Hot Yoga Forum

After class

2010-07-21T12:41:48-08:00

Hi Gabrielle,

Whilst reading one of your posts in which you refer to staying in the room after class, I rembembered a question I keep on forgetting to ask!

Just how important and what are the benefits of staying on in the room at the end of class? And what should one be doing or not?

I used to lie there for about five minutes - breathing, clearing my mind and letting it all sink in. Then I moved on to combining it with stretching, which I’ve decided is not really required given that I had just stretched for an hour an a half, and now, after a minute or so, I am inclined to give priority to quenching my thirst and getting into the shower and dressed before the changing room fills up!

But it would be useful to know why we are encouraged to stay on.

Regards,
C

What are the benefits of a 30-day challenge

2008-03-16T18:08:49-08:00

Some of you know I am currently in the midst of a 30 day challenge, day 16 to be exact. I can describe week 1 and week 2, but *warning* it is blunt.

I was hoping Gabrielle might be able to shed some light as to why I am doing this. What am I getting out of day after day, as opposed to say practicing 4 days a week.

Anyway ;
week 1: I was pooping like 4 or 5 times a day & was wondering if this was going to go on all month
week 2: I was sore and tired and some of the classes were very difficult to get through
week 3: Just started, my class was good, but the pooping thing is back . . . .

First time

2010-07-03T05:34:59-08:00

Today I am going to my first class, I am a little nervous. This site has been great on all the information. I wouldn’t of known to bring a towel or just what to expect.
I have wanted to try it for a long time and our studio is running a special of 10 dollars for two weeks unlimited. My question is if you are just starting how often should you go? I will report back after my first class!

Marilyn

30 Day Challenge and a beginner

2010-07-02T03:45:28-08:00

Hi All,
I am brand new to Bikram. I started with the 30 day challenge, I’m seeing & feeling the benefits. However, since day 23 (3 days ago) I am really struggling after full locust pose on-wards.I am suffering with sore knees and a stiff mid-lower back.
I don’t feel I actually ‘did’ or ‘strained’ anything but this far in, have others felt this change in your body?....or am I just gettinig old!!!
Also, I have noticed it takes me quite a while to get to sleep but I’m totally relaxed and mind clear…when I sleep, I sleep like a log!!!

Thanks

Insomnia

2010-06-22T06:50:31-08:00

Hi!

I have been suffering with insomnia, bad digestion, tiredness, heart pulpitations and this lumpy bit in my throat ( which i thought was a thyroid problem but was dismissed by my GP as a stress related thing called globus hystericus). My GP wasn’t able to help at all and told me to slow down. I started doing Bikram yoga about 6 weeks ago. I have done 25 classes so far and i absolutely love it as i am much calmer and not stressed anymore. The only thing that is still troubling me is insomnia. I am under the impression that since i started yoga it has got worse. I really don’t understand why as i thought it should be the other way round. I barely sleep 3/4 hours a day and always just toss and turn. I read some of the other insomnia related threads and tried the camel pose but to no avail. I am seriously desperate as i don’t want to take any pills and contemplating whether to take a brake from yoga or to persevere and hope for better tomorrows.

Has anyone got a similar experience or some suggestion?

Thanks a lot

kleenex in Yoga

2009-12-12T13:44:53-08:00

Hi Friends,
I do love Bikrim hot yoga.
But I get really grossed out when people blow their noses.
I was the closest in the room to a mountain of snotty kleenex.
There is a kleenex box in our hot yoga studio.
Should that kleenex box be there?
I’m thinkin if you are not too sick and you can get to Yoga, suck it up.
I can’t relax knowing there is someone so obviously sick in the room.
Does Bikrim have a box of Yoga in the room?
Thanks
Happy Yoga
Eric

Hot Yoga when you’re sick?

2009-01-06T18:58:24-08:00

hi all,

just wondering what’s the best approach to keep up my yoga practice when i’m sick. i know the old guideline that if the symptoms are from the neck up, it’s OK to exercise. but if you have a fever or symptoms from the neck down, you should rest.

i have a cold that turned into a sinus infection, and am now on antibiotics. i’ll miss two classes as a result, which isn’t a lot, but wondered how everyone else handles their practice when sick.

