Tip of the Week: How to Be Less Stinky in Class!

We have some very valuable information for you on how to not be caught as the stinky one in class! Read on to find out how to fight the funk from Keli on her blog Yoga Peach. And remember that we sell a great mat cleaner in the studio too!

A Dirty Girl’s Guide to Keeping it Clean in Class
by Yoga Peach

 Photo taken by Yoga Peach during class

 

1.  YOUR MAT Clean your mat between practices.  Most people don’t clean their mats as often as they should.  You and the people around you don’t want to smell your stinky mat during practice.  Even if you use a towel over the mat it’s still going to get dirty on the ground.  There are tons of safe, natural antibacterial mat cleaners out there to choose from.  The ones with lemongrass, tea tree, or lavender oils add a refreshing scent to your mat. You can also google several ways to make your own or  simply use vinegar and water.  Keeping your mat clean also includes never using a towel on your mat twice without washing it.  It soaks up your sweat and stinks!  Even worse, leave it sitting in your car inbetween practices means it’s now loaded with germs and bacteria.  Gross!

2.  PROPER ATTIRE There’s a reason you see lots of ladies wearing next to nothing and topless men in hot yoga.   It’s called “hot yoga” and something things get… uh…hot.  While fewer clothes may feel better, you bend and lift your legs in funny places so be careful!   I highly recommend a light breathable material or quick-dry athleticwear.  The clothing made especially for yoga was done so for a reason and I find them most comfortable and breathable.  I made a horrible mistake on Friday and showed up wearing long pants lined with fleece!  What was I thinking?   Add that to my list of why I stunk.


3.  CLEAN CLOTHING Hot yoga clothes are going to stink, period.   Place your clothes in an open air laundry bin until your ready to wash them.  Your clothes are damp and sometimes feel like you just stepped out of a swimming pool.  You need to let them dry out.  Placing them in a laundry bin with a lid is going to create germs and it’s going to be harder to get the aweful smell out.  After a period of time the smell may stick around on your clothes even after you wash them.  Add 4-5 Tablespoons of baking soda or vinegar to your laundry to kill the smell.  Adding a small amount of tea tree oil soap or a quarter cup of ammonia are both supposed to work like magic.

4. FULL BODY WASH Effective body wash products from head to toe are essential!  Find a powerful shampoo and cleanse your scalp thoroughly!  Your head sweats a ton and build up of sweat and oil for some people apparently cause small sores or bumps!   Try a natural tea tree based shampoo(I love it) or a shampoo with salicylic acid or zinc (antifungal/antibacterial.)  If that doesn’t do it visit your pharmacy for suggestions.  I’m always in search of the best body washes and shampoos so let me know if you have recommendations. Exfoliating your body with a loofah is highly recommended to remove dirty dead skin.  Lastly, don’t forget to scrub your feet!  Our feet “fly to the sky” and sometimes close in close contact with someone’s face behind us.   No one wants to smell your musty feet.  Proper hygiene in hot yoga is highly appreciated by fellow yogis!

5.  FARTERS I get it, I guess, although lack of control over my body is not an issue.  Let’s hope I didn’t just jinx myself and blast the worst one ever in my next class.  While I wish there was a way to add “No Farting” right after the “Breathe in and out through your nose” rule in yoga.  I get it that some of you just can’t help it.   You proudly let ‘em rip during the “wind relieving” poses.  Fine, but save the loud long ones or silent but deadly ones for after class please!  Come on people, it’s like someone farting in a sauna!  Impossible to breathe, gross.  The times I’ve noticed I usually have a man near me.   Taking this into consideration and the fact that I’m an unattractive sweaty mess (see photo above) I usually stear clear of practicing next to a man.  Sorry guys, just sayin’.

6.  BE MINDFUL OF WHAT YOU EAT When you sweat, toxins of all glands and organs are released and impurities are flushed out of the body through the skin.  Some foods make you sweat more and certain aromatic foods come right out in your sweat.  Garlic, for example, I promise you will sweat out of your pours if you eat it prior to class. The Sulfur compounds produce a ton of odor.  Onions, hot peppers, and vegetables related to the cabbage family you may also notice release odor.  Spices like curry and cumin will make the class think there’s an Indian restaurant next door. I recently learned that meat eaters have a more intense odor than the non-meat eaters.  I’m not saying to cut out the things you love to eat, especially the healthy stuff.  Just be mindful of how often you eat them and try to eliminate eating too much on hot yoga  days.

7.  WEAR DEODORANT TO CLASS and refrain from perfumes.  Sweating makes your perfume reek.  No one likes “Sweet Sweat Gardenia” scent which is why it’s not available for purchase in stores.

8.  GET YOUR OWN EQUIPMENT Dust mites, bacteria and germs are all brewing on the shared mats, yoga blocks and straps.  Surprisingly this one’s just caught my attention recently and it’s  important.  Make sure you have your own mat.  Athelete’s foot, warts, skin infections, and fungus live in communal yoga mats.  My mat is specially created with an antimicrobial Zenz-in agent that prevents the growth of mold, mildew, and odors.  Next, think about how and where we use yoga props that dozens (or hundreds) of sweaty people have also used.   Blocks assist us when we squeeze them tightly with our sticky thighs during bridge.  We also place our low back directly on the block during assisted shoulder stand, some of us place our sweaty bottoms on blocks for poses such as heroes pose,  and we even press blocks firmly against the bottoms of our feet for an extra length in seated forward bends.  Yuck, yuck, yuck!  And now you want to reuse that same block that some other person covered in sweat used?   The warm room invites tons of germs and viruses to spread through sharing yoga props.  Some people even show up to class when they’re not feeling 100% and they’ve now passed on their illness to the next person through the use of props.  It’s impossible for blocks to be cleaned and washed between classes and I can’t imagine it is regular practice to clean them often.   I’ll provide you with a little “TMI” (too much information) and tell you what made me realize how dirty those yoga blocks really are.  Not too long ago I developed itchy tiny bumps all over my lower back, the sides of my belly, and inside my arm.  They eventually traveled up around my neck!   I was covered in grossness.  It was during a week where I went to several classes taken advantage of blocks to perfect my poses.  I can’t be sure that it was from shared yoga blocks, but I’m nearly convinced that’s what caused the itchy mess.   If purchasing your own equipment seems unreasonable do yourself a favor and carry antibacterial wipes to clean shared equipment.

My sweaty thighs before placing a block between them.  Would you like to borrow my block next?

9)  STAY HOME WHEN YOU’RE SICK The type A personality students attracted to hot yoga may feel guilty for missing a class but rolling in with mat in one hand and a wad of tissues in the other is a mistake.  Thinking you’re “sweating it out” while coughing, sneezing, and nose blowing throughout a 90 minutes practice is disruptive to others and may pass your illness to them.  I assure you that you’ll receive no “yoga compassion” and more than likely receive angry glares from the other students.  A little runny nose or sniffle is no big deal, but be considerate to others if you’re sick.

10)  GO HOME Wash your hands or use hand sanitizer after class and avoid touching your face during yoga practice.  Head home after yoga practice if possible and soap right up.  Do I even need to explain further?  You’ve just finished the sweatiest workout ever and possibly exposed yourself to germs.  I’m sure you don’t want that lingering on your body.   Can you really stand the authentic smell of yourself anyhow after hot yoga?   I assure you it’s not glamorous.  Don’t put others in dangerous either.  If you must eat right after class pack a snack.  Grocery shop straight from class is a no-no.   I promise someone will wheel their cart past you so incredibly quick and you’ll easily be able recognize the clear “ewwww you stink!” look on their face.  (It’s possible I know this from experience.)
Fellow yogis, this is valuable advise worth taking!  Don’t be caught as the dirty one in class!   For those of you who don’t practice I hope I haven’t scared you off from trying.  Hot yoga is an amazing and powerful experience.  Just follow my advise and you’re good to go.  Keep it real and keep it clean.  Happy hot yoga everyone!

Tip of the Week: Cobra Pose

What makes cobra pose so challenging and beneficial is that you must both overcome the resistance of the connective tissue and muscles in the front side of the body while backbending against gravity.

Lying on your stomach, bring your hands under your shoulders with the fingers forward and the thumbs on the inside. Make sure all five fingers are together. To check if your hands are in the right position, roll your shoulders down to the floor and they should touch the tops of your fingertips. The entire area of the palm should be completely flat on the floor.

Push your toes, heels, knees together as hard as you can. Push so hard that you start to feel a cramp in your feet. Squeeze your buttocks and push your hips down. Push your entire lower body as hard as you can into the floor. When your knees are locked properly, your knees will come up off the floor.

As you inhale, your eyes should initiate the movement. Bring your entire upper body up off the floor as you look up and as far back as possible. Lift your upper body using 100% back strength. Bikram says you can use the strength of your hands and arms up to 15%. Use a small amount of arm strength to augment the back strength. This is not a push-up, so make sure your arms are bent at a 90 degree angle. Push your elbows in towards the body, and push your elbows down towards your hips to bring your shoulders down more. Use your hands to come up on your belly button. Make sure your lower back hurts by using all the muscles in your lower back.

