Yoga

I practise yoga or to be more accurate, I started bikram yoga in October 2009 and am still practising!

It was weird – 26 hatha yoga postures, 2 breathing exercises in a room heated to 105F/ 40.5C in a class lasting 90 minutes. i walked out seemingly high as a kite and decided – right then right there – that i would keep going often until i could do all the poses without any difficulty. i knew i was no good at stretching and/or yoga the first class proved it. to see all the poses, click here and then click “poses” – the poses don’t look that hard, and it’s not what i thought yoga would be like – they are just stretches and as a runner i know i should do some stretching. in fact, all bikram yoga classes are the beginners’ series, the advanced series is as per this poster and is not taught yet. probably by the time i can do the beginners series there will be classes for the advanced series. i like it that all the classes are the same as it takes a while to remember what’s coming up next, and you have good days and bad days, but i don’t really think i will ever do good enough consistent enough to have the teacher say i am good enough to teach – that would be a cool goal. my wife does yoga too – probably even more fanatical than me, better than me also (no surprises there!)

I currently do 2 or 3 classes (90mins each) of bikram yoga per week.

Bikram’s official website is here: http://www.bikramyoga.com/ and the list of worldwide classes. It’s just an average website. in fact its one of the reasons why i like bikram – just the bare bones important stuff – like his website, like the classes: i was nervous it would be all cushions, incense and chanting but its just honest sweat, bright lights and a sergeant-major instead of a guru. i have read all the negative stuff like mcyoga but i couldn’t care less – the yoga is great and suits my style.

Some cool articles on Bikram Yoga, to give an idea of what its like:

• bikram yoga vs james cracknell – telegrah.co.uk
• hot sweaty yoga – concord monitor
• can you transform your whole life in 60 days? – oprah winfrey magazine
• an old boxer stands on a yoga mat
• sweat was dripping from every part of my body

Yoga quote1: ”it is the only subject where the subject is not also the object.” The yoga posture (the “object”) is the subject of the class, but the yoga posture is not the point of the class. the point of the class is what happens to you, in your body and mind, when you do the yoga.  i think it’s to remind people that the purpose of coming to yoga is to heal your body and your mind, instead of just trying to do a really great standing head to knee pose. you still need to work on standing head to knee pose, and study standing head to knee pose, and try to do it better every time you do it! but at the end of the day, the pose itself is almost irrelevant. what matters is the process… and of course, the results of that process.

Yoga quote2: ”it’s never too bad, never too late, and you’re never too old or too sick to start from scratch and be born once again” – bikram

Other bikram links:

• lock the knee blog
• its all yoga, baby blog
• bikram yoga: a first-timer’s experience

A great introduction video: