Sarah J. Blige

I practiced yoga for the first time on a beautiful beach at sunrise in Goa, India about a year-and-a-half ago.  I’ve always been fairly flexible and inclined to twist and bend and stretch myself in various ways (in fact, there was a time when I wanted to be a contortionist), but up until that lovely morning in Goa I had only ever done pilates. The Indian yogi – who, by the way, was one of the sweetest, most interesting people I’ve ever met – kept asking me to demonstrate the postures for the group, so I knew yoga came somewhat naturally to me. It was an incredible experience and one I’ll never forget, but this type of yoga (a variation of sun salutation) was more of a meditation than a workout.

Not me, but a guy doing yoga in Goa

After doing some research on the different types of yoga upon returning home, I found a particular form of yoga that sounded interesting, vigorous and generally terrifying: Bikram’s yoga. The website told me this yoga consisted of a fixed set of 26 postures performed over 90 minutes in a room heated to 104 degrees Fahrenheit, or 40 degrees Celsius. I’m not one for extreme temperatures, but I definitely prefer extreme heat over even moderate cold, so I figured I’d give Bikram’s yoga a try.

I started sweating immediately upon entering the sauna room and began to worry about what I’d gotten myself into. I took note from the 20-or-so others in the class and lay down on my towel facing the back of the room, which in this case happened to be windows all the way across with an incredible view of the mountains. I thought the serene view might make the class a bit more relaxing: it didn’t, but it sure was beautiful. The class began and I found myself sweating profusely with the very first posture, Pranayama, a breathing exercise. Yes, you read right, breathing. The teacher instructed us to tighten our entire lower body and abdominals throughout the exercise, which was more muscle tensing than I’d done since breaking a sweat while attempting to open a particularly stubborn pickle jar. The class continued with the postures becoming increasingly more difficult and my towel becoming increasingly more pool-like.  I was dizzy and nauseous and thought I might actually die on a number of occasions, but I made it through the entire class without leaving the room (or dying), and vowed to go back the very next day.  It was certainly the most difficult workout I had ever done, but it was also the most gratifying. I felt muscles working that had not been worked in…ever. My heart rate must have been around 190bpm, and I likely lost a few pounds of water weight. I also had an intense emotional release and cried a bit at the end of the class, not because of pain or frustration or my eyes attempting to flush out the gallons of sweat that had flooded into them during the class, but because Bikram’s yoga had ushered me into a full-out catharsis. For starters, I felt extremely proud of myself for making it through the entire class, but some of the postures had also opened up my heart and released pent up emotional baggage that I had been carrying around for far too long. (FYI: camel pose, or ustrasana is the motha of all heart-opening postures, and I’ve grown to actually look forward to it.)

Camel Pose

I continued doing yoga three to four times weekly at the mountain-view studio (the Bikram’s studio on Kingsway and Boundary) for about three months, but switched to a studio closer to home thereafter. I found that both the studio in which you practice and the instructor who guides you through the class have as much impact on the effectiveness of the class as does the type of yoga you choose to practice. To that, Bikram would likely say that you should be able to practice yoga with a calm spirit and smiling face in the burning pits of hell, to which I would respond, “Pshaw.” Though the studio part of the equation is more a matter of aesthetic appeal and comfort than a determining factor of an effectual class, a good teacher plays a huge role in a successful yoga experience. I’ve been in classes before with teachers who have such strong accents that I have a very difficult time deciphering much of the dialogue, which can be a major problem for a beginner and slight annoyance for the more advanced student, as it is very unlikely that these teachers will guide you into deeper practice with improved form if you can’t understand anything they say.

Bikram Choudhury (founder of Bikram's yoga) "assisting" with a posture. Thank Krishna the instructors don't do this in the classes I attend.

Conversely, a good teacher can lead you toward a better understanding of each posture and its respective benefits, and may also assist you into deeper meditation and less laboured breathing. In my class today, Joe, the instructor, adjusted my form in standing bow and completely changed the posture for me. It turns out I was lowering my body before creating the back-bend, which is apparently the wrong way to do it. I’ve probably attended over 100 classes and had no idea my form with this posture was incorrect until today. My favorite type of teacher is one who reminds us why it is we are putting ourselves through this torture (to improve our entire well-being in everyday life), as well as the particular physiological (muscular, endocrinal, nervous, skeletal, etc.) and emotional benefits of each posture. I used to detest teachers who physically adjusted my form (I was all, “I’m sweaty and panting and irritable – DON’T TOUCH ME!”), but now I really appreciate it, since it is sometimes difficult to understand the necessary adjustments with verbal instruction alone.

