regulars know who the “hot” and “cold” teachers are. I know many people that specifically take or avoid certain teachers because they are either too hot or too cold for them.

As gone over in previous blog postings, I prefer hotter classes, and I have a very hard time with a few “cold” classes in a row. I have all kinds of muscles that get sore if I don’t get hot classes in. As much as some people think I’m a “heat freak”, there are people that make me look like I’m downright arctic. These other people wear long sleeved shirts, sit next to the humidifiers and set up under heating ducts. They don’t want to have anything to do with cold classes!

It’s interesting to observe the conflicts between the “hot people” and the “cold people”. Our studio owner hears from both sides, and I’m glad I don’t have to deal with the complaints. I want the studio to be hotter, but it’s definitely better than other studios I’ve been to. I don’t hesitate to point out classes I think are too cold. I figure there are a lot more people that complain when things are too hot, so I try to balance it out by pointing out when the room is too cold.

My love for heat spills outside of the yoga room too. At work, I drive the people next to me nuts because I control the A/C and heat (hehe) and I like it much warmer than they do. They’ll come and complain to me that it’s too hot, and I’ll just say, “But it’s only 85 in here!”. They’re not amused.

Greg

Training for Competition

2010-09-27T08:09:00.000-07:00

424 classes (8 advanced) in 411 days.

The Nevada competition is fast approaching, and is now less than three weeks away. For over a month now, I've been training for this, along with the various other competitors. Of course, we've had a few people drop out over the past month, but we still have a decent group of people getting ready to compete.

For those unfamiliar with competition, you have three minutes to do seven postures. Five compulsory postures and two optional ones. The five compulsory postures are Standing Head to Knee, Standing Bow Pulling, Floor Bow, Rabbit and Stretching. The two optional postures are basically taken from the advanced series, and there's lots of choices.

Our training consists of various exercises to improve the postures, walk walking (great band bends), practicing each part of Standing Head to Knee, etc. And of course, practicing the routines, over and over again. It definitely takes some getting used to not doing postures in front of a mirror, since we're not going to be looking in a mirror on stage! Then we have various teachers give critiques of the postures. It's amazing to me how many details there are to every posture. You get some idea of this practicing in class all the time, but training really gives you a deeper understanding of the postures and how they're supposed to look.

And yes, I'm nervous! But it's been a fun experience so far, and my practice has certainly improved a lot, even though I'm very sore of late!

Greg

New Carpet

2010-09-14T08:51:00.000-07:00

410 classes (6 advanced) in 398 days.

Last week, after WAY too long, my studio got some new carpet. This is of course cause for great celebration, as anyone who has practiced there understands. So Friday the studio was closed most of the day, just two early morning classes. I went to West Side to take my class Friday after work.

So Saturday before I even went to class I was warned by one of my friends about the glue smell - and she was right. Definitely had that new carpet glue smell. Luckily I'm not too sensitive to that kind of thing and the smell wasn't too bad throughout class and now it's almost completely gone. However, it was slippery, and it still is. I can just stand there with my legs apart and I'll keep sliding and sliding unless I do some work to prevent it. It's gotten slightly better over the past few days, but it's still tricky. I put one foot on my mat and towel when doing Standing Separate Leg Stretching and Triangle, otherwise I'll slide all over the place!

There's one thing the new carpet doesn't have - lines. Apparently it would take another day or two to put the lines on. This has generated quite some complaints from various students. It's funny because some people REALLY like the lines and I understand why. They are important for alignment in certain postures. If they're painted on they also can help prevent sliding around. However, I've practiced in studios without lines and I don't always use them in class. It's not a big deal to me, but I do like to use them and I understand their importance. What I don't want is for the studio to close down for two more days.

Funny how something like new carpet in the studio is exciting to me...

Greg

Long Shorts

2010-08-30T13:14:00.001-07:00

393 classes (4 advanced) in 383 days.

Last week I had a sad reminder of why it's important to wear the correct yoga gear. When I first started out, I wore various random shorts, basketball shorts, whatever. It didn't take long for me to get some proper yoga attire, which made a big difference in my practice. One of the easiest ways to tell newer students is by what they're wearing. As students become more experienced, they start 1) wearing less clothing and 2) wearing actual yoga gear, rather than various workout clothes.

So last week I forgot to bring yoga shorts to class one day. Luckily, I had another pair of shorts with me, but unfortunately they were long basketball shorts. They came down to almost my knees. Class was a mess. I had forgotten how awful it is to try and practice with something other than yoga shorts. These shorts are heavier and collected more sweat which made things even heavier. I had to pull them up sometimes just to properly get into the postures, like Standing Head to Knee and Triangle.

The funniest part was the teacher noticed the odd attire I was wearing and the hard time I was having as a result. At one point she told me that I need to find my yoga shorts because my "mojo" was in them! How true. I think I'm a lot less likely to forget my yoga gear again!

Greg

My Personal Thermometer

2010-08-19T15:10:00.000-07:00

382 classes (3 advanced) in 372 days.

The subject of the temperature of the room is always a hot topic (sorry for the pun!) of discussion amongst yogis. Some people like it hotter or colder, and it's really a matter of personal preference. I prefer it on the hot side as you know if you've read some of my earlier blog entries. Over time, I've developed various ways of determining if it's hot enough in the room for me. Now my opinion of whether or not it's not enough actually depends on how I feel that day. It's not so much the exact temperature and humidity readings, although that gives an idea. For example, I prefer it to be a little cooler on the weekends but during the week, I like it hotter, sometimes insanely so. So below is a list of things I use as my own personal thermometer:

1) How fast my water melts - I stick my water bottles in the freezer everyday before I go to class. They are usually a nice solid brick of ice when I start class. If it's not hot enough, they don't melt very much. If the heat is good, they melt nicely, but are still very cool when I drink them.

2) My hamstrings. A very important reason I like it hot. My hamstrings are generally a little tight, and a nice hot room loosens them up well. If the temperature is hot enough from the beginning of class, my hamstrings are fully warmed up by the time we get to Standing Head to Knee. If it's too cold, they never get fully warmed up during the class.

3) My lower back. If my lower back is stiff after the first three postures, it's too cold, that simple.

4) Sweat on my feet - On Hands to Feet pose, I obviously can see my feet up close. If there is no or very little sweat on my feet, it's too cold.

5) My towel - A great gauge of the temperature. The hotter it is, the more I sweat and obviously the more my towel is covered in sweat. You can practically weight my towel after class and the heavier it is, the hotter it was in class.

6) My right heel. I broke my right heel about 13 years ago and it never quite healed correctly. When it's cold outside it starts to hurt a bit. A few times, it's been so cold in the yoga room that it starts to hurt. This is a sure sign that it's a bad day in the room! Luckily this is a pretty rare occurance.

7) Steam. Yeah, that's right. A few times I've been in a class that's so hot and humid that I've seen steam, and the mirrors have fogged up a bit.

8) The temperature of the floor. If the room gets hot enough, the floor at my studio will actually get pretty warm. This is fairly rare, but it's happened.

9) The feel. My personal favorite and an obvious one, but it really works. After nearly 400 classes, I can feel the temperature and humidity very accurately. I usually check the temp and humidity when I first walk into the room and after class, and I'm pretty good at guessing the numbers. Sometimes I'm convinced the thermometer in the room is wrong, but that might just be how I feel that day. The teachers generally don't want the students to know the temperature and humidity, but most of them are fine with me checking because they know I'm checking for the exact opposite reason most other students are checking. I want to make sure it's hot enough, not that it's too hot!

I'd love to hear any other ways people gauge the temperature in the room.

Greg

Anniversary!

2010-08-11T08:53:00.000-07:00

373 classes (2 advanced) in 364 days.

Today, August 11 marks the one year anniversary of my first Bikram class. One year ago I walked into the Green Valley studio for the first time, as a total broken down mess. My back was in a lot of pain, I couldn't sit down without pain, I was on pain killers and just a wreck.

I still remember my first class, who taught it and where I was set up in the room. Oddly enough, I set up in one of the hottest parts of the room. There's a part in the back row that's near the humidifier and away from the fans and that's where I ended up! I guess that was a precursor of things to come. I remember the heat and the crazy amount of work the class was, 90 minutes seemed like 90 hours. But I also remembered the energy and the love in the room, and the way my body felt after class. I was hooked instantly.

A year ago, I was worried about getting through the day with my back and knee pain and sleeping comfortably. Now I'm worried about figuring out some of the advanced postures! What a difference a year makes...

First Advanced

2010-08-02T09:07:00.000-07:00

364 classes (1 advanced) in 356 days.

I finally took my first ever Advanced Class yesterday. This is something I've been looking forward to for a long time. Below is a link from Dancing J (another blogger) with an excellent description of what the advanced class consists of. I suggest you check that out in addition to what I'm writing here.

http://keepitlocking.blogspot.com/2010/01/demystifying-bikrams-advanced-series.html

First off, the class is much more laid back than the beginning class. It's not a super disciplined, dialogue-driven class like the beginning class. This DOES NOT mean it's easier by any stretch of the imagination, but in some ways it's more relaxed. However... the pace is much much faster than the beginning class. There's like 84 postures (even more with certain variations) to get through so we move fast. The beginning class seems downright slow compared to advanced. There were definitely times things were moving too fast for me and I didn't really know what was going on! I'm sure this will improve over time.

Yesterday there were about twelve people in class, which is apparently a lot more than normal. Four of us were first timers, so at least I wasn't alone. The good news is the advanced class actually has a number of postures that aren't crazy impossible, so I wasn't totally left out in the cold. The speed and volume of everything is certainly overwhelming, but after class I thought about different postures and I can see how I'll be able to improve them and make progress.

Oh yeah, one little detail I haven't mentioned yet - I was dying in there! I took the beginning class right before, which turned out to be a bad idea for me. I had one of the more experienced students tell me he never takes the beginning class right beforehand. Some people do it, and they're fine, but I won't be doing that next week. I'll take an earlier class. I was SOOOO dehydrated. I had to leave the room at one point for about 15-20 minutes. I wasn't the only one. I'd say at least 7-8 people left the room at various points for a few minutes. One person left and never came back. It's funny, because just like my body had to get used to the beginning class, it's having to do the same thing now with advanced. It's like a shock to the system, but at least I know it's a good shock, and I have enough certainty in the yoga that I know it will turn out alright.

The best part is now I have a huge amount of other postures I can work on learning and improving, and that can keep me busy for quite a long time:)

The Endless Soreness

2010-07-30T08:43:00.000-07:00

360 classes in 353 days.

It never ceases to amaze me how the body can and will continue to open up as you practice this yoga. I reached a bit of a stable point a month or two ago, where I was consistent in my postures and I felt very little soreness during or after class. I was starting to wonder when things were going to change again.

Sure enough, things started to change about a week ago. I've been spending more time after class working with teachers on postures in preparation for competing in October, and I can definitely feel it. The most noticeable thing is my right knee and other parts of my right leg. It's sore, very sore, but not painful. I've been through this enough times to know it's just more stuff opening up, not an injury or anything like that. But it's amazing how DEEP you can go in your body. It's like a bottomless pit!

One more thing, I'm doing my first advanced class on Sunday. I'm excited and scared, hope I'm alive to write a blog post about it:)

Greg

Posture Discussion Part VI - Standing Bow

2010-07-22T09:14:00.000-07:00

352 classes in 345 days.

The next in my series of discussions on postures:

Standing Bow Pulling:

This is without question the most maddening of the postures for me. My trouble with this posture has to do with alignment, getting two shoulders in one line, etc. I have gotten much better over the months at kicking back and straightening my leg out more, and I can balance much better than before, but I still have plenty of work to do on the alignment. I'm not too worried though, as I'll be getting plenty of individual attention on this as I prepare for competition.

At this point in the class, the heart rate really starts going. It's one of my favorite things about the posture. Even Standing Head to Knee doesn't really get my heart rate moving, but this one does. It's also at this point in the class when you start to see people really struggle. Class has been going on for about 30-35 minutes, and you can start to really feel the effects of the heat and humidity. The real challenge is to keep getting back into the posture after you've fallen out (and you will fall out). Sometimes people just don't get back in, and end up standing on their mat.

What I've found is that getting back in over and over speeds up the heart rate, and is actually very important for giving you energy for the rest of the standing series. Sitting out makes it that much harder when you get into Balancing Stick next, and especially for Triangle, which is coming up shortly.

As a side note, I happen to think this is the most beautiful of all 26 beginning postures if it's done right. For me, that's still a big "if" at this point:)

Greg

You Never Know

2010-07-19T09:05:00.000-07:00

349 classes in 342 days.

You never know who's practicing in the room with you. Everyone has their story, and once again I was surprised by someone I see all the time. There's a woman who I've seen a lot in the room. Not every day, because she practices at different times, but I've seen her a lot.

So I was talking to her last week and I found out she's done 115 classes in a row! She's doing a 120 day challenge on her own just because she felt like it. This is someone I can relate to:) I love finding other people that are "crazy" like me (and many others who read this blog)!

Maybe I'll find some more hidden 100 day challenge people out there...

Greg

And So the Adventure Begins

2010-07-14T10:40:00.000-07:00

344 classes in 337 days.

A few months ago I discussed competing next time it came around and well... the date has been announced. October 16th!! The Nevada Regional Asana Competition will be at my home studio, Green Valley. Nice home court advantage, huh? So far there are about 8 or 9 people from my studio alone that have signed up, and I already know some people from other studios in town that will compete. Not to mention we'll have some people from Reno show up too.

I've looked forward to this even since I saw my first competition last October. I'm also looking forward to starting advanced class in the next few weeks, and all of the coaching and extra work I'll get to do with my postures. Not that's totally a new thing, as I work extra all the time, but it's always nice to have a goal to work towards.

I'm nervous, excited, worried, etc as you might imagine, but I'm sure I'm going to have a lot of fun along the way...

Greg

Traveling

2010-07-06T08:04:00.000-07:00

336 classes in 329 days.

This past weekend I went to Southern California to see some friends over the Fourth of July weekend and I took the opportunity to check out two other studios in the area, Ventura and Santa Barbara.

Ventura:

I went to Ventura studio on Saturday morning. It's definitely smaller than the studios in Vegas. The room only holds about 25 people and it was packed. The teacher was good, not great and the room was a little cold, but not too bad. What stood out to me the most was the students had pretty good discipline, not doing weird things, walking out, etc. I think that's a good reflection of the teacher.

Santa Barbara:

Sunday morning I took class in Santa Barbara with Julianna (Dancing J)! The room was packed and it was HOT! Definitely hotter than Ventura and comparable to my classes in Vegas. Julianna was fantastic, with great dialog (as you'd expect) and great energy. The students were overall pretty good and there was good energy in the room. It was definitely a lot of fun to take a class from her. The room itself took some getting used to, as there are no windows in there and the lighting isn't very good, but I think one of the lights was burned out. But it was definitely a good class.

Back in Vegas now, but it was certainly a good experience checking out these other studios!

Greg

Some Helpful Advice

2010-06-28T12:20:00.001-07:00

328 classes in 321 days.

A few months ago I was talking with one of my teachers (Sheri) and told her I was getting tired or wiped out on the floor series. I work pretty hard during the standing series, but then I was losing energy fast as the floor series went along.

She gave me a few pieces of advice on the floor series which I've followed ever since and which generally helps out. I'm not perfect of course, but it's a lot better. Here are the two pieces of advice she gave me:

1) Do the sit ups well. Yes, you have to exert energy to do them, but they end up giving you more energy to go into the next postures. I didn't really believe her at first, but after trying it, it does make a big difference. My sit ups don't look good at all, but I try hard and it pays off when going to the next posture.

2) TAKE YOUR FULL SAVASANAS. I put this in caps for a reason. It gets hammered home by our teachers, but the savasanas really are where the benefits happen and they re-charge you for the next postures. It's very common to see people grab some water after the posture just before savasana, or take a few extra seconds getting in to it. I used to do the same thing, and it just makes things worse. You need every second you can get. And here's the other thing - you're supposed to get 20 seconds for each savasana, but it doesn't always happen. Try counting the seconds sometime - you'll see what I mean.

Since I started following this advice, things have gone much smoother, and I'm often stronger at the end of class than the beginning, which is how it's supposed to be:)

Greg

Family Obligations

2010-06-22T09:09:00.000-07:00

322 classes in 315 days.

If you notice from the numbers above, I missed a few days. My grandpa died last week so I flew to Cleveland for a few days. No Bikram studios there (or anywhere in Ohio!), so I missed Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Yesterday I returned back to Vegas, and class. My plane landed at 3 PM and I took the 5 PM at Green Valley. You can tell I was in a hurry to get back! The conditions leading up to yesterday's class were the worst ever for me. I missed three days, I got four hours of sleep the night before, I had alcohol and bad food for three days, practically no electrolytes, not enough water, I was sitting on airplanes for most of the day, switched three time zones, etc.

So the class was as rough as you might think under these conditions. Happily, I didn't lose much flexibility over those days I missed, and the postures were actually fine. What did hit me was detoxing the junk and just being tired. I was exhausted after class and went home and slept for 9 hours last night!

My overall goal is still easily on track, as I've still done 7 more classes than days since I started. But I did 174 consecutive days of Bikram classes. I'm very proud of that particular streak, and it will be hard for me to top that.

Greg

Posture Discussion Part V - Standing Head to Knee

2010-06-14T09:04:00.001-07:00

317 classes in 307 days.

Standing Head to Knee:
Without question one of my favorite postures and one that I look forward to every class. Even if the class has started rough or whatever, I always look forward to this posture.

Let's be real - this posture is hard. However, it's super beneficial and very satisfying as you make progress. When I started the yoga, I couldn't come close to doing this posture. I was able to bend down and grab my foot, but that was it. Just standing on one leg holding my foot for 30 or 60 seconds was quite difficult!

Over time, I was slowly able to go further in the posture, but it literally took months before I could kick out straight with both legs. More recently, I've been slowly getting better at getting the elbows down and the head down. I can consistently get my head down on the left leg, but not the right leg yet.

I've had more discussions and corrections on this posture than any other. Some of the important points covered are distributing the weight equally on the standing leg (and foot), kicking the heel forward (on the kicked out leg), various points on the grip, etc.

My favorite benefit from this posture is the determination and persistence I've gained more than any physical benefit. It takes A LOT of concentration to do this one and it carries over into the rest of the postures and life!

Greg

Inspiration - and Being Lazy

2010-06-07T10:11:00.000-07:00

310 classes in 300 days.

Sunday I took Lynn Whitlow's class over at West Side. I've taken one of Lynn's classes before and I blogged about that a few months ago. She's fantastic, a senior teacher, one of the judges for the international competition, etc. I talked to her after class and she told me I had a great Toe Stand (she was quite excited about this), and she gave some good advice on my Standing Head to Knee.

What I took out of the class the most was the effect a great teacher AND a great class of students has on my practice. The class I took was a Sunday at 1 PM. For one thing, this was an odd time, as I usually take 11 AM on the weekends, plus it's a weekend class, which generally is a bit rougher than week day classes. However... this class was fantastic, with great energy all throughout the room. Lots of teachers and experienced students taking the class and all of that energy absolutely rubs off on me.

This made me think about my "usual" weekend classes, which are often less than inspired. Maybe I'm just being too complacent and lazy on the weekends normally. Or perhaps I just need to go to some classes with more energy in the room!

Greg

Healing Injuries in Minutes

2010-06-01T07:58:00.001-07:00

304 classes in 294 days.

Last night I went over to West Side because Michelle was teaching. She was one of my favorites over at Green Valley when she used to be there. I hadn't taken a class from her in months, so it was nice to have her again.

The room was a little cold at the start and I tweaked a muscle in my back during the first part of awkward. I went down really fast and could feel it immediately. I was worried, as this happens sometimes when the room is too cold for me.

However, a funny thing happened as the rest of the class went on. The room gradually warmed up and was quite fine by the end and I concentrated and healing my back as we went along. I attacked the postures and specifically attacked the spine strengthening series. Yeah, it hurt, but I knew I was doing the right thing. Sure enough, my back started to feel better quickly. After class it was still a little sore, and this morning it's a bit sore, but that all - just sore. Compared to how it felt when I first pulled the muscle, it's great. And I know it's better because of how I handled it during class. Maybe the lesson here (besides making sure the room is hot enough) is to get injured early in class so you still have time to fix it! Well, maybe not, but it's fun how fast you can fix something like this.

Greg

Flying Blind

2010-05-24T08:02:00.001-07:00

296 classes in 286 days.

Over the past week I had some crazy problems with eyes. The simple explanation is a kind of hyper-alergic reaction to all of the wind, pollen, etc going on in Las Vegas recently. So on Saturday I went to my eye doctor and got some antibiotic eye drops to put in, which has definitely helped. But...no contact lens for a few days. This makes practicing a whole different game.

Practicing with my glasses just isn't an option, they would just slide off my face continually. So on Sunday I practiced with no contacts and no glasses. It ended up being much easier than I thought. Like water, eyesight is just another attachment we have in the room. Sure, I prefer to see what's going on, just like I prefer to drink water, but I can practice without it. When you can't see, you have to pay a lot more attention to your body and feel what's going on, rather than look. It gives you a different and interesting awareness to what you are doing.

Just like doing class without water, I don't prefer to be able to see during class, but at least I know I don't HAVE to see.

Greg

Differences

2010-05-20T07:57:00.000-07:00

292 classes in 282 days.

Last night I visited West Side studio again. This time it was because I was a little late at work, and it easier for me to go over there and take the 6 PM rather than wait around for the 7 PM at Green Valley.

Michelle (bikramyogachick) was there and one of her favorite teachers was there, Frank. It's always fun to take class from a new teacher, as I love seeing the different styles people teach with. This class was particularly interesting because there were like 10-12 new people in the class, most of them some teenagers from some local modeling agency. There was a surprising lack of yoga drama from these new people, which I found impressive.

It was also an interesting contrast between this studio and my regular studio, Green Valley. From what I've seen, West Side is great for new people and newer people. Frank was especially good with the new people, good energy, very encouraging, etc. On the other hand, Green Valley has A LOT of experienced students and teachers and I get pushed hard practically every class. This is not to say one studio is "better" than the other, just different. It's a balance that any teacher or studio has to deal with, between bringing in new people and getting them to want to continue versus catering to the more experienced students. I'm just glad I have a nice variety in Las Vegas!

Greg

A Thousand Suns

2010-05-16T21:18:00.000-07:00

289 classes in 279 days.

Friday I went to West Side to take class because Marie was teaching. Marie is spectacular, but unfortunately isn't teaching at my studio Green Valley at the moment. I still see her now and then, but I hadn't had her class in a few months and I really missed it. Plus Michelle (bikramyogachick) was there, so that made things even better. As a note, she gave blood earlier in the day and still had a great class! I think I would have fainted in that situation.

It would be impossible for me to accurately describe how special this class was. We often talk about energy in the room, and this class made me realize that it really doesn't matter how many people are there, but rather who those people are and how in tune you are with them. Marie and I feed off each other's energy in a special way, whether she's teaching or we're taking class together. If she's in the same room as me, I have a better class. This is not to say that I depend on her or anyone else for that matter, but having that extra horsepower in the room tuned into you certainly helps.

So on Friday you can imagine how good the class was. Marie literally made corrections on every posture and made me work harder than ever before. But you know what? It was almost effortless. Oh, I worked hard, believe me, but I was out of my head the whole time. It was as if I was turbocharged for that class, and Marie was the battery. You could practically see the energy, measure it, touch it, and you could certainly feel it. It was, well, magical:)

Greg

Posture Discussion Part IV - Eagle Pose

2010-05-12T09:00:00.001-07:00

284 classes in 274 days.

Eagle Pose:
This is one of my favorite postures. It's the last of the "warm-up" postures before the first and only official water break and it great for working the various joints in the body. I noticed benefits quickly from this posture shortly after starting Bikram yoga. It quickly opened up my shoulders, which are fairly tight on most people, particularly guys.

Of course, the most noticeable thing to me about this posture is if you can get the leg wrapped around. This is an obvious measure of the depth of the posture, but it's not the only one. I can get my right leg around fine, and I'm almost there on the left leg. I actually can get the left leg around, but I have to sacrifice some other important things, so I currently balance things out.

The point I get corrected on the most (not very often anymore) is to stick my butt out like awkward and then lean back so I'm relatively straight. Leaning back creates a great lower back bend. This posture has a lot to it, and it's quite difficult if you do all of the parts well, arms pulled down, butt sticking out, legs wrapped around, leaning back, sitting down, etc.

I've used this posture (or part of it) as a simple demonstration to people of what Bikram yoga consists of. I showed one friend of mine just the beginning parts with the arms and his eyed practically bugged out of his head. He couldn't come close to doing it. He works out regularly too, and was quite impressed.

Next up...Standing Head to Knee

Greg

The Point of Resistance

2010-05-10T08:11:00.000-07:00

282 classes in 272 days.

I've always thought the best way to judge your practice is when you face the most adversity. When you have a great class, of course your going to be happy with your postures and your progress. But if you really want to see how far you've come, you'll know when you have one of those classes when you feel terrible and don't even want to be there.

Sunday fit that description. As soon as we started Half-Moon, I thought "Oh no." I had NO energy and it was honestly hard to remain upright during the standing series. Luckily I wasn't nauseous or anything like that, but trust me, I wasn't looking forward to being in that room for 90 minutes, or even 9 minutes.

Somehow, I did fine, and even had some very good looking postures and went deeper than usual during some of them. Afterwards, I told the teacher how "dead" I felt and she was surprised, and said I looked great. That's a pretty nice complement considering how I felt. If I have a decent looking class when I feel awful, I can have a good one anytime!

Greg

Posture Discussion Part III - Awkward Pose

2010-05-05T08:13:00.000-07:00

278 classes in 268 days.

Awkward Pose:
Part I:
I look forward to this one, as I get to something other than put my arms over my head in Half-Moon! Usually I can go right into this posture smoothly, although sometimes I'm a little stiff. The interesting thing about this posture is if you do it correctly, it's as much of a backbend as anything else. The obvious part about it is working the legs and the arms, but I can get a nice stretch for the lower back on it. The most common correction I get on this posture is to "fall back" more, with teachers sometimes wildly waving their arms at me to make their point!

Part II:
I'm convinced the full expression of this posture is to levitate. No matter how high up on my toes I get, I get asked to go higher up and get my knees up! I can keep the posture pretty steady without wobbly knees.

Part III:
This is the one posture I can consistently get praise from my teachers on. I'm almost always the last person to come out of the posture and I can take a LONG time coming up, much longer than the ten count the teachers use. I had strong legs before I started Bikram yoga, due to years of basketball and running. The posture was still very hard when I started, but the leg strength helps a lot. But it's only been over the past few months that I could really take a long time coming up out of the posture. It's not something I could do from the beginning.

Next up...Eagle.

Greg

It Was Bound to Happen Eventually...

2010-05-02T19:57:00.000-07:00

275 classes in 265 days.

I'll get back to the posture discussions soon, but I had to share my, uh, milestone event Saturday. I guess after 275 classes something like this had to happen. After my 11 AM class on Saturday, I got a little sick. Ok, A LOT sick. I'll spare you the details but you can figure it out. I am proud of the fact that I remained in the room the whole time, and managed to keep things under control until after class. The standing serious went well, but the floor series was ugly, and I was getting more and more nauseous and things came to a boil right after class ended.

I didn't have breakfast before class, which is unusual, plus I drank a lot of water. The room was ridiculously hot. I won't give you the specifics, but trust me, it was hot even by Green Valley standards. I think I actually OD'd on water. I didn't think that was possible, but lesson learned.

Amazingly, I returned to class this morning, because you know, I'm crazy like that. It was the first time in a long time that I've actually been scared and nervous going to class. I was smart and ate breakfast and I didn't go crazy on the water in class. I managed to get through fine, with minimal trouble. I'll be good tomorrow, going back to my normal week day routine, but I learned my lesson about eating breakfast and not going too crazy with the water!

Greg

Posture Discussion Part II - Half-Moon

2010-04-30T08:39:00.000-07:00

272 classes in 262 days.

Half-Moon:
The first of the "warm-up" postures, and it's quite a warm-up. I've come in to class many times feeling stiff, and just doing half-moon usually takes care of it. The posture is divided into three main parts:

1)Half-Moon:
This wakes up the spine and sort of informs the body, "Ok, we're going to move the spine around now." It took me a while to get the grip right, and be able to interlock my fingers and get the palms together, but once I did, I really started to feel the benefits from the posture. Keeping my weight on my heels is generally the biggest challenge for me, and it's HARD to do that for 60 seconds.

There is a point about this posture which I always find interesting. Many people that are quite flexible and can go very deep into other postures, can't go very deep in half-moon. And the reverse is true, where I've seen people go nearly horizontal in half-moon, but not have tremendous depth in some other postures.

2)Back Bend:
This usually produces the first groans from students in the class. It's very valuable near the beginning of class, but I also like to practice it after class sometimes, once I'm more warmed up. When I started, I could barely do anything, and now I can at least look at the back wall, and I definitely can feel the stretch in the back. One of the harder parts of this posture is actually keeping my knees locked and feet solidly on the ground. I've managed to fall out of the posture backwards a few times because I couldn't keep my feel on the ground.

3)Hands to Feet:
A wonderful complement to the back bend you've just done. I've come close to locking my knees on this posture recently. I'm still not exactly close to getting my head on my feet, but I can get it on the shins. An important part of the posture is coming out correctly, with arms and head together. I see a lot of people brush this off, but I've noticed it helps the spine a lot if you keep the contact with the arms and head.

After two sets of the above, my spine is ready to go for the rest of class, no matter how stiff I was walking into the room. It also does a lot to warm up the body and get the sweat happening.

Next up...Awkward Pose.

Posture Discussion Part I - Pranayama Breathing

2010-04-27T10:33:00.001-07:00

269 classes in 259 days.

Today I'm starting a multi-part series of blogs about the different postures. These cover my experience and opinions on the postures, rather than just a clinical technique and benefit discussion of the postures. If you want that data, check with one of your teachers. I'll discuss my personal benefits and thoughts. Hopefully, people find this interesting and/or helpful!

Pranayama Breathing:
Teachers all the time will tell us that this sets the tone for the entire class, and it's true. It's easy to get complacent on this, but when I concentrate on it, it really does help me the rest of class.

One of the first and immediate benefits I gained from Bikram Yoga were improvements in my breathing. This is not something I really thought about before. After all, breathing automatically happens in the body. How much could there be to learn about it? But honestly, I was breathing incorrectly my whole life, and so do most people. There's no good reason I know of to breathe in and out of the mouth, but I used to do that all the time, particularly while exercising. Now I have excellent control over my breath in and out of class. In class, I generally have a very steady and even pace of breath throughout the entire class, regardless of the postures I'm in, and I can't even hear myself breathe. Nor do I do dramatic exhales while coming out of postures, something my teachers refer to as, "yogasims." If you're breathing correctly, this never happens.

All of the above are made possible by Pranayama Breathing, that's why it's the very first thing we do each class. As far as improvements I've made, my lung capacity is MUCH higher than before and I can get my elbows up pretty high now. A few times my teachers have pointed out I looked bored doing it, and they're right. I know how important it is, but I do get bored! That's the thing I'm working on improving the most right now.

Next up... Half-Moon.

Appreciate the Heat

2010-04-23T08:10:00.000-07:00

265 classes in 255 days.

The past few days the heat has been messed up in my studio. This has happened before, but not this bad. It was actually around 80 (!!!) degrees at the beginning of class last night. Also, there was a guy trying to fix it, so at one point, COLD air was blowing out of the vents! Things did start to get better as the class went on, and apparently, the heat was mostly fixed by the end of class. At least warm air was blowing out.

When teachers tell you that the heat is your friend, they're not kidding. Although I have to say that practicing in cold temperatures is a good a way to judge your practice. If you can still do Ok in non-optimum conditions, it's a good sign. But that doesn't mean I want to practice that way everyday...

Greg

Teacher Balance

2010-04-21T08:53:00.000-07:00

263 classes in 253 days.

Been away from the blog for a few days, but not away from my studio. Teacher training started here in Vegas a few days ago, which is very exciting. It was here this past fall as well. I'm sure I'll make it over to the big tent at the Hilton a few times to take class with everyone.

The start of teacher training, along with other recent events, made me think of some other points about teachers which I haven't mentioned. I have discussed qualities I like about teachers earlier, but there are a few other points I wanted to mention.

I've noticed more and more the variety of teaching styles that exist. There are teachers more suited for "hard core" students, that give very good critiques, know their postures backwards and forwards, and are ruthless. Then there are teachers that are a little calmer and/or very good with new students. You have teachers with different backgrounds as far as their own health and bodies and practice.

The best teachers can balance these different qualities and deal with veterans as well as new students well. And a good studio will have a nice variety of different types of teachers. My studio is a bit lacking in this currently. Many of the teachers that were great with new students have moved on to other studios or whatever. This doesn't matter for me so much, but it's definitely a different atmosphere now.

Sure, what we do is hard and tough and precision is vital, but ultimately it should be enjoyable! The teachers are a vital element to that.

Greg

Crazy Food

2010-04-15T13:41:00.000-07:00

257 classes in 247 days.

Check out this very funny article about foods NOT to eat before doing a Bikram class. Other than the Indian food (#4) I wouldn't eat any of this stuff EVER, let alone right before a class!

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/eating/2010/03/5_worst_foods_to_eat_right_bef.php

My Studio Owner!

2010-04-12T12:40:00.000-07:00

Check out the below link. It's a blog from a fellow yogi and this entry talks about our studio owner!

http://lasvegaswriter.wordpress.com/2010/04/12/a-woman-before-dawn/

Greg

The End is the Beginning

2010-04-11T19:35:00.000-07:00

254 classes in 244 days.
107 classes in 101 days in the 101 challenge.

I finished! Congratulations to everyone else who completed as well! I did it the old fashioned way too, doing a class (and sometimes two) every day for 101 days in a row. In fact, it's even longer if you go back before January 1st. The last day I didn't go to class was Christmas Day. In case you're wondering, I'm celebrating by going to class tomorrow. There is a day off in my future, but probably not until May.

It's really hard to pinpoint big changes during the 101 challenge because as regular readers of my blog know, I've been doing this pretty much everyday since I started last August. Yes, obviously I've made improvements in my postures and I've had nice internal and external changes, but it just makes me realize how much more there is to gain. 101 days isn't really very long when you look at it in the context of entire lifetime. Think how many years I spent messing up my body! It's not going to be reversed in a mere 101 days.

Interestingly enough, the last three days were very rough classes for me, but somehow that seems appropriate at the end of the challenge:) A good reminder that the end of this challenge isn't really an end, it's just a marker on the larger journey ahead...

Greg

The 162 Day Challenge

2010-04-08T20:06:00.000-07:00

251 classes in 241 days.
104 classes in 98 days in the 101 challenge.

A new challenge has begun, just a few days ago. It's a special challenge that happens once a year, starts in the Spring and ends in the fall. It involves the following:

- 162 days of dedication, day in and day out.

- Lots of time spent in a really hot environment.

- Intense focus each and every day.

- Perfection is the goal, but rarely attained.

- More mental toughness than physical toughness is required to make it through.

- Attention to detail is a must for success.

- You don't have to be super athletic to be successful, but you have to care and focus to get real benefits from it.

- There are definite rules of etiquette which should be followed to make everyone happy.

Oh, did you think I was talking about another Bikram Yoga challenge? Nah, I'm talking about baseball. The season started a few days ago, and Opening Day happened to coincide with my 101st class in the 101 challenge. Baseball is actually very similar to Bikram Yoga for all of the reasons listed above. Anyone who thinks baseball is easy mentally or physically has never tried it much. Playing the game for three hours every day may look easy, but it takes a lot of mental and physical strength to do it, just like Bikram Yoga.

Greg

Eyebrows

2010-04-07T08:00:00.001-07:00

249 classes in 239 days.
102 classes in 96 days.

I received my strangest correction ever yesterday. During the third part of awkward pose, I was coming up, when the teacher told me to... lower my eyebrow! I'm not even sure which one she was referring to, since I just started laughing. So did the rest of the class! I guess she was right, I have no idea. I apparently corrected it and didn't do it second set, but this is the funniest and most unusual correction I've ever received.

Greg

Completion?

2010-04-05T08:36:00.001-07:00

247 classes in 237 days.
100 classes in 94 days in the 101 challenge.

You can see from the numbers above that I'm at 100. So tonight will be 101 for me. The real question is will I be done with the 101 challenge after tonight? I know this is a contentious point amongst various people. Is a 30 day challenge 30 classes in a row, or just 30 classes in 30 days? At my studio, it's just 30 classes in 30 days.

Regardless, I'll be there Tuesday for 102, but I'm curious if people think getting to 101 in 95 days completes the challenge or not...

Greg

Another Challenge?!

2010-04-01T07:58:00.000-07:00

243 classes in 233 days.
96 classes in 90 days in the 101 challenge.

I'm five classes away from hitting 101 and 11 days away from doing 101 classes in consecutive days in the challenge (which is what I wanted to do). So I'm thinking that I would take a day off somewhere after the 101 days, but then... My studio is starting a 30 day challenge today (April 1). It's not like I can turn this down! Plus I worked out with the studio owner to get a t-shirt when I finish! I can't pass up a free t-shirt, I've been asking for one for the last few challenges!

So it looks like I'll be continuing a little longer after the 101 is up. Not like I was going to stop anyways, but no day off until at least May!

Greg

Allergies!

2010-03-30T09:06:00.000-07:00

241 classes in 231 days.
94 classes in 88 days in the 101 challenge.

Well I had another topic I wanted to cover, but I was again derailed by some physical problems. It's been extremely windy in Vegas the past few weeks, which is normal for Spring, and it's kind of causing some problems for me. Congestion, coughing and recently my eyes have been extremely irritated. This makes some of the postures in class even crazier. You know, "Eyes open, throat choked, breathing normal." Pretty tricky when you're eyes and nose are already messed up!

Plus last night's class was an insane level of humidity that made me feel like I was in Alabama in August. And... I have someone that wants me to do a double on Wednesday. Oh boy...

Greg

The Perfect Answer

2010-03-26T07:57:00.000-07:00

237 classes in 227 days.
90 classes in 84 days in the 101 challenge.

A few days ago in class there was a woman who was having some knee issues. She had a lot of knee pain recently and was talking to the teacher about this before class. During the class, the teacher would ask her a few times how her knee felt during some postures and the girl would answer.

When we got to Standing Separate Leg Head To Knee Pose, the teacher again asked her how her knee was doing, to which she replied, "I don't know! I can't think!" The teacher then said, "Good answer." I laughed. It wasn't a good answer, it was the perfect answer. It means she's doing the class correctly, and the teacher's doing a great job. If you're too preoccupied with the postures to worry about physical difficulties, that's a good thing, and it's a credit to both the student and teacher.

Greg

Guest Posting on the 101 blog

2010-03-24T08:04:00.001-07:00

235 classes in 225 days.
88 classes in 82 days in the 101 challenge.

I did a guest post today on the 101 challenge blog, so go over there and check it out! Still getting over my illness. It's been about a week since I've been able to breathe properly in class, which is very annoying, but it's slowly getting better.

Greg

In With the New

2010-03-22T12:28:00.000-07:00

233 classes in 223 days.
86 classes in 80 days in the 101 challenge.

Ok, so this is the post I wanted to write last week, but was derailed because I was sick.

Last week, we had a wonderful new studio open up in Las Vegas, it's called West Side. So we're now back to three studios in the city. A number of the teachers from Green Valley are over there, so I was asked to come by during the first week. They had a great promotion going where all classes were free during the first week, so I went to two classes, one on Sunday (the opening day of the studio) and Tuesday. Both of them taught by Marie, one of my favorites.