 Benefits

• Increases spine strength and flexibility
• Prevents lower back pain
• Helps to cure lumbago, rheumatism and arthritis of the spine
• Relieves menstrual problems (irregularity, cramps, backaches)
• Cures loss of appetite
• Helps to correct bad posture
• Improves functioning of the liver and spleen
• Strengthens the deltoids, trapezius and triceps

Tip of the Week: Take Your Practice to the Next Level

Being inspired by the advanced skill level we witnessed at the Regional Championship last weekend, we thought we would share this great information on taking your practice to the next level from our friends at Bikram Yoga Vancouver.

Bikram Yogis: Take Your Practice to the Next Level

If you’ve been practicing for years (or, in the case of some super-quick studies, months) and have the 26 postures in the beginner’s Bikram Yoga series down pat, you may be looking for ways to step up your practice. Because going to Teacher Training isn’t possible for every yogi, use these suggestions (at your discretion!) to “stretch” yourself a bit further in the hot room. (Before trying some of these moves, please take a moment to ask yourself and a teacher if you’re really ready!)

Make good postures great:

• Touch your arms together behind your calves and/or your forehead to your feet in the third part of Half Moon Posture.
• If your knees are healthy, try doing the “bounce, bounce, bounce” in the third part of Awkward Pose.
• Let go of the grip and hold your hands in prayer in front of your chest, palms and fingers pressed together, during Eagle Pose. The goal is to keep your wrists nice and straight and your fingers below your nose throughout the posture.
• Try letting go of your kicked-out foot in Standing Head to Knee Pose. At first, simply release the grip on your foot and straighten out your fingers, so that only the palm of each hand is touching either side of the foot.
• Try to straighten your kicked-up leg so you’re doing the standing splits in Standing Bow. An excellent way to physically prepare for this is to do the splits on the floor before and after class.
• Move your feet closer and closer together in Standing Separate Leg Stretching Pose; the easier it is for you to touch your forehead to the floor between your legs, the smaller your step should be.
• In Standing Separate Leg Head to Knee Pose, pull your abdominal muscles in and up to get your forehead higher on your knee. When you’re ready, bring your hands together in prayer and aim to touch your fingers directly in-between your first and second toe on the floor.
• When you’re ready, let go of your foot and bring both hands up into prayer in front of your chest during Tree Pose.
• Once you’re balancing with both hands in prayer and looking into your eyes in the mirror, lift your hips up into the air so that you’re not resting any weight on your heel during Toe Stand (think levitation)!
• Once you’re able to bring both legs up perpendicular to the floor in the third part of Locust Pose, try bending your knees and resting both feet on top of your head!
• Try to see your feet coming up over your head in Bow Pose (hint: the harder you kick with your legs, the closer they’ll come to meeting your eyes).
• Once you’ve reached the full expression of Fixed Firm Pose, “walk” your shoulders up closer toward your feet in order to maximize the “human bridge” you’ve made with your spine.
• In Rabbit Pose, focus on the exhalation of your breath and pull your abdominal muscles in. Let the inhale happen passively.
• In Stretching Pose (follows Head to Knee Pose), walk your hips back behind you and simultaneously walk your elbows and spine toward the front mirror. Then, touch your forehead to your feet. Bikram is rumoured to keep a running tally of yogis around the world that can accomplish this rare feat during training!
• Stretch up out of your waist as much as you can before you twist back in Spine Twisting Pose. Then, wrap your arm around your waist and grab your inner thigh during the posture. This will help you get a much deeper stretch across your shoulders and back!

Break your bad habits:

• Do an entire class without breathing through your mouth (except when told to do so, during the first and final breathing exercises, sit-ups, etc.). No sighing, no talking, no drama!
• If you find yourself favouring certain teachers’ classes, make it a point to do yoga with new instructors. The dialogue will be the same, but you’ll likely learn a thing or two.
• Better yet, stop checking the schedule entirely to see who’s teaching class. Just go, without expectations and with the intention to do your best and try your hardest no matter what.
• Vow not to complain about the heat. If the room seems too cold, work harder (and remember that there will be days when you’ll wish the studio wasn’t so hot!).
• Give up your “regular” spot in the room. It’s amazing the new perspective you’ll gain through such a simple change.
• If you’re an “evening yogi,” try a morning class; your flexibility increases as you go about your day, and a 6 a.m. class may challenge you in new ways (plus, it’s a great boost of energy first thing in the morning!).
• Do a “waterless” class – just be sure to hydrate thoroughly before and after. Though the debate rages on about this practice, certain advanced practitioners may benefit from detaching themselves from their routine water-bottle habits.

