Update: Back-to-Back 60 day challenges – Completed 480 classes in 480 days

I finished up 90 classes in 90 days on Wednesday. Going to try for 120 in 120.

It seems I’ve become somewhat of a minor celebrity at the studio – especially since I only started my yoga practice a little over 4 months ago. They’re pointing me out to brand new students and they usually look like this :bug: when they hear how many days I have done. Even some of the instructors are surprised/impressed that I keep showing up every day. I’m fortunate that I live just a few miles from the studio.

I’m still seeing continuous improvement, but some poses still aren’t pretty! :red: Although, I did surprise myself the other day because my Half-Moon and Triangle looked pretty nice!

To get in a “day of rest”, I “double back” on the weekends… I usually take the 8:15pm class Monday thru Thursday, the 6:15pm class on Friday, and then the 8:00am or 10:00am class on Saturday and Sunday. That seems to be working pretty well. I had to get in a few doubles due to missing some days.

I’ve been challenged this past month with an ingrown toenail, though. My doctor didn’t want to cut it out and we treated it with steroids and antibiotics. I’m finally getting back to where I can attempt parts 2 and 3 of Awkward Pose.

I’m also still having a little trouble with my sore ribs, but I’m back on my medication that should start calming that down soon.

I had another round of bloodwork drawn last week for my doctor – will be interesting to see what it shows. My last bloodwork prior was at the very beginning of my Bikram practice.

The 1st 30 days was spent working through a lot of the mental challenges of going every day.

The 2nd 30 days was more focused on some of the physical challenges – like trying not to sit out too many poses and working more on getting the form right.

The 3rd 30 days, I’ve been looking more closely at my practice for things like:
-how does what and when I eat affect my yoga practice
-how does my body respond to different levels of heat and humidity in the room
-experimenting more with fluid balance, nutrients, and electrolyte supplementation for better stamina/performance in class
-paying much more attention to form and individual parts of the poses and trying to work deeper into them

Still haven’t lost much weight – only a few lbs, but I have lost inches.

I didn’t put it in the first post, but part of the reason for me starting Bikram Yoga was because my doctor yelled at me. My weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, etc. were going the “wrong way” and he said I could either do something about it or take a handful of wonderful pills for the rest of my life. %-P I actually got started on a low dose of blood pressure medicine – I would love to be off of it by the end of the year. That, and my 3.5 year old daughter are my main motivation. I’m doing it for myself, but the real drive is that I want to be healthy so I can be around for my daughter as long as possible.

I also have the chronic health problems of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis and the yoga has done of very good job of helping to moderate my symptoms.

Bonnie:

Thanks. It’s funny, but it doesn’t feel very impressive…. I still have a LONG way to go in most of the poses. Also, I guess it’s because I made it a lifestyle change and yoga is just something that I do every day now. 😉

Actually, my wife started Bikram Yoga about a year and a half ago. She usually goes 3-4 times/week to the 4:30pm class. They don’t have an 8:15pm class on Fridays, so I’ll pick up our daughter at daycare and we’ll go to the yoga studio and do the “kid swap” when my wife gets out of class and I’ll take the 6:30pm class. The staff and other students find it amusing/interesting that we do the kid swap so that we can both get class in.

I made it to 100 classes in 100 days on Saturday. Going to #102 tonight.

Just to be clear, I’m not suggesting that everyone do what I’m doing. I have several issues that I’m trying to fix and the yoga seems to be slowly fixing them… so I keep going…

Another quick update:

Finished up 180 classes in 180 days about a week and a half ago…

People tell me that it looks like I’ve lost 10+ pounds, but my weight is actually UP a few pounds… I can tell that I’ve added muscle to my shoulders, back, and legs… and I have continued losing inches…

Recent improvements:

– Able to fully interlace fingers in Eagle Pose
– Half-Moon looks pretty good – can get my hip beyond my ankle
– Able to touch knees together at the beginning of Standing Bow
– Butt much closer to the ground in Fixed Firm
– Elbows much higher off the chest in Pranayama Breathing
– Finally able to get elbow “in front” of knee on Half Spine Twist instead of “on top” of knee
– Finally able to get my foot to touch the floor (but it’s not flat yet) with both hips on the floor in Half Spine Twist
– Getting close to being able to attempt to interlock fingers on Standing Head to Knee
– Can now grab both feet in Floor Bow fairly easily. (I could barely grab 1 foot at a time when I started)
– Significantly increased torso stability in Blowing in Firm Pose
– Significantly increased grip strength

I’ll still keep going every day as it seems to be working for me.