After the Sunday class, I said to Marie, "It's definitely not like Green Valley. We've been really well trained over there." Like most studios I imagine, Green Valley has a nice core of regulars. They're not all crazy like me and come everyday (but there are others like me), but it's a solid group of people that practice regularly. It's not so much that we practice a lot, but anyone who practices at my studio regularly has a very key trait - discipline.

At the new studio, there were more people leaving the room and coming back than I can remember. Not to mention the water discipline and talking that was going on. I can go a few WEEKS at Green Valley without seeing anyone leave the room, even brand new people. At one point in my class Tuesday, the entire room was sitting out a posture except for the three people in the front row (including myself). And yes, all three of us in the front were Green Valley students. In case you're wondering, not all of these students at the new studio were brand new. A lot of them were from the previous studio in town which no longer exists as a Bikram Yoga studio.

I realized a few things from this experience. One, it definitely takes hard work and persistence from the teachers to instill the necessary discipline in students to get the full benefit from the practice. These various "rules" are just there to help us get the best out of our practice. They're not arbitrary or meant to punish anyone. Second, it makes me care even more about my own discipline in class, because it became really obvious to me how much harder it can be to practice in a room where people are talking, wandering around, etc. So by having a good practice myself, it makes things easier for everyone else around me. In fact, I've even been asked to come over there sometimes just because I set a good example for others.

The teachers at the new studio are great, so I'm sure they'll slowly but surely turn these students into people with a great practice, and it should be a lot of fun along the way.

Greg

Rebuilding

2010-03-19T08:00:00.000-07:00

230 classes in 220 days.
83 classes in 77 days in the 101 challenge.

After a few very tough days, my illness seems to be going away. Of course, I kept going to class throughout, which definitely helped. It's funny, but because I practice everyday, I just feel that any physical situation that comes up, whether it's soreness or a cold, is brought about by my practice. Most importantly, not only are these things brought about by my practice, the yoga handles it all too. It's like peeling the layers of an onion, or as I described in an earlier blog, like digging in the dirt. As you dig, you hit some rocks, but you're still making progress.

This is a benefit of practicing everyday. I know my body is constantly changing, and if bad things come up, it doesn't take too long for it to go away. It's all part of the process of re-building the body.

Greg

Sick Again

2010-03-17T12:55:00.001-07:00

228 classes in 218 days.
81 classes in 75 days in the 101 challenge.

Well I was going to write something more interesting today, but that's been derailed by getting sick again. Yesterday I left work early and took the 4 PM at our new studio in town (West Side). I just work up a few hours ago today and I'll go slog through the 5 PM at Green Valley tonight. Getting sick again is annoying, but I think there's some deeper detox going on, which is ultimately a good thing. Hopefully I feel better tomorrow...

Greg

A Fun Yoga Weekend

2010-03-15T09:10:00.000-07:00

226 classes in 216 days
79 classes in 73 days in the 101 challenge.

Had a whole lot of yoga over the weekend, starting on Thursday. I did a back to back double on Thursday night and then another back to back double on Friday night. This is my first time I've done back to back doubles on consecutive days. I was quite dead after the second double on Friday night. I slept for about 9 hours after that, which is rare for me. Amazingly, the Saturday morning class the next day went well, and so did the Sunday morning class. I thought I would be wiped out, but I was pleasantly surprised. So to re-cap, the following were the first time for me:

Doubles on two two consecutive days.
Back to back doubles on a Friday.
3 classes in 24 hours (Friday 5 PM, 7 PM and Saturday 11 AM).
5 classes in less than 48 hours.

Then on Saturday night Green Valley had a party. There was no special occasion, we just like having parties. It's always fun to see your fellow yogis wearing actual clothing. It was a lot of fun.

On Sunday morning, after much pleading by one of my favorite teachers (Marie), I went to her class at the new West Side studio. They opened up yesterday, and were formerly the Red Rock studio. They have new owners now and the classes the first week are free! So I went to the 11 AM class. It's great. You have a nice view of the mountains outside when you do backbends! This studio has "taken" a few of my favorite teachers from Green Valley, so I'm sure I'll be visiting when I can, but I'm always for more and more studios, so it's definitely a good thing!

Greg

My Nemesis

2010-03-11T07:59:00.000-08:00

220 classes in 212 days.
73 classes in 69 days in the 101 challenge.

Everyone has postures they feel good about and even look forward to in class, and then there are those postures you dread. Of course, those are the postures our teachers tell us are the most important for us to do, because our body needs them the most. For me, those postures are the spine strengthening series. You know, those four postures where you lay on your stomach and lift up in various positions against gravity? I laugh when our teachers tell us near the end of the standing series, "We're almost on the floor!" All this means to me is "We're almost on to the postures you hate!"

From previous blogs, I mentioned that back pain is THE reason I started doing Bikram Yoga. Now, it's handled those problems well so far, and I definitely don't have pain any longer. However, my back is far from perfect. It's still sore and if I do certain things it hurts. So I obviously need the spine strengthening series!

I've gotten with some teachers recently about these postures as they were becoming increasingly frustrating. Without going into lots of detail, I did come to some sort of happy medium on what to do, so I can get some depth and still hold the posture and get benefits. For example, I can actually get fairly high up on Cobra, but I can't hold it for very long. So we worked out getting high enough to feel it and to a point where I can hold it the whole time, while also being able to push up a little bit to increase the depth. This might sound complicated, but it's simple once I figured out what to do. As a result, these four postures are now going much better. They're still tough for me, but I can feel it working the different areas of the back the whole time now.

For the next few days, I'm trying to do doubles on Thursday and Friday. We'll see if this really happens...

Greg

Weekend Reversal

2010-03-08T08:21:00.000-08:00

217 classes in 209 days.
70 classes in 66 days in the 101 challenge.

I've discussed my weekend class problems in the past, as the Saturday and Sunday classes have always been a little rougher for me. They were downright awful when I did afternoons. I've been doing 11 AM's pretty consistently on the weekends for the past few months. It's definitely better, but still not as good as my weekday night classes.

There is one odd benefit, which showed up well this weekend. For my "normal" classes, I'm either about the same or more tired on the floor series compared to the standing series. However, on the weekends, the opposite seems to happen. I feel somewhat close to death during the standing series, and then much better on the floor series. The postures don't look magically better or anything, but I feel good. For those weekend morning classes, there are three factors I run into. One, my muscles are tighter, but then get warmed up nicely by the floor series. Two, for whatever reason, I have a harder time with the heat early on. I get used to it fast, but during the week, I'm fine with the heat right from the beginning. Three, I'm more dehydrated early on. The water I drink before class and during standing series starts to kick in around the floor series.

I'm still trying to figure out how to make these weekend classes smooth right from the beginning, but those classes make it very real to me why we're told the standing series is the warm-up for the "real yoga" in the floor series.

Greg

Four Hours

2010-03-05T08:04:00.001-08:00

214 classes in 206 days.
67 classes in 63 days in the 101 challenge.

Another day, another double. Like most of my doubles, this was mostly unplanned. In fact, five minutes before the 7 PM I still hadn't fully decided to do it, but then I went for it. Jennifer was teaching the 7, so that greatly increases the chances of me doing a double:)

When I do these back to back doubles I end up spending about four straight hours in the studio. Four hours with no contact with the "outside world", and I never check my cell phone between classes. I just disappear from society for that time, and I love it. It's the ultimate escape. Just me and my postures and my breath. How many people get to experience four hours (or even 90 minutes) of peace in this hectic world? Well, we do, and it's great.

Greg

No Water

2010-03-03T08:06:00.000-08:00

211 classes in 204 days.
64 classes in 61 days in the 101 challenge.

Let me set the scene for you. On Sunday night, I managed to get 5 hours of sleep. On Monday night, I was out late, had a few beers and got five hours of sleep. So on class Tuesday I decided to do a class without water! Good timing, right?

This is the first time I've done this, and after Jennifer challenged me to do it, I finally got around to it. I didn't even plan to do so during the day. It was a spur of the moment thing. To give you a little background, no one makes a big deal about water at my studio. No one really pushes "no water" classes, but I've definitely been told to try it, so that I can see that I don't "have to have" water. Well, I certainly see that I don't need it to get through a class.

