The Hot Yoga Doctor – Free Bikram and Hot Yoga Resources › Hot Yoga Doctor Forum › General Hot Yoga Discussion › Hot Yoga *faq* › Newbie stiffist guy in the world
The Hot Yoga Doctor – Free Bikram and Hot Yoga Resources › Hot Yoga Doctor Forum › General Hot Yoga Discussion › Hot Yoga *faq* › Newbie stiffist guy in the world
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I’m a 54 year old jock. Have run marathons, biked 100’s of miles, lift weights, take cardio boot and cardio kick boxing classes. Lately I feel so stiff I decided to give Hot Yoga a shot. I still plan to lift and take the cardio classes and run
Have been to two classes the last two days and boy am I stiff in classs
I cant sit on my ankles or straighten my legs and lock my knees.
I got through both classes but am amazed at how stiff I am.At my age going 3-4 days a week how long before I see some improvement?
I’m 6’2″ and weigh 205 lbs with a little belly fat.
Also I am a heavy sweater. Is it OK lift/do cardio in the afternoon and take yoga a night? I do drink plenty of fluidsas an avid athlete myself. I know how you feel!!! I was mud through my hips and shoulders. I opened and saw results very quickly ( a few months and I am a new person)
PS I still do all my other activitiesThanks for the reply.
Just got out of my third class and was able to breathe better through it and was able to extend a bit on a couple poses
I was a runner for 24 years. At the age of 38, lots of folks in my running club were getting injured (they were in their late 40’s early 50’s)., so I took myself to a Bikram class to do some flexibility work and avoid what the others were going through.
That was over 2 years ago, and I have not run since. Bikram is where it’s at for me now.
This is what I would suggest. Just for 30 days. Please only do Bikram. your body needs this right now. All those postures you can not do right now, you will be able to do so and your body will be the better for it- and it will thank you. Your breathing will help you inot the postures, but overall , I beleive the Bikram series will complete the cardio and the strength training as well.
I understand if you still want to do the other workouts. But like I said, for the next 30 days, Bikram everyday? You will love iit.
Hello ufb (can’t bring myself to call you the long version! 😆 ). Will Stan do?
Welcome to the forum. So glad you posted. There are differing opinions and really I like to do is discover (or at least facilitate your discovery of) your outcomes – what YOU want, not just from your practice but from your health regime.
The ability to stretch your muscles easily is just like spreading butter from the fridge. If you take the butter out all the time, it doesn’t have time to set solid. Your muscles become more compliant and more fluid in their movements the more often you heat them up at Bikram or hot yoga.
When you work out what YOU want to do regarding the OVERALL picture of health that you are aiming for, then you will work out how to balance how and what exercise fits into the picture.
So, you may listen to fraseram and continue to mix the different activities. Or you may listen to LoveTheHeat another avowed Bikram yoga addict where she suggests practicing 30 days straight.
What I would do is temporarily let go of everything else and simply make the commitment to go do the yoga. Go often. And for me that would be 5 or 6 times religiously every week for 5-8 weeks. As important as exercise is, so is RECOVERY time. Allowing your body to regenerate, re-energize and heal. Go as often as you can and really get a head start on all the wonderful benefits. Your body needs to balance its strength with flexibility and when you achieve more balance then your body will also become more resilient to injury (especially when you return to your other exercise pursuits). And that’s just a single physical benefit.
You have a whole new world waiting for you. So …
Jump in… :cheese:
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂PS you also asked “how long til you see improvement”. That depends on what you are monitoring. Would you be willing to let us know what exactly you want to ‘improve’?
LoveTheHeat and Gabrielle
Thanks for the input. I’m not sure if I’m ready for just yoga for 30 days.
That said my goal is to keep my cardio and strength and increase my flexibility.The idea of doing just hot yoga does appeal to me but the logistics of it may prove difficult.