Another update: 27000 minutes = 450 hours over 300 days = 5 back-to-back Bikram Yoga 60 Day Challenges!!

I know that there is some debate about taking days off from the yoga, but I think you need to listen to your body for cues on how much yoga is right for you. In my case, with my arthritis, if I miss 1 day, it’s uncomfortable once I get back to the yoga… if I miss 2 days in a row, it hurts when I get back to the yoga plus my joints start aching and getting stiff… I have only missed 2 days in a row 3 times since May 1, 2009. Obviously, I had to throw in some “doubles” here and there…

So, for me, the yoga is a “daily treatment” that *my* body needs for *my* problems.

There have been plenty of days that I did *not* want to be there! But I made myself go. English bulldog determination!!! 😉 And there have been days where I spent half or more of the class lying on my mat… On those days, I just try to do as much of the yoga as I can. Even on the days where I have felt that I was going to die right on my mat, I know that my body is still being healed by and getting the benefits of the yoga.

My 2nd 60-day challenge started out as a bit of stubbornness just to see if I could do it… but then I saw all of the things that the yoga was “fixing” in my body… my attitude now is that I still have a lot of problems, so I’ll just keep going to see how many problems the yoga will fix.

No major breakthroughs in practice… just a lot of slow, steady progress. I’ve been working hard on standing bow, triangle, and half-tortoise and have made a lot of very good progress in all 3. I was able to finally hold 1 set of the 2nd part of awkward pose for the first time this past week. That one is extremely hard for me due to my size/weight and bad ankles.

My yoga teacher asked me after class last night where my “finish line” was… I said that I didn’t know and didn’t really have one at this point and explained about my arthritis and why I was in class every day. My wife later suggested that I should set my coffin as my finish line. LOL! I rather like that idea! Let’s just hope I don’t really die on my mat anytime soon! 😉

Gabrielle:

The problem is that my body needs the heat and humidity to loosen my joints. There was a week where the humidifier at my studio was not working correctly and the humidity was maybe half of what it was supposed to be. They tried cranking up the heat to compensate, but I didn’t get the “heat penetration” into my joints… that was a miserable week as I watched (and felt) my joints start to slowly seize up again despite still going and attempting all of the poses/stretching.

There are days where I back off a bit on the intensity and skip sets here or there depending on what’s going on with my body, energy level, etc… I’ll have to do the best I can with some travel this spring and summer… but if there’s a studio nearby, I’m going to find a way to get there!

It does take 2 hours every day and I’m fortunate that I only live a few miles from the studio… If I wasn’t doing the yoga, I’d probably be in front of the TV or in front of my computer… and, surprisingly, I don’t miss either one of those much at all. The difference in the pain and quality of life improvements over this time last year is easily worth a couple of hours of my time every night. It’s 90 minutes of “medicine” for me that is *much* more preferable to the pills, injections, etc. that I have had to use in the past.

Fortunately, most people don’t have the problems that I do and wouldn’t need to do the yoga every day… and I’m not going to tell people that they have to go every day to get benefits. But, if you have problems like mine, going every day is possible and you *may* get fantastic results doing it. 😉

I did it!

April 30th was my 367th class in 365 days! I only missed 2 days in a row 4 times the whole year. I had occasional single days missed, but made all of them up with doubles.

Still making incremental progress in my poses, but the most recent significant progress has been me more consistently (~75% of the time) being able to get into, hold, and get out of the 2nd part of awkward pose – only took me a year to do that! For me, that position is more a problem of balance instead of strength. I have recently been able to get back on my elbows in fixed firm about 20% of the time. I know that this won’t mean much to people reading this, but when I’m on the 2nd row, I can finally get my fingers/eyes beyond the row of lights at the back of the room in the back bend in half moon.

With the arthritis that I’ve had for 27 years, the improvement in my joints and flexibility has been amazing! I still have a *long* way to go to get to the full expression in most of the poses, but the changes the yoga has had on my body and my body’s problems has been incredible. I still have not had to take any of my prescription medication for my arthritis/psoriasis since October.

My “yoga year” has been the hardest thing that I’ve ever done. It’s been an incredible journey and I’ve learned a LOT!