The class itself really wasn't much different than a normal class for me in terms of the postures. I did well on the standing series but I did feel a bit loopy on the floor series. I didn't sit out any postures, but I was out of it mentally on some of the floor series. Sheri was teaching and had a good time harassing me, but I made it through.

I know there are some people who argue strongly in favor of no water classes. Perhaps I would see benefits in the long run. It is nice to prove to myself that I can have a good class without it and I'm sure I'll do it again at some point.

Greg

Change in the Weather

2010-03-01T08:30:00.000-08:00

209 classes in 202 days.
62 classes in 59 days in the 101 challenge.

Over the past few weeks, my studio has been having, uh, "issues" with the temperature and humidity in the room. I've experienced quite a variety of temperature and humidity conditions, with everything from high heat, high humidity to low heat and low humidity and everything in between. Mostly it's been high humidity with various temperatures. When I say high humidity, I'm talking 60% and up. Think rain forests or Florida swamps.

This has led to some uncomfortable classes and various complaints from students. Not to mention a lot of drama in the classes themselves and of course the drama and complaints are very annoying to the teachers. Here's the thing, it's impossible to make everyone happy. In a typical class, you'll have some people who are fine with the temperature, people who are too hot and people who are too cold, so somebody can always have complaints.

The recent fluctuations in the temperature have managed to cause one thing with me. I don't care anymore, and this is most definitely a good thing. Yes, I notice the conditions in the room, but now I just acknowledge it and move on. If my focus is good, which it usually is, then it doesn't matter at all what the room is like, and I've been improving on this a lot in recent weeks. Of course, totally crazy extremes can still throw me "off my game", but for the most part, do what you want with the temperature. The postures and breathing are what matters to me.

Greg

Exercise in America

2010-02-26T08:06:00.000-08:00

206 classes in 199 days.
59 classes in 56 days in the 101 challenge.

The other day I was curious to see how the rest of the U.S. population compares to Bikram fanatics in terms of daily exercise. We're all aware of the rising obesity rates in this country and general lack of health and exercise, but I specifically wanted to see how many Americans actually exercised something close to what we do. I know that doing 90 minutes of exercise per day is far above the norm for Americans.

I couldn't find ANY surveys that talked about 90 minutes of exercise per day, or even 60 minutes. I did find a survey that I like (A Gallup Poll) that got a percentage of Americans that do 20 minutes of "vigorous exercise." The survey breaks down the percentage of people that do 20 minutes of exercise one day per week, two days, zero days, etc. Guess what the percentage of people who exercise daily (and ONLY 20 minutes) is? For 2007 it was 4%! The surveys cover time periods for a few years and that percentage varies between 4 and 5%. So it's consistently pretty small. For the sample in 2007, the survey said 45% (!!!) of Americans said they didn't do 20 minutes of vigorous exercise even ONCE per week!

Below is the link:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/103492/few-americans-meet-exercise-targets.aspx#2

This survey really points out what an elite group Bikram yogis are. Even you aren't going every single day, you're still doing A LOT more exercise than the average person out there. The survey only covers 20 minutes of exercise, and we don't even get to Eagle Pose in 20 minutes!

Greg

Pickles

2010-02-24T07:57:00.000-08:00

204 classes 197 days.
57 classes in 54 days in the 101 challenge.

Do you ever get strange food cravings when you're practicing a lot? I have once in a while, but lately I've been craving pickles. Pickles! Specifically, big kosher dill pickles. Not that there's anything particularly wrong with that, I just think it's funny. So I went and bought a big jar recently and I munch on a few of them after class at night. I like drinking the pickle juice too. At least I'm not craving pork rinds or Doritos:)

Greg

Love

2010-02-22T08:25:00.000-08:00

202 classes in 195 days.
55 classes in 52 days in the 101 challenge.

"One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love." - Sophocles

I earlier wrote about a newer teacher at my studio, Jennifer and how great she was and I think this deserves further explanation and how this relates to all teachers. There are a number of qualities that I like in teachers. First of all, let me say that I have yet to meet a teacher that I really don't like. I like some more than others, but even my least favorite ones are just that - least favorite. They're still good and how much I like them is a matter of taste.

To me, the things are like in a teacher are as follows:

1) Dialogue. This is obvious. I'm familiar enough with the dialogue now to notice if a teacher is departing from it badly. This is the glue that holds the class together.

2) Corrections. This takes some skill, to be able to deliver the dialogue well while also correcting students on postures. From what I'm told, the more you teach the better you get at fitting in corrections in between dialogue.

3) Knowledge and experience. This matters in class, but tends to matter more outside of class when it comes to detailed knowledge of postures, and corrections. This is very useful when talking to teachers outside of class, going over little points on postures, etc.

4) Sense of humor. This always helps in class, especially when you feel like you're in a furnace and want to run out of the room screaming.

5) Interesting stories. Ok, this might seem to conflict with being a good dialogue teacher, but hey, I like to hear stories. I love hearing personal experiences from the teachers. I don't want a lot of time taken up with this, but it is a nice addition to the class. Heck, I've taken class from Bikram and he's the king of interesting stories while teaching.

Having said all of the above, there is one point more important than any of them - love. Now obviously all teachers love Bikram yoga, or they wouldn't put themselves through 9 weeks of intense training, but some of them just have a special and magical way of conveying it. Love is an emotional wave that can cut through all kinds of other emotions, anger, grief, whatever. That is extremely valuable when you're going through physical and emotional nonsense in the middle of a class. It makes you work harder, it makes you go on in spite of a million reasons not to and it makes you come back for more.

Jennifer possesses this quality in abundance. She makes the most routine things in the class sound new and exciting, even though I've done them hundreds of times. Yesterday, as we were going into Floor Bow, she said "Ok, now we're going to work the entire spine against gravity!" and this actually sounded exciting and fun! Believe me, it takes a lot of love to get me excited about Floor Bow.

I'm sure we've all experienced teachers whose love carries over to us and other students and they should be cherished and loved back. Love is ultimately what makes this all work.

Greg

Don't Ask This Question

2010-02-19T08:02:00.001-08:00

199 classes in 192 days.
52 classes in 49 days in the 101 challenge.

Here's a question I'm not sure I should bother asking my teachers - "Should I do a double today?" What do you think they tell me? Last night before taking the 5 PM I asked Jennifer if I should do a double and take the 7. Guess what she said? Of course, Jen is a teacher I'm happy to take a double from. Not because she's "easy", but because no matter how wacked out my body might feel, she still makes the class enjoyable. It takes a really good teacher (and a special person) to do that.

As for the second class itself, yeah it was a bit rough. It helped that Jen was teaching and also I was in the front row next to Nita, a 19-year old recent teacher graduate yogini Goddess. She was doing her THIRD class of the day (two beginning and one advanced), so I couldn't feel too bad.

The class after my last double went Ok, so hopefully tonight's class will too:)

Greg

Progress, I Guess

2010-02-18T08:03:00.000-08:00

197 classes in 191 days.
50 classes in 48 days in the 101 challenge.

I've been getting a bit frustrated recently with some of my standing series postures. I felt like I was getting worse on a few postures, mainly Standing Bow and Balancing Stick. I've been falling out more often the past few weeks. Of course, I've been going deeper and with Balancing Stick, I've been doing the posture correctly, you know, body down, leg up, looking like the letter "T", etc.

I went over this with the teacher after class and she pointed out the obvious. She said, "When you do the postures correctly, it's a lot harder." Using the Balancing Stick example, if you DON'T get the body down, leg up, looking a "T", it's not too hard to hold it for the full ten seconds. But doing it correctly, especially right after Standing Head to Knee and Standing Bow, is definitely harder. She described what I'm experiencing as good progress, so I'll take it:)

Greg

Fun Times

2010-02-17T08:03:00.001-08:00

196 classes in 190 days.
49 classes in 47 days.

I took the 5 PM yesterday with Sheri last night and she was in good form. She has a great sense of humor and last night she was great. Making jokes and taking pictures during class! She took a picture before class and then threatened to take a picture of everyone during second set of Triangle when people were looking sad. And guess what? She did! She took a few pictures while people were dying on the floor and looking miserable. At least I was smiling!

