How does Bikram practice offer such good skin results

How cool!

I, on the other hand, have seen my body acne worsen 🙁 It’s the ONLY downside to my Bikram practice, and I can’t seem to crack the code on how to fix it. My skin glows, it just has… pimples.

Thanks, Bonmar! I definitely don’t touch the face much and am careful to put a clean towel down for my face in spinal series. My problem is more back acne 🙁 It fluctuates but has been a problem most of my adult life and has been a little worse since practicing. I don’t know what else to do–I rinse off immediately after class with a body acne wash, and I occasionally exfoliate to try. My clothes, to my knowledge, are clean. It might just be my particular cross to bear 🙂

I try really hard NOT to wipe my face, however, i find that i sometimes have to due to my contacts burning and not being able to see,,,,,, :bug:

Gab, what do you say about all this face wiping? You’re the one that told me a few years ago, “CHANGE YOUR PRACTICE, LOSE THE FACECLOTH.” I wasn’t using it to wipe my face, but my hands, before Standing Bow. I realized quickly that it’s not your skin and sweat that are important, it’s muscle to muscle that holds you in the poses, the muscles in your hands against the muscles in your leg, the strength in your hands.

Your cooling system is your sweat, wipe it off and your body now has to work hard to replace it ASAP, so now it’s taking precious water from your system to put back on your face. It always comes back after you wipe it, right? That’s because it’s SUPPOSED TO BE THERE. This is your body’s job in the hot room, to keep you as cool as it can, and every time you wipe you’re working against yourself, making your yoga practice harder!

Just stand quietly and blink it away. I’ve read that if it burns your eyes maybe it’s too acidic and your diet needs to be adjusted.

Here’s an excerpt from an interesting article by Dr. Joel Brame:

Reduces Acidity:

First, acidity. The work of many holistic professionals from around the world
has shown that an imbalanced pH within the body is dangerous. In a toxic or
stressful lifestyle, the body becomes excessively acidic. Just as many fungi love
an acidic environment in which to live, so does cancer.

Bikram yoga greatly contributes to removing acids from the body. This
happens through several routes. The lungs are a powerful vehicle for
eliminating dangerous acids within the body. In chemical terms, they are
called volatile acids, which means they can diffuse into air. The deep breathing
techniques throughout yoga helps to clear out many of these volatile acids.

The kidneys are a major route of eliminating acids. This is easily demonstrated
by testing the pH of a first-morning urine sample. In other words, upon
waking, one can use a pH strip (available at most pharmacies and supplement
shops) to test the pH of their first urination of the day. The vast majority of
the time, this urine is highly acidic. It often falls around 5.0-5.5 (below 7.0 is
acidic). Ideally, you would want the urine pH to be above 5.5. The more
acidic the body, the more acids will be eliminated by the kidneys (except in
cases of kidney failure). A higher urine pH usually reflects less acid buildup.
Because Bikram yoga increases metabolism and heart rate (and possibly
glomerular filtration rate), the kidneys will clear out more acids. In addition,
the extra water you drink during and after class helps to flush out additional
acids.

Another major route of acid elimination is through the skin, via sweat. Bikram
yoga induces more sweating than almost any other form of exercise! It is
comparable to the native American sweat lodge. When I go to class, I always
notice that my sweat feels more acidic in the first half, and more like water in
the second half. Imagine how the body must feel to have released so many
stored-up acidic toxins.

Hi

the skin on my face has been suffering since starting Hot Bikram Yoga, Its been 18 months now and my skin flairs up with big spots.

I am careful and ensure i remove makeup before class and also was my face after. Any ideas, I love Bikram to much to stop but my skin is really suffering

Hi Y’all

Still trying to get that info to you about the sweat. Sorry about the delay!

Michelle, what’s your skincare routine?

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Brett

May I ask you how often you practise and how long you’ve been practising for?

FYI: I dropped the ball on the sweat issue partly because the person I contacted (twice) through their sweat information website purporting to be world experts did not respond at all…

I have found a single study on acid in sweat at high temperatures. It does talk about lactic acid in sweat buffering conditions so that the pH doesn’t drop below 4. It’s complex. It’s also a study from 1932. I haven’t found another at this stage.

I know that I rarely get sweat in my eyes because I wear a head band. Some men wear sweat bands. Others wear bandanas. This definitely works. I find that having something like that around the hairline is far more comfortable than if it’s across my forehead. It feels cooler.

Have you ever considered doing that?

Let me know the answers to the above questions about your practice because I am interested to know if there is some attenuation of the sweat over time.

I do have another resource I can check into (but I am away for the moment and am unable to access it!).

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

I just had to share my positive experiences with skin improvement.

One of my co-workers has commented several times now on how great my skin has been looking lately (I’ve been doing Bikram yoga for about 3 months now) and today said that combined with the fact that I’ve just seemed happier since I started as well, she wants to give it a try herself. 🙂

And the other day my husband asked what I’ve been doing that made my skin so soft lately. (Usually he’s the typical obvlivious guy to such things…) The answer – I quit using any type of moisturizer because of hot yoga. I used to put lotion on the moment I got out of the shower, but after realizing that lotion only made my feet and hands slip more in yoga, I figured I’d just quit using it and see what happens. And my skin is turning out to feel softer than ever before without using any products at all.

It’s not a miracle or anything – I still have wrinkles and scars, but I definitely am not used to getting compliments on my skin! Not sure if it’s just sweating out gunk that had built up in my pores or forcing myself to stay more hydrated or what, but it’s doing something good for me beyond flexibility, focus, and the things I expected from this practice.

I have been reading on the net about bikram practitioners’ experiences on the long term effect of the heat on the skin. There was one thread on females in China concerning about the adverse effect of the heat on their faces. I could not locate that thread again but I am interested to hear more about others’ experiences or guru’s advice on this.

I am also a female of Chinese origin and have been practising Bikram for a year in Perth. I do between 5-6 classes a week and have done a few consecutive stretches of practises (some referred them as challenges but I see it as a daily healing routine, such as over 100 days straight or 30 days straight). Normally I do 7 to 10 days straight then have a rest day.

As a female I sweat profusely during the class. I am usually drenched by the end of the second set of breathing and the two large bath towels I used, one on top of the other are usually fully soaked after the class. I only weight myself once before and after class and there was an over 2kg difference of the water weight on that occasion. Then I commence my rehydrating then the next day the whole drink-sweat cycle starts again.

I do not mind the heat or the sweat, but what bothers me is all my pores have been significantly enlarged due to this daily heat sensitised routine. My facial skin becomes significantly rougher and sagged more. I thought that might be the result of the entire 90 minutes drenching in the sweat. I clean my face totally before the class. I do not touch my face or wipe the sweat unless I could not see (usually once towards the end), and I keep the face bit of the towel folded until we come down to the floor, so it was never stood on. My headband is usually totally soaked and dripping by the end of the standing series so I remove it when we lie down.

I use dermalogica ultra calming (spread and cleanser) range afterwards and recently I started putting on a mask containing cucumber and aloe vera right after the shower to calm the sensitised skin. Perth’s dry heat in summer did not help with the situation.

I have been observing the long term and frequent females practitioners of my age group here (approaching 40) and some have aged skin and some have rather nice complexion. I also enquired with the teachers and they said the long term effect should be detoxing on the skin. A few of more senior practitioners here do have very ageless look (I am sure they are much older then how they look).

I had bikram rash also in the beginning of my practise by it all cleared itself nicely. I have no issue on skin of any other part of my body. They have become more youthful, in fact.

I would like to continue the bikram practise if I can manage the issue of my face being overly heat-sensitised.

Appreciate any input or comment. Thank you.

I’ve been doing Bikram for 5 weeks and, even at age 62, I’ve noticed my skin has become really soft and smooth.

I wondered if I could get more info about not wiping my face? I sweat A LOT on my face and it drips into my eyes. I’ve been wiping my face and didn’t know it wasn’t a good idea.

Thanks,

Joan

Thanks for the suggestion about the search. i will try that.

My hair is short and off my face. I tried not wiping my face yesterday but did have to wipe my eyes. I will read up on it in the forum, tho.