Right now I do my workouts at a gym across from my office during my lunch hour. The Yoga studio I have been going to is near my home and has no morning classes. The have two evening classes a 5:30 and an 8:00. They do not have a Friday class that I can make
I’ve been going the past few days as my office is closed until Jan 5th.I would only be able to make the 8 on the 4 weekdays which means I would not be able to eat with my family. I really want to use the studio by my house so I can go on weekends too.
I guess I need to work out in my head and with my family me being at dinner but not eating Mon-Thurs for the month of January. Of course I’ll eat when the class is over.FWIW Just took my 4th class in the last 5 days and see some improvement. I feel GREAT!
Hi Stan
Happy to hear you have worked out what you need to do.
If I can make a suggestion?
How would it be for a while (schedule to be determined by you! 😉 ) that when you go to the gym at lunch time you do something a little more stretch-focused?
Head on over to The Hot Yoga Poses and Resources Center and if you haven’t already done so, download a copy of Lucas’ At Home Stretching Guide. Since you will be at a gym you could use some of the equipment to warm up (say a bike for 5-10 mins, a rowing machine for 5-10 mins – whatever works depending on the time you have available) and then do 30 minutes stretching as per the guide. So instead of ‘working out’ gym style you could really supplement your yoga classes with stretches that will continue to work your body open and continue to look for that balance of strength/flexibility.
Once again, just an idea.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂I would like to add a bit of encouragement and note an observation. here is my experience ….. an avid athlete I was afraid to let go of my “workouts” and follow a yoga only practice. I continued w/ my workouts but discovered after a few months that my body seemed naturally seemed to gravitate to the yoga. This went on for a couple of months, now… I have healed and feel strong loose and open. My body is asking for my weights and other forms of activity again! Not only do I have my “workouts” back but I can do more longer faster better stronger!! so what am I trying to say? I get the impression ( and could be totally off mark but.. ) that you are hanging on to your old routines and perhaps a little unsure. My advice is this..
Simply do what feels right and comes naturally to you in the moment and feels good for you that day.
Your body will tell you just listen. You don’t HAVE to do it any ONE way!!! thats the beauty of letting go… we actually end up having more?!I’ve decided to commit to Hot Yoga 4-5 days a week and still do one cardio boot camp, one cardio kick boxing and one weight day a week I’ll start with yoga 4 days a week and see if I build to one day a week doing cardio kick in the AM and yoga in the early evening. When I need a day off it most likely will not be a yoga day.
If the yoga takes over and I end up doing more of that so be it. I must say I feel fantastic after doing hot yoga 6 of the past 7 days. I see improvement in some poses and even got a “very good” after a pose from the instructor today.
If my workout plan my results in yoga withdrawal I’ll adjust the schedule and ad more yoga
Thanks everyone for the helpful input
ufb, I am swooning at your decision. Glad to hear you have worked out a work-out plan! LoveTheHeat
ufb – I say, immerse yourself in the yoga!
Having run 11 marathons, I had my chip for my 12th and my lower back seized up. My physiotherapist recommended I check out a new type of yoga that had come to town – that was eight years ago! No more running for me, lots of yoga. :cheese:
As an update. I’m so spent from my hot yoga class at night that the next afternoon my body is telling me not to lift or run. I’ve taken 8 classes the last 10 days and my body is really feeling it. I had planned to go to the gym during lunch today for a weight workout. realized in the AM that the intense workout I wanted to do was out of the question
figured I’d tone it down and ended up not going at all. My body was telling me no no no.The Yoga has my body feeling good sore and my muscles feel kinda pumped.
FWIW I sweat buckets. The towel on top of my mat is soaked with sweat before we even get to the floor. I’m dripping on it during the first breathing excercise.
It seems when I take 3 days of HY classes in a row the 4th day I’m a little out of it. I’ve been drinking tons of water, am now also drinking 2 glasses of OJ a day. I also added bananas and dried figs and apricots to the 3 pieces of fruit I eat daily.I’m taking today off from everything!
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