I practiced yoga for another three months or so at the new studio (a two-minute walk from home), but I started to find my pocketbook dwindling and foolishly decided that I couldn’t afford to continue with Bikram’s yoga any longer.  (More recently, I’ve come to the wiser conclusion that good health and overall well-being is worth at least $99/month, and I’ve made sacrifices in my lifestyle to pay for a yoga membership, even with my income being halved.)

Standing bow pose, or dandayamana-dhanurasana

Almost three months had passed since my last yoga class and I started to feel like my body was becoming deconditioned. I planned to get back into yoga, but I had some trouble actually getting my butt in gear. And then, on one fateful evening in mid-January of this year, I decided to do a complete overhaul on the arrangement of my bedroom furniture – alone. After an hour of moving every piece of furniture (bed, desk, big bookshelf full of books, dresser full of clothes, etc.) into every possible position in my room, I realized there was only one way to arrange my bedroom, which was exactly the way it was set up before I began moving stuff around. The only thing that came of my furniture rearrangement and subsequent disarrangement was a badly pinched nerve in my lower back, which later evolved into intense pain and a sensation of numbness or heaviness down the entire back of my left leg. The pain worsened in the days that followed and I eventually visited my doctor for a diagnosis, who instantly recognized the injury as sciatica.

This pose is particularly good for preventing and curing sciatica

The sciatica affected me for months following the initial injury, and I found myself rendered almost completely useless; I had difficulty sitting at my desk at work and often had to stand for periods while typing,  walking on inclines or up stairs was particularly painful, I could hardly lift my leg without experiencing excruciating pain, and even bending over to tie my shoes became extremely difficult. I felt incapable of performing any type of exercise because of my limitations with everyday activities, which, in hindsight, was a misjudgment and a faulty conclusion based on fear.

Five months later, I was still experiencing intermittent sciatica and had not attempted any form of physical activity since the injury. Naturally, my butt and thighs had come to closely resemble cottage cheese and I was soft and flabby all over, but even worse, my entire body ached and I felt like an old woman with even the slightest of movements. I knew I had to make a major change.

I had not forgotten the wonders yoga can do for an injured and deconditioned body and I figured stretching in a hot room would be one of the safest activities I could do to get back in shape and rehabilitate. The first class back in Bikram’s yoga after my seven-month hiatus was definitely a bit of a strug, but I felt the greatest sense of relief; it wasn’t nearly as difficult as I had built it up to be in my mind and I only noticed my sciatica with one or two of the postures.

I’ve been doing yoga almost daily for three weeks now since my return, and I can already notice tremendous changes taking place. The composition of my body is steadily improving; muscle is replacing fat in many different parts of my body and everything is becoming somewhat less jiggly. My emotional well-being is also improving; there’s nothing like having to meditate for 90 minutes to survive intense heat while contorting your body in incomprehensible ways to make you realize your other problems are relatively insignificant. But in all seriousness, it takes a great deal of dedication to devote an hour-and-a-half of your day to self-induced (but character-building) suffering, and surviving each and every class simply reminds me of my strength (both mentally and physically), patience, self-acceptance and determination. It is also very humbling and inspiring to have a class full of people struggling and surviving in their own ways right along with you.

My girl Sadie demonstrates the end part of janushirasana with paschimotthanasana, or head-to-knee with both legs stretching

You’ll have to check your ego at the door each time you enter a Bikram’s yoga class, not only because you’ll be surrounded by confronting mirrors while you do your thing in barely-there booty shorts, but also because your strengths and weaknesses will differ from class to class and you’ll have to accept your difficulties as they are each day so that awkward pose won’t become impossible pose and cobra pose won’t make you want to coil up and die.

Ultimately, I do yoga because it helps me to achieve balance in my life. Bikram says, “It’s never too late, you’re never too old, you’re never too sick to start from scratch again, to be born again.” And I believe him.

Benefits of Bikram’s yoga:

• promotes weight loss (burns around 800-1200 calories each class!)
• aids detoxification through excessive sweating
• strengthens and tones muscles
• stimulates nervous system
• improves circulation (good for cellulite reduction!)
• strengthens joints and bones (spine is the big one) to prevent future injury
• improves range of motion/flexibility
• great cardio workout
• increases endurance
• improves mental discipline and reduces stress through meditation
• flushes/smooths out blockages in arteries preventing cardiovascular disease
• balances hormonal levels
• improves posture and alignment
• regulates digestive system
• helps to lower blood pressure
• improves lung efficiency and capacity
• helps with a whole slew of ailments including diabetes, asthma, constipation, anorexia or overeating (regulates appetite), bronchitis, insomnia, obstructive lung disease, scoliosis and kyphosis, back pain/spasms, menstrual disorders, osteoarthritis, colitis, etc.