The Hot Yoga Doctor – Free Bikram and Hot Yoga Resources › Hot Yoga Doctor Forum › General Hot Yoga Discussion › The Heat › Advice on successful conversion to home practice please…
The Hot Yoga Doctor – Free Bikram and Hot Yoga Resources › Hot Yoga Doctor Forum › General Hot Yoga Discussion › The Heat › Advice on successful conversion to home practice please…
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I started Bikram yoga back in January & went pretty regularly nearly every morning (at least 4 times a week, even though I had to wake up at 4am to get get there on time!) until June. I purchased the Master Class, which is very helpful, though I’ve barely touched anything in the package but the DVD – [em]& $200 is a pretty expensive DVD![/em]
The thing is, I’m just not getting the same good & worked feeling at home that I got at class…probably because I’m practicing in an approximately 12′ x 12′ (with approximately 7′ or 8′ ceiling) basement space without the same heat & humidity that helps me to go so deep in class. I am wondering what I can do to get the same effects at home. I’ve researched here on this forum, but I’m afraid that now that there’s the Hot Yoga Home Practice Kit for sale the real details may not be up for grabs anymore…& my budget is tighter than ever – one big reason I had to cut classes in the first place!
My mother has offered to lend me her DeLonghi room heater, but I haven’t checked it out yet to see if that’ll do. My boyfriend suggested I try buying a second-hand water bed heat pad or one for a reptile tank to put under my mat, but I’m not sure of the slip factor with that.
The room I’m practicing in is the only space in the house available, it is carpeted – which I find throws my balance waaay off, but that’s a whole other topic. In any case, I welcome suggestions on how to get my home practice as invigoating as my studio practice was. Thanks so much!
All the Best,
AuroraHi Aurora
Thanks for your post. Just to clarify to anyone who misunderstood, the DVD is NOT $200. It comes as a free bonus with the manual. 🙂
One of the things that works is to make your space inviting.
Here’s what helps:
>> The heating system works well and easily at the flick of a switch and PREFERABLY on a timer. Some heaters have a daily timer. Or sometimes you can get a weekly timer for which you can program in ALL your classes for the week.
>> The thing about a studio class is that it’s done for when YOU get there. I find it has helped me in the past to have an automatic system so that I can simply know the time of my class and head over to my own little private studio.
>> Perhaps your space still looks like a basement room. Paint it or decorate simply with warm or fresh clean colors so that you feel nurtured when you walk in there. It’s your home!
>> Invite a friend over to join you. It’s amazing how the commitment shared to turn up will motivate you. And then you can share your joy of your practice together even if your friend or yoga partner joins you only on occasion.
>> I have NOT taken anything down from the forum. So everything that has been here in the past, continues to be here. So go for it. And really Aurora if you need help we can arrange to have a conversation. You know I am happy to help. I know for you too, this is just a temporary block. We all have them from time to time.
>> On that same note there are instructions on setting up your own space at home in the Manual itself and in the Quick Start Guide that came with your package when it arrived.
>> Re heat pads etc. Are you telling me that your basement floor is really cold? Please fill me in. Perhaps you can describe the walls and floor for me. Is the carpet just a piece thrown over cement floor (that’s ok) and is it wall to wall or are there spaces around the edge of the mat? Is there underlay under the carpet?
Get back to me
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Thank you for your response, Gabrielle…I guess I thought the DVD was $200 because I never saw an option to purchase it on its own, only the package with all the bells & whistles – which seem beautifully produced, but which I’ve scarcely had time to review as I was primarily seeking a DVD & yours was all I found. So thank you for offering a DVD so those of us who can’t get to or don’t have access to a class can finally do Bikram at home…even at $200 it pays for itself after 2 months of use!
In any case, my basement actually [em]is [/em]decorated, it is a basement studio apartment which I used to live in full time & rented out the two top floors of my home. Now that I’ve graduated to living in both the basement & the ground floor of the house, the basement remains the room with the TV, hence where I do my DVD workouts…it’s also quite private as there are no windows to the street, only to the tucked away side & backyards. The carpet is wall to wall, but perhaps has thicker than usual padding because it was installed over concrete. The walls are pannelling over drywalll, covered by thick coats of spackling compound & paint to replicate castle walls – it’s actually very cool!
The temperature is quite good for daily living. Since it is a basement, it is cool in summer & doesn’t require air conditioning unless I’m being very active (cooking, cleaning, working out, etc) down there on hot days but mostly cool enough to leave the air conditioning off if just watching TV, sitting at the computer or being quiet. It is fairly well insulated so it keeps the warmth pretty well in winter too. Unfortunately there is no way to heat it without heating the whole house – including the tenants’ apartment on the top floor! So in thinking up how to get the room to the right temperature & humidity level for my hot yoga practice, the only possiblities we came up with on our own here have been, like I said, the electric room heater my mom has offered to let me have &/or the heating pad, which I’ve not actually seen but has been described to me as almost a thin sheet of film with a cord that plugs in & has a thermostat. Apparently they have them for waterbeds & also for reptile tanks & come in several sizes, so I thought if placed under my mats it would act as radiant flooring – so long as it doesn’t melt my mats!
I have been considering replacing the carpet with tile flooring because I have cats & thought sweeping would be easier than vacuuming to keep clean. I also dance & have a mirrored wall, I thought hard flooring would be better for several reasons but I welcome suggestions…obviously I am dedicated to continuing my yoga practice & want to make it the best it can be. Although I plan to go back to my old yoga classes here & there as soon as possible, having to cross a bridge during AM rush hour & wake up so early in the morning to be on time becomes a stress & I am trying to [em]reduce stress [/em]in my practice so I really want to get as good a practice at home as I would at a class so that going to class is merely another option, & it just doesn’t seem possible without the heat that helps me really stretch & go so deep. I look forward to your input, thanks for your support.
All the Best,
AuroraHello Aurora
Thanks! Now, let me ask you a question. Have you looked into Infrared heating? This could be the way you can heat your small space and not have the resultant issues of heating the whole building or even keeping too much residual heat as it primarily will only heat you! It would definitely be worth a try. In fact, I am pretty sure you would be able to find a shop where you could take one home (maybe even floor stock) with the promise of returning it if it didn’t do what you needed it to do.
As for tiling the floor:
I would not do that until I had solved the heating issue because it is much harder to heat your space with hard surfaces (especially tiles or concrete).
Reviewing all you’ve said I would say that when you find the heater that heats your space (and it should be hot enough to practice within 20 minutes even if it has not quite reached your target temperature), you should definitely find an electrician to install a timer, a heater with a timer, or a timer that you can attach at the plug that can heat your room WITHOUT your continual input. I am convinced that when you know it’s on and ready for you, that it will be very hard to go down and switch off the heater and not do your practice!
The other thing is that you could set yourself an easy target of approaching the manual in bitesize chunks. Start with the Quick Start Guide or a the introductory chapters in the book. AND – OR choose a pose and review that pose specifically. Many people tell me that it is an inspiring way to approach their practice because they find their conscious minds find new more satisfying ways in class which in turn makes for new discoveries of all kinds (on and off the mat) and better practice satisfaction…
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Thank you! I’m off to research infrared heating units now! Does anyone have specific brands/models to suggest? Thanks!
Hi Aurora
Actually you will find that there is quite a bit of information on the forum already – including names of brands and models if I remember correctly! Pop the word “infra” in the search box above and start looking around.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂 -
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