Challenge yourself:

• Do seven, 30, 60 or any other number of yoga classes on consecutive days; the sense of accomplishment you’ll feel at the end will be unreal. Just be sure to listen to your body and let yourself take a break if you need to.
• Keep a yoga diary, recording your thoughts, feelings, challenges and successes after each class.
• Come to class early so that you have time to stretch, de-stress and prepare – physically and mentally – for practice. Also, give yourself at least two minutes (the longer the better) to lie in Savasana after class.
• Don’t let anyone steal your peace. No matter what’s going on around you, think of yourself as the “eye of the storm” – calm, cool and collected despite the “heavy breather” next to you or the fact that the person in front of you is blocking your view of the mirror.

Remember: as long as you show up for class and try each posture to the best of your ability (for that day), focusing on form and alignment rather than depth, you’ll reap the maximum benefits of the series – no matter how fast or how far you advance!

We Kicked Asana at Regionals!

We could not be more proud of our Bikram Yoga SLC students and teachers who participated in the 2013 Utah Regional USA Yoga Asana Championship. Your dedication to your practice, and the amount of determination and control you showed us on stage was beyond admirable. Thank you for giving us all much to aspire to!

The day was a success for each and every one of you, and regardless of whether or not you placed at Regionals, you all won.
 
Here are the results:
Men: 3rd place Marc Linton; 2nd place Tanner Williams; 1st Mike Schenk
Women: 3rd place Alexa Lewis, 2nd place Audra Williamson; 1st Carolyn Valencia

Mike Schenk

 Stephan Pietrangelo

 Alexa Lewis

 Mike Schenk

 Alexa Lewis

 Audra Williamson

 Nella Holden

Marc Linton

*For more photos "Like" us on Facebook and see the album "2013 Utah Regional USA Yoga Asana Championship"

Tip of the Week: Savasana

Happy New Year everyone! So glad to see so many eager faces today at the studio excited about starting the year off right with the peacefulness and incredible overall feeling of wellness that only Bikram yoga can bring. Today I have a couple of tips for helping you relax in Savasana.

In addition to quieting the physical body in Savasana (laying as if you were perfectly still in a coffin box), and meditating on your breathing, it's also necessary to pacify the sense organs. Soften the root of the tongue, the wings of the nose, the channels of the inner ears, and the skin of the forehead, especially around the bridge of the nose between the eyebrows. Release your brain to the back of the head. As you focus on relaxing each of your sense organs one at a time, your mind will be more likely to be quiet.

Roxanne had a great tip the other day in regards to where to focus your eyes while laying on your back during Savasana. Imagine there is a mirror on the ceiling. Have a softened gaze on where you would imagine the reflection of your toes to be.

It's easy to allow ourselves completely relax during the final savasana when we know that we have made it through all of the 26 postures, but see if you can challenge yourself to be just as relaxed during all of the savasanas during the floor series as well.

~Namaste

Tip of the Week: Doing a Double

The following is by blogger Seouldiva:

If you’ve ever done a Bikram Yoga class, you’d probably say, “What kind of crackhead do you need to be, to want to do TWO of these classes back-to-back?”
Yep.  You read correctly: 2 Bikram classes back-to-back. 180 minutes in the hotbox.
While most of us don’t opt to do this on a daily basis, if you’re doing a 30-day or a 60-day Bikram Yoga Challenge, there is an allowance that states:

• During a 30-Day Challenge, if you miss a day of class, you may double up on another day.  But you cannot double up more than TWICE during a 30-day.  (hell, life happens, right?!)

If you ever find yourself in a situation where you need (or want) to take a double, here are some things to consider… (Again: please note I am not an official Bikram instructor…just a fanatic)

ASSESS YOUR BODY AFTER THE 1ST CLASS

• Be honest with yourself.  Don’t do a double just because your hell-bent on it.
• Assess how your body feels: if you feel great, give it a shot.  If not, then there will always be another day.

IN-BETWEEN CLASSES

• Most studios will have 30 minutes in-between the end of the last class, and the beginning of the next class.
• After your final savasana, I recommend leaving the room to cool down slightly and normalize.
• HYDRATE.  (duh.)  In addition to drinking regular water, I really like drinking a coconut water.

• My home studio (Bikram Yoga NYC) carries Zico, but I just got tuned in to VitaCoco which (at least to me) tastes like it has a little less sugar than Zico.  While it’s nice to have a little sugar for energy, drinking something sweet can sometimes make you more thirsty.  So generally speaking, the less sugar the better.
• Don’t forget to pee before the 2nd class.  On the real.

ENJOY THE RIDE!

• If I’m doing a double, during the first 15 minutes of Class #2, my mind is grumbling things like, “Holy crap, what was I thinking?,” “Oh damn, this is gonna be a long freaking class…,” “Get. Me. Out.”
• Let it go….Once you learn to accept the fact that you are committed to be in the room…the fun begins.

HOW DO YOU FEEL?

• EUPHORIA. The second class is euphoric.  Your body is already warmed and stretched out from the 1st class, so the 2nd class is less stiff.
• YOUR MIND IS QUIET. One of the reasons for hatha (physical) yoga is to quiet the body, so that the mind can be quieted and prepared for meditation.  The 1st class helps you get all the “noise” out of your head.  The 2nd class, you experience a focus, awareness and “present-mindedness” that is indescribable.

So if you DO decide to try your hand at doing a Bikram double…hope this helps!!
Namaste.

Tip of the Week: Backbending

Yoga Tip: Common Mistakes in Backbending

By HotCore Yoga

For 35 years+ Bikram has repeated over and over that the way to heal most spinal problems is by doing proper backbends in a hot room mixed in with a proper compliment of other yoga postures. In part he designed his 26-posture sequence to correct skeleton misalignments. Bikram’s Hot Yoga has worked for so well that Bikram yoga studios are opening up throughout the country and Europe. Yet there are individuals who fear doing backbends for seemingly good reasons … such as… “it hurts” … “my physical therapist told me not to do it” (has the physical therapist done it within the 26 posture series in a hot room with proper instruction? probably not.) … “I injured myself doing a backbend in gymnastics 20 years” … etc.
 
Look, it is very simple. In order to heal the spine you need to develop core strength from the base of your spine up. If you slump when you sit in your car or a chair, you probably lost your core strength some time ago … without realizing it … maybe you never had it.

Okay, so how does one get this core strength?
1. Establish downward pointing vectors of energy which act as a platform from which you can harness whatever strength you possess to extend upward. With practice you will develop more body awareness so that you extend yourself in vectors of energy which engender strength, vitality & flexibility. You will feel a natural lift in your spine. So how do I get this lift?

2. Once you get this downward vector, you must create a continuous stream of upward lift so that you can reach back without collapsing. Let me use Half Moon pose as an example. The downward vector only happens when one does the following: squeeze your legs and buttocks together intensely, wake up the soles of the feet by grabbing the floor, lock out the knees, and engage in root lock. If you have any lower back issues, it is essential to establish your lower body foundation. From here, you can create an upward lift by extending your index fingers, crown and core up toward the ceiling. So there’s a simultaneous reach down & reach up. Now as you extend your reach backwards as well as up, you introduce a vector backward and forward. Lines of energy always move in 2 directions. So there is reach back with the upper body and the hips move forward … without bending the knees which would impede the downward vector. Does all of this make sense? This posture in NOT a backward collapse. It is backward core lift.

So what are the most common mistakes in backbends?
1. Laziness about creating a downward vector. How tough is it to squeeze your butt and thighs together and grab the floor with the soles of your feet? No one is asking you to run a 4-minute mile. Just squeeze your legs and butt together… as best you can.

2. Laziness about reaching up. Here it is so much easier to simply collapse backwards than it is to reach up and build this core lift. I know because I ignored this core lift for years until I realized that I wasn’t developing meaningful strength. I was just dropping backward to see how far I could go. And in so doing, I injured myself. And then healed myself. And then injured myself. And then healed myself. You get the point. Through the yoga I could heal myself . But I wasn’t getting the core lift which Bikram calls, “creating natural human traction.”

3. Fear can create an unwillingness to explore this core lift. So you might decide backbends are too dangerous. And you may never give this yoga system a fair trial period. Emotional release is a common occurrence in the process of healing the spine through proper backbends. Why? Think of it! You are moving into the unknown each time you reach up and back. During Savasana it is very important to give yourself time to let go of tears or whatever. During standing series, you can always lie down in savasana if you feel strong emotions so that you can breathe and release. This is what the yoga is designed to do.

Which Bikram postures offer the best backbends?
Half Moon, Standing bow, cobra, full locust, bow, & camel. Most of the other postures include this core lift. Even during the standing series between postures you can experience an energizing core lift with your inhale and a grounding downward vector with your exhale.

Let us know how this tip works for you. We want to serve you with greater integrity. So please don’t be shy. And share your victories … no matter how small … you never know who you will inspire.

Tip of the Week: Locust Pose

Although it may seem like you're mostly using leg strength during Locust Pose to raise your legs in the air, the power actually comes from your upper body.

During the first part, you want to keep your chin out, throat stretching so you can activate/isolate the muscles surrounding your shoulders, scapula and upper spine. 

With your arms straight under your body with your palms facing the floor, stretch your fingers down to your knees until your arms are straight. The wider you stretch your fingers apart, the more you will be able to engage your tricep muscles. Amazingly enough, the strength in your fingertips actually helps you to bring your legs higher in the air.

