The Bikram Hangover

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

Bad Habits

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

Posture Discussion Part VIII - Standing Separate Leg Stretching

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

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

My Personal Thermometer

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

Posture Discussion Part VI - Standing Bow

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

Posture Discussion Part V - Standing Head to Knee

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