Robert Scanlon (Webmaster)

Hi Ilyzium,

I agree with Gabrielle – and I’m happy you quickly took positive action and corrected the situation.

It’s not unusual in the hot yoga world to have unnecessary, arbitrary and somewhat draconian “rules” imposed. This includes imposing a “no-leaving-the-room” rule.

I find it affronting that adults and CUSTOMERS are treated this way – without any understanding of specific issues that may be specific to certain students (such as yourself). I went through quite a period of stress where I would always leave the room during savasana to cool down (coupled with a studio that ran their temperature waaay too hot), then reappear for the floor series. I was made to feel as if there was something “wrong”, rather than helped through the process (which eventually did right itself).

Anyone feeling “harassed” in a yoga class should vote with their feet if they cannot have the situation resolved as Ilyzium has. There’s no place for this in our community – by definition, yoga is inherently non-violent, so even having this conversation is bizarre!

Anyway, that was my 2c!

Namaste

Robert

Hi Cindy – It’s true we don’t have a “general” topic in the forums – I’ve stayed away from it as it helps to direct people to a more specific place. Different for VIPS (such as yourself!) where we know we’ll more likely get well articulated conversations purely from either your commitment/passion and experience levels.

If I were you, I’d start a “broad brush” type topic the the “Hot Yoga *faq*” category. I’ll have a think about re-organizing/re-naming this category as it has been bugging me for a while and your point confirms this!

And no … you don’t need a different profile – just go ahead and post wherever you wish using the same profile – if it is a publicly visible forum, everyone will see it and it will appear as a “recent topic” for them.