The most amazing thing during class was during Standing Bow. There was a newer student who was dying and starting wandering around the room and finally headed to the door. Sheri intercepted her and was talking to her in the back of the room for a little bit - and kept delivering the dialogue and making corrections on students! I'm not even sure how she could see anyone. That's some good teaching.

Greg

Running

2010-02-16T08:05:00.000-08:00

195 classes in 189 days.
48 classes in 46 days.

The weather has been absolutely fantastic in Vegas the past few days, around 65 and sunny each day. As much as I love the hot room, when the weather is like this I just want to come up with excuses to be outside as much as possible. So on Sunday, after class I decided to go for a little run. Four miles to be specific. It was fun, just me and my iPod and lots of nice weather.

And on Monday... I definitely felt it in class. My thighs were a little sore and awkward pose was a little more interesting than usual and Triangle? Let's not even go there. But it was worth it. I wish we could do a whole Bikram class outdoors sometime. It's hot enough in Vegas that we could do it in the summer!

Greg

You Never Know What You'll Get

2010-02-15T07:57:00.000-08:00

194 classes in 188 days.
47 classes in 45 days in the 101 challenge.

Interesting weekend of classes. A few less of the regulars were in the studio, because they were in L.A. for the Yoga Championships (I'm jealous). Saturday was a rough class, despite having a calm night on Friday. Then Sunday's class was great, despite not getting much sleep and having a few drinks on Saturday. Very strange, but I'll take it:)

Greg

Easier Than I Thought

2010-02-12T07:59:00.001-08:00

191 classes in 185 days.
44 classes in 42 days in the 101 challenge.

I was a little worried about class last night, considering I did a back to back double on Wednesday. The past few times I did a double, the next day was a little rough. Last night was totally different. There was something messed up with the heater, so the room was a little cooler (not a lot cooler), plus there were less people in the room. I had a very relaxing class and was quite happy with how things went. This makes me more confident about doing more doubles soon:)

Greg

Another Double!

2010-02-11T08:30:00.000-08:00

190 classes in 184 days.
43 classes in 41 days in the 101 challenge.

I ended up doing a double yesterday, and like most times, I didn't plan this one in advance. I set up in the front row and Marie was right next to me, who was teaching the next class. Marie loves to harass me about doing doubles and yesterday was no different. Before the 5 PM, she told me I should do a double. So I pondered this all during my first class. The first class was great and very funny. Michelle was teaching, who is always a lot of fun. There were a bunch of sorority girls from UNLV there during their first class, and Michelle had a lot of fun with that. She was making jokes about beer bongs and other stuff. We also sang Happy Birthday to a couple of yogis in the room - while we were in Triangle!

After this fun class, and another student asking me to stay for a double, I stuck around for the 7 PM with Marie. She was very nice to me during the class. Usually she'll correct me a lot but during this class she pretty much left me alone. She was very happy I did the double, so that was good enough for her. I did a respectable job, did all the postures, not sitting out anything. It was fun. Marie's teaching the 5 PM tonight too, so if I have a rough time, at least she'll know why:)

Greg

Wandering Around

2010-02-10T07:58:00.000-08:00

188 classes in 183 days.
41 classes in 40 days in the 101 challenge.

Yesterday was one of those days when I'm very glad that a) there's a teacher there and b) they use the dialogue. For whatever unknown reasons I just wasn't in the room mentally at all. I wasn't particularly thinking about anything, but I was just in a fog all class long. I felt fine physically and did the postures well, but I never felt like I arrived in the room completely. More than once I had to watch other people in the mirror to figure out if we were doing left or right side of a posture! Luckily I didn't do anything to make myself look too stupid, but it was a bizarre class.

Greg

Staying Still

2010-02-09T08:13:00.000-08:00

187 classes in 182 days.
40 classes in 39 days in the 101 challenge.

The room was on fire yet again yesterday. I just expect it at this point. Lots of people in the room, tough teacher, the usual. One thing I like from class yesterday was the teacher making the point about getting your postures so they are all like Savasana. Totally still and normal breathing. Not an easy task by any means, but certainly a lofty goal to look forward to. I can get there for a few of the postures, but still a long way to go on all of them.

Greg

Motivation

2010-02-07T20:13:00.000-08:00

186 classes in 183 days.
39 classes in 38 days in the 101 challenge.

The classes the past two days made the hot classes from last week look downright cold. I don't know exactly how hot things were, but it was a bit crazy. There was no shortage of drama in the room, with everything from people trying to bolt the room, to someone turning sideways to do Pranayama Breathing, to pretty much the entire front row sitting down during a lot of the standing series today.

Misha was teaching today and she gave the front row a hard time for sitting out postures. I was slightly back of the front row, in front of the podium. She made an interesting point about your discipline affecting the people around you, which is so true. It's one of the reasons I try to stay focused even if I feel like running out of the room screaming. I'm sure we've all experienced a situation where one or two people sit out some postures, then a bunch of other people near them do the same. The worst is when you see one or two people leave the room, and then some others follow. No matter what's going on, I least like to put on a good face, because at this point I know other people pay attention to what I'm doing. The same works for me. Sometimes I'm dying in there and I'll see some people with really good practices cruising along and it definitely motivates me to keep going.

So next time you're having a rough time, think about the other people around you, and try to stay strong, not only for yourself, but for them too.

Greg

Wonderful New People

2010-02-05T08:02:00.000-08:00

183 classes in 178 days.
36 classes in 35 days in the 101 challenge.

I had planned to do a double yesterday, but due to work I couldn't make it to the 5 PM, so I only went to the 7 PM. It was nice because it was a little less crowded than the classes the past few days. Plus I heard the 5 PM had 60 people in it again. Of course, it was crowded enough to get the humidity over 60%! The teacher was Jennifer, who did teacher training in the fall. She's absolutely spectacular, which I'll blog about separately at some point.

There was a girl in class that did her first class on Monday and has been back every day since then. I told her I noticed she had been here each day since she started, and she told me that she was worried what her body would feel like if she didn't come back each day! Exactly! I love new people coming back consistently! Makes my day:)

Greg

Swimming in Heat

2010-02-04T08:00:00.000-08:00

182 classes in 177 days.
35 classes in 34 days in the 101 challenge.

The trend of crazy humidity continued last night, with it being over 60% in the room. The class was once again packed, with 61 people in there. This is always a recipe for high humidity and last night didn't disappoint. I was fine, and oddly enough, got stronger as the class went on and had a very good floor series. One of the students in the back fainted right as we went to the floor after standing series. It was her first class. What's cool is she went out of the room for a little bit and came back and finished the class! Love to see that, especially from a new student. Let's see how high the humidity gets tonight...

Greg

Moaning and Groaning

2010-02-03T07:58:00.000-08:00

181 classes in 176 days.
34 classes in 33 days in the 101 challenge.

Yesterday was hot in the room, real hot. The humidity got over 70%, which is a lot even by my studio's standards. In the past this has caused me a lot of problems, but last night it was totally fine. Not just fine, but I actually had a really good class. It's funny, because I was even thinking to myself, "Wow, it's way too humid in here.", but it was more of just a casual observation rather than freaking out. That's more than I can say for many of the other people in the room. Lots of moaning and groaning. I was happy that Sheri (the teacher) pointed out to everyone to breathe correctly, as moaning and groaning is the most obvious sign of incorrect breathing, although it is kind of funny to listen to sometimes:)

Greg

Thinning Out

2010-02-02T07:59:00.000-08:00

180 classes in 175 days.
33 classes in 32 days in the 101 challenge.

Last night I walked into class and was surprised to see a relatively small amount of people there. There ended up being around 40 people there, which seemed downright empty compared to the classes of 50+ people I've had the past few weeks. Then I realized it was February 1st! I assume it's a few people taking some time off after the 30 day challenge, and a general trickling out of others. My studio extended the 30 day challenge to 60 days for people that want to do it. About 90 people signed up for the 30 day challenge in January, and I think 12 have signed up for the 60 day challenge. Maybe I should put up a big board for 101 days:)

Greg