thanks so much,
Mimi

Bikram Yoga and Philosophy

2008-07-06T21:02:35-08:00

Hi. I’ve been doing Bikram yoga for some time and love the yoga. What I don’t like, however, is the fact that, as much as the teachers insist on everyone being mindful and present in the room, they themselves are not. Instead, they’re reciting a script they memorized and, rather than reacting to what’s going on in the room, how people feel, and the energy that may (or may not) be present—and responding accordingly—they simply regurgitate: “This is good for you. Breathe through it. It’ll make you stronger.” What it seems to me they’re actually doing—and this is true of all Bikram teachers and, in fact, results from the nature of Bikram yoga itself—is putting what Bikram taught them to say ahead of what is actually going on with their students at a particular point in time. In addition, they’re instructing people to ignore pain by pushing it off and saying, “It’s only temporary.” Yes, it’s only temporary, but ignoring it means ignoring a part of yourself, a very important part that’s hardwired to tell you something’s wrong. It’s a similar philosophy of “push through the pain” that kept women (and men) in bad and abusive marriages during the glory days of Catholicism. It’s also the same system that masters impose upon slaves when they tell them “Work is good for you. It will set you free.” In other words, when doing Bikram yoga you’re being told to adopt a particular individual’s way of thinking, whether you accept it or not, and whether your body agrees with it or not. You’re also told that everything will be “blissful” in the end. Can someone explain these inconsistencies between simultaneously being told “Be present” while also being told “ignore what your body is telling you or what may be going on in the room?” This seems to put people in a double-bind: they’re damned if they focus (because then they’ll be concentraing on what is happening and may react to it) and they’re damned if they don’t focus (because then they won’t be pushing through the pain). Seems like an approach based on power and the desire to control—the very antithesis of what yoga is about.

The yoga aspect of Bikram yoga is, without doubt, beneficial. The Bikram philosophy, however, has numerous drawbacks and could, in the long wrong, prove harmful from the perspective of actually learning to listen to your body & mind and respond accordingly, rather than respond according to someone who’s telling you not to respond.

On a related note, I might add that this is precisely one of the ways in which people are being taught to accept such things as the increase in gas prices: just breathe through it, it will all be ok. With such a philosophy, how do you determine which things to respond to and which to ignore? If a woman beats her child, should the child just breathe through it? After all, aren’t we taught that the pain will just—in the end—make the child stronger? Won’t the pain associated with a society that increases gas prices at the beginning of summer (the time most people are likely to need gas for family vacations), just be a new pain to endure—so that we can endure further pain later on? And isn’t it places such as Bikram yoga where we learn such endurance—where we learn to permit what was once considered bad or harmful in the interest, as Nietzsche said, of ensuring that what does’t kill us make us stronger?

If Bikram yoga simultaneously strengthens our bodies while weakening our ability to think for ourselves and listen (and respond) to our bodies & minds, what have we accomplished?

Yours,

Sarah

How does Bikram practice offer such good skin results

2010-03-11T05:32:11-08:00

My skins glows after practice and so many folks have given me compliments.
I am wondering HOW the practice offers such good skins results?
Does the sweat produce exfoliating benefits.

High Expectations?

2010-01-04T00:45:18-08:00

Hi,

First, I would like to say that I am a newbie here in all respects: I am new to this site, new to Bikram/hot yoga, and new to yoga in general. So far, I have spent hours reading through the posts on this site, and have received a wealth of useful and inspiring information, and would like to say thanks for creating this great resource!

Personally, I am full-time graduate student who is over-stressed and overweight (about forty pounds—not proud about it, but it will be changing). I am just about to embark on my second semester as a graduate student and based on my experience last semester, I know that I need to make changes in my life to avoid the stress of school from drastically impacting my health in a negative way. Therefore, I am looking into Bikram yoga as a way to get myself out of the house, away from the stresses of school and life, and possibly shed a few pounds, but is it realistic to expect that practicing Bikram yoga can do all of these things?

When doing school work or school-related work, I have found that my mind is muddled, and restricted, almost that I cannot think because I am so stressed about having to complete assignments and move on to something else. I used to have a social life but that disappeared when school work started consuming my existence (something else I plan to change) but as a result, I spent all day (literally) doing school work only to break for the occasional meal, to complete a household chore, or to attend classes. In incorporating Bikram yoga into my weekly regiment, I am hoping the 90-minutes will give me a chance to get out of my head, so-to-speak, and relax a bit. Can this happen?

Also, up until a few months ago, I used to work out, in my apartment, with weights, which has been ongoing for about three years. During that time, I lost some weight, but it was not a drastic weight-loss, per se. In fact, I do not even own a scale. Instead, I changed my shape and I was looking better than I ever have, and I was feeling better about myself. At the same time, while I am not worried about weight-loss as according to a scale, I am hoping to slim down. I have overly-healthy thighs, hips, and buttocks, which I was hoping would maybe look a bit more slim as I practiced Bikram (I plan to begin within the next two weeks, so depending on how my first few classes go I would like to jump into a thirty- [or even sixty-!] day challenge). Is slimming these areas possible? I’ve read posts on this forum by people saying how they were disappointed that they did not lose weight, and then I read the very inspiration post by Donna. Yet, I am still confused by how the term “weight” is being applied because, as I said, weight is not a big deal to me, rather than slimming down. Is this possible as well, or me just hoping?

I would appreciate any advice, stories, opinions, etc, that anyone would be willing to provide. Thank you! And, again, I truly appreciate this site! Thanks!