The more you focus on putting your energy into your back strength and the muscles of your upper body, the easier it will be to lift your legs.

 

Tip of the Week: How often should you practice Bikram?

Q: How often should I be coming to Bikram yoga class?

A: As often as you can!

 
The more often you are able to come to class, the better you will feel. Each class gets you ready for the next one. If you are only able to attend class a couple of times per week, you will experience benefits and see results, but not as fast. A minimum of three times per week is encouraged for good results, with four to six times per week being the best for life changing results. The more often you are able to attend class, you will begin to notice changes in your health, improvements in posture and to your body overall.

Yoga can be practiced daily unlike other forms of exercise where you should rest in between workouts. Sometimes daily life gets in the way of consistent practice. Bikram recommends that you practice yoga a minimum of 10 times per month. However, if you have set certain goals to lose weight, reduce stress, or heal an injury, then more classes yield a quicker result. Bikram often tells new students, “Come everyday for the next 2 months and I will give you a new body, a new life.”

Tip of the Week: Half Tortoise Pose

Making it to class this week is practically a MUST if you want to combat all the stress and calories associated with Thanksgiving. But if for some reason you aren't able to sneak away from peeling more potatoes for Aunt Edna while you watch Grandpa Joe's dentures fall into the cranberry sauce, Half Tortoise Pose is the one posture you can do at home outside the studio.

Half Tortoise Pose provides maximum and ultimate relaxation. It’s amazing to just let the body sink into this pose and really feel all the bliss as your head goes below your heart. It is great for tense necks and shoulders. It also increases blood flow to the brain, which enhances memory and mental clarity. This posture also stretches the lower part of the lungs, which is therapeutic for asthma. It counters indigestion, flatulence, constipation and irritable bowel syndrome (which, let's face it, after all that Thanksgiving food you'll probably need relief from the most. Just sayin...).

 Steps :

1. Sit down on a yoga mat with your buttocks resting on your heels.
2. Inhale and lift both your arms to the sky. Bring the palms of your hands together and intertwine your two thumbs together. Your arms should be straight with your biceps touching your ears. Straighten your back and feel the stretch.
3. Exhale and slowly pivot down from your waist until your little fingers and forehead touch the yoga mat.
4. Hold this pose for at least 20 seconds while you continue to breathe normally.
5. Inhale and come back to the starting position with your hands straight up in the sky above your head.
6. Exhale, release your arms, and come back to sitting on your heels.

 

Considerations

To increase the stretch, straighten the arms so that the wrists, elbows and triceps form a straight line. You will feel the stretch in your shoulder blades. Ensuring that your buttocks remain rested on your heels will also increase the stretch; this can be achieved by keeping your mid-section taut. Do not draw your chin into the chest when performing the stretch. Try to keep it as far away from your chest as possible while keeping your forehead rested on the mat.

Have a safe, happy and healthy Thanksgiving everyone!

Tip of the Week: Camel Time!

Camel Pose forces you to let go of things that don't serve you anymore. These might include drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, food additives or -- on an esoteric level -- toxic emotions and relationships. If you keep dietary toxins to a minimum you may find your practice becoming stronger and more enjoyable, even in difficult postures.

 Photo of student Tegan Spangrude
Camel at Lake Josephine, Glacier National Park

Camel pose opens your heart, solar plexus and throat chakras. We generally keep them protected. If you feel nausea, fear, anxiety as a beginner GOOD FOR YOU! You are doing it right. Have the courage to stay with it and feel a wonderful release happening in you body. The dizziness you experience as a beginner is completely normal so try not to get anxious. If you just keep pushing your hips forward and breathe, the dizziness will pass. When you feel dizzy it is because of a change in blood pressure in your body from the backward bend. It is a new sensation which can be scary because we are always forward bending. Remember to breathe! When entering into camel make sure your hands are are on your hips or "back jeans pockets" with fingers facing down. Take a deep breath and drop your head back, go back half way and stop. If you lean back half way you will realize how close your hands are to your feet. Once you realize how close your hands are to your feet it becomes less scary to just reach back. If your heels are more that an arms length away, keep your hands on you hips but PUSH your chest up and your hips forward. If you can reach your heels, grip your heels with your palms, and bring your body weight forward onto the knees instead of leaning back on the heels. When coming out of the posture, bring one hand back to your hip then the other and slowly come back up being mindful to keep your spine in alignment, coming up one vertebrae at a time. Finding your eyes in the mirror and giving yourself a few breaths while concentrating on your eyes will help with any dizziness and will calm you. Try to push your Camel to your edge without experiencing any anticipation or anxiety. As you learn to embrace Camel without fear, you will learn to love it!

What's eVette's Secret?

