Hi Susan
Welcome back to your practice (and to this site, thank you!) 😉
Even though this may not directly relate to your hiatus hernia, I do want to make an observation from experience. If you’re out of the habit of going to Bikram yoga and you haven’t been for 5 years then do please take it a lot easier than you think you need to.
The mind is an amazing ‘thing’. Going back into the room after a long time can be quite a challenge because your mind gets hooked right back into what it knows and what it THINKS your body can achieve. Presumably you knew the how-tos of practice pretty well. But your body may not be as willing as your mind to come along for the ride.
May I suggest imagining you are new, a first-timer to your practice. Unless you’ve been very active and perhaps even practising a different type of yoga then it is likely your breathing is not as it was 5 years ago. You may actually have to learn how to breathe again!
Breathe the best you can. Work on alignment. Don’t worry about depth. It will come back to you quite quickly. And see if your gently gently approach has an effect on your reflux.
If the inverted poses are bothering you then try too, not to straighten the legs in Standing Sep Leg Intense Stretch. Go see the blog post Opening Up Your Hamstrings With Hot Yoga as this will have you in a less upside down and more manageable position.
Let me know if that works and we’ll see where to go from there
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂
