Bikram Yoga Experiment Blog
Week 2
Day 8 - Flu & Spew in the Lou
I took today off yoga to recover from the flu, but I had to go to work. I filmed a Chinese Wedding that got a little rowdy. We thought the father of the bride would take a break from his booze when it was time to dance with his daughter, but we were wrong. It was only to go spew in the lou.
Day 9 - Back to Business
I had my Sunday afternoon class with Marcus. Marcus is a business man in the yoga room. He enters the class and 'click'... he is a one track racehorse. He has a style that is strictly script with very little interaction. It was very different from the other instructors but I bet this style actually is a preference to lot of more advanced yogis who don't want to be disrupted by a teacher's "creative mumbo jumbo".
Day 10 - "leave your ego at the door"
I prepared for tonight's class hardcore. I wanted to film it and show improvement. I drank extra green smoothie for breakfast with protein powder and mineral supplements that the health food dude assured me would keep me from dehydrating during my class. I ate throughout the day constantly hydrating myself. What the hell went wrong???
My favorite class had been Jacob's, so I went to his late night class tonight... 10 pm @ Cambie. Words will do no justice for what happened in this class. You can check out the actual torture in the video yang ->
Day 11 - Gotta be the heat
I figured it out!!! Listen to Jacob's rant about how this woman couldn't handle the heat (in the second video over yang ->)
Today I got a spot right next to the glass wall at the Cambie location during Ryan's 8:15pm. It was much cooler than yesterday's spot at the opposite corner. My class was completely different! Yesterday I was struggling in the warm-up, today I never struggled once. I actually had my best class. I picked up some new tricks to get my balancing points and I actually enjoyed the resting ("savasana") corpse postures for the very first time, coming out of them full of energy for the next posture.
OK, so it's not supposed to be about the heat. It shouldn't matter is what I've been told. But whatever... it did matter. HUGE! I never understood why I heard rumors about why people quarrel over spots in the room... now I know.
My idea is to take one day in a cool spot, then the second day in a hot spot. That way I can work on my postures in one class, and then work on my breathing in the hot zones in another. Maybe, just maybe, it won't make a difference in the future. But now it does. And to progress, I definitely need more days in the cool zone.
Day 12 - Finding Savasana
Today I was back in a hot spot. BUT... now knowing what I know, it was all about controlling my breathing in Savasana (Just in case you don't know what Savasana is... it's when you lie completely dead in between postures to recover your strength and energy).
FLASHBACK - My previous experiences with Savasana were not good. I was never lying completely still. My breathing was usually too fast and deep. Not being able to fully recover, a snowball effect would take place causing my exhaustion to grow and grow until eventually destined to leave the class to recover.
This time the only difference was that I took some time to find my Savasana. During some of the last few balancing postures, I recognized that I was quickly crumbling into exhaustion and my postures were becoming very sloppy. During the last pose before the floor postures, I think it's called "tree"? I just decided to lay down to find my Savasana early. At first I was huffing and puffing and I knew that this was the problem. I couldn't relax to get the stillness where your body has a chance to repower. I fought through the pain and slowed my breathing down and cherry! Finally got it just before the floor work. Now I'm back in the postures and everything is tight again. Full on tug-of-wars all over my body and then... Savasana... Bodacious Baby!!!
Class was with Hillary. She's fun, and it was nice change of pace to hear a girl's voice instead of all the other male instructors. She helped me out with a key pose to help me find my balance and I really appreciate that kind of interaction. Will definitely be going back to her classes. I asked her about a comment she made about all the testosterone in the class. This is why I'm making the site... guys are too scared of yoga. Watch ->
Day 13
Lost my phone. Keep leaving things behind. Left my wallet on sidewalk outside City Square for over an hour. Thank you guardian angel! Thank you yoga for accellerating the correction process for these bad habits.
Thanks to a small late night class, Jacob was able to help me make some huge corrections.
Standing Head to Knee: I was leaning back trying to stand tall. Lean forward and suck stomach in and Booyah, more balance and a tight form
Cobra Pose: Shoulders trying to stretch up. Keep shoulders down... whoa! I can now feel the increase in back muscles take over
Day 14
I took Sunshine's class right before a hockey game so I tried to take it easy. She probably struggles to teach a little bit because of her language barrier but I saw how she would correct some of the students' postures physically to get through that.
I hurt myself in my hockey game afterwards. I crashed into the hockey net and gave myself a big kidney shot where there was no padding. It will be interesting to see how I recover as I'm feeling pretty strong even though it was a big blow.