Bikram Yoga SLC student eVette Raen was recently featured in an article by GE. We are so proud of you eVette! You are a great inspiration to us all. 

What's Their Secret?

31 Oct 2012

Source: Communications

Story Highlights:

• eVette Raen, quality assurance analytics manager at GE Healthcare, challenged herself to attend 200 hot yoga sessions in 200 days.
• eVette finds the benefits of yoga extend far beyond losing weight and being psysically fit. She finds yoga reduces stress and makes her feel much mentally stronger.
• A piece of advice from eVette on a fitness plan: Make it challenging. And when you've got a good challenge, double down.

What counts as a challenge? It's different for everyone, but it always means setting a goal above and beyond your ordinary. For some of us, a fitness challenge might be taking a dance class for the first time. For some of us, going to the gym twice a week. When eVette Raen decided to challenge herself she was already attending an very demanding yoga class, so she chose to go for 200 sessions in 200 days.
Among the manufacturing, service and engineering personnel at her site in Salt Lake City, eVette is quality assurance analytics manager on the C-Arms for the OEC 9800, a fluoroscopic machine that allows surgeons to see an internal x-ray video image of their patient, which allows them to make incisions that aren't as deep, so their patients can recover faster.
Over the span of her three years at the site, eVette credits HealthAhead with bringing her to a new level of health and fitness. She was an athlete in high school and kept up with her active lifestyle, going to the gym a couple of times a week, but she just wasn't into it. What turned things around for her was joining exercise classes and groups at her site. As she says, "If I just work out on my own, I'm prone to quit after fifteen minutes. If I even go."  Now she regularly attends yoga and a variety of other aerobic workouts. "It's a social group of people. Once I get there I know that I'm committed for the length of the class." 

Thus, after two years with the positive influence of esprit de corps and healthy new food and nutrition habits she learned at weight management program at her site (paid for by GE), eVette found she was working out more, enjoying it more, and had lost forty pounds in the process.
In the course of her new class-oriented fitness routine, eVette had started attending an especially challenging "hot" type of yoga, which is done in a humid studio at 105 degrees.
So to keep things interesting, she gave herself a 30-day challenge. She met that challenge, then made a new one: A hundred sessions in a hundred days.
Now eVette had also been reading yoga philosophy, and a section on testing one's determination struck a chord with her. The idea is to take a goal that's challenging yet attainable and then double it. So eVette found herself embarking on the challenge of 200 hot yoga sessions in 200 days. "I was a little fearful at first doing that and I thought about it for several days," she said. "But right now I am on Day 67 and this afternoon when I practice I will be on practice 74, so I'm already ahead." 

Our yogini hero is already ahead because she occasionally does multiple sessions in a day. In fact, one day this summer eVette logged four sessions, spending an unheard-of six hours in hot yoga over the course of the day. "People think I'm a little crazy, but I've really worked up to that," she says. "I like to think of it just as people train for marathons, I've done the yoga for so long and I'm so used to the environment."
But for eVette it's not just about losing weight, keeping busy, or even being fit. "Besides just the physical practice of it, the yoga reduces stress and makes me feel much mentally stronger," she says. In the pursuit of more of the intangible benefits, she has recently added Yoga Nidra to her routine. "Basically I go and lay down on a yoga mat in a class and the teacher leads a visualization that's all about body awareness and what you want in your life." What better complement to 200 days of heat and effort. Om shanti, eVette.
eVette's tips for a well-balanced fitness plan:

• Learn good eating habits, preferably through a weight management program.
• Make it social. It's much easier to stick to a workout schedule if you're not in it alone.
• Make it challenging. And when you've got a good challenge, double down.

Tip of the Week: Toe Stand

When you're in Toe Stand you are only 5 toes away from levitating! Or at least it may give you the feeling you're at the top of a beautiful snow capped mountain like our student Erin Comstock in the photo above! 

The most important thing to remember about Toe Stand is that it is not an advanced posture, so just TRY IT! 

Keep your standing leg locked, your eyes locked on the floor, stomach sucked in. 

When you go down try to let the hips hover slightly above the heel, it will bring the focus to the core to find the balance. Remember it is a “toe” stand, not a toe and fingers stand so try not to focus on creating a tripod base. Sit centered over your heel, shoulders should stack above the hips. Stretch upward from the base of your spine to the crown of your head. Don’t look at yourself in the mirror until you are perfectly balanced on your toes with your palms together in front of your heart.

Even if you can’t do the full toe stand just yet, easing yourself into the pose is a great opener for your hips, so do as much as you can!

Tip of the Week: Get the Wrinkles out of Eagle Pose

The tip this week is in honor of the carrot one of our favorite students Mary brought in. As you can see in the photo below, this flexible carrot is doing an AWESOME Eagle pose!

The following tips on Eagle actually come from our friends at Bikram Yoga Bellvue. Such great advice!

For the uninitiated, the word "yoga" often conjures up images of a skinny dude in baggy pants putting a foot behind his earlobe. While our Bikram beginning yoga series sets itself apart from that contortionist image in many, many ways, let's face it: Eagle is about as pretzel twisty as one can get.

The basics: cross one arm under the other, twist, palms together. The posture is named Eagle as your arms / elbows form the shape of an eagle's beak.

  

Wrinkle #1: palms won't to go together 

Tip #1: Bikram recommends focusing on getting the pads of the fingertips together "by whatever necessary contortion" and use the pads as leverage until the palms touch.  If you can't get the fingertips together just yet, interlace the fingers then wiggle the wrists back and forth ten to fifteen times.

Wrinkle #2: palms are a zillion miles away from each other

Tip #2: No matter how much your ego begs you do something to fit in with the cool hand-together crowd, don't give in and grab your shoulders. One of the big benefits of Eagle is developing flexibility in the shoulders and the only way to do that is to place one elbow on top of the other elbow and pull, pull, pull down with all your might towards the floor. If you grab your shoulders, you'll have zero downward pull. And with zero downward pull comes zero benefits.

Those of you with big beefy biceps are going to struggle here, but remember, struggle = benefits.  The more you stretch through neck and shoulders, the more tension you release, the less you'll have headaches.

Wrinkle #3: toes won't wrap

Tip #3:  For starters, unlike the fast swing-n-wrap of the arms, the leg wrap needs to be done slowly and deliberately. Bikram reminds us to squeeze so hard that "you could crack walnuts between ankles, knees and thighs." Start with a good sit, spine straight. Right leg goes super high and... what? What's that? You've already got the right leg high enough already, you've been trying for years and nothing works?

Well, as former spokesperson for the "I'll Never Wrap" club, I can pledge to you that there is hope. Lots of it.   

A few years ago, I had the privilege of practicing next to Aiko, the owner of Bikram Yoga Brooklyn. While I pride myself on good concentration in class, Aiko's graceful Eagle posture blindsided me. Her leg seemed to just slither on down and her toes appeared to be nearly encircling her ankle like a silky ribbon.

I cornered Aiko after class and demanded to know if it was as easy as she made it look. She laughed loudly and then explained that she had spent many, many years as a dues-paying member of the "I'll Never Wrap" club. She decided she was going to wrap her toes if it was the last thing she did on this planet. So she began doing homework.  

First thing when she woke up, still flat on her back in bed, she tried to wrap. Sitting at a desk, she tried to wrap. Watching television, she tried to wrap. And within six months of homework, she started to wrap. Just the pinky toe touched first and then, toe by toe, she eventually got all five toes to wrap around behind the calf muscle. Aiko promised me if it worked for her, then surely the homework would work for me too.

I'll admit, I was dubious. Mostly because I labored under the incorrect impression that the problem originated in my non-thin thighs.  Actually, my encounter with Aiko made me rethink my blame-the-thigh approach entirely. Aiko is a lithe Asian gal with thin thighs and she couldn't wrap either.   

Bikram points out that it isn't the thighs, necessarily, but the short forelegs. Those that are not long from the knee to the ankle will struggle with toe wrapping, but they'll "make up for lack of length by gaining even more flexibility than the rest." 

Sure, you do lift your wrapping leg up really high. But in addition to the high lift, you'll want to really extend the leg, reach the leg, as though you're going to push your neighbor over with your big toe.

Last year, in my sixth year of not wrapping, I decided to try Aiko's homework in earnest. And let me tell you, the results have been eye opening. Both laying in bed and on the sofa, my right leg now fully wraps around my left and all five toes end up where Eagle wants them: wrapped around the ankle. The other side is less flexible, but I've still got 2.75 toes wrapped. It was about four months of trying to wrap during Desperate Housewives, but once I established the muscle memory of the wrapped toes in a non-heated environment, then the toes started sliding around back the calf muscle during class.

You can also try wrapping homework after final Savasana at the end of class. This is a great time (again, on your back) to practice the reaching of the top leg, try to nudge open the studio door with your big toe.

In summary: abandon shoulder grabbing, you beefy sailors and pull elbows down hard (no matter if the hands aren't perfect... or even in the same zip code) and release tension and prevent headaches. Non-wrappers: homework, lift high, nudge your mat mate with your extended big toe and you'll provide fresh blood to sexual organs, firm calves, firm hips and thighs, improve flexibility of the hips, knees and ankles.

And once you've jump started all those benefits, you'll feel the improvements paying off handsomely in the next posture, Standing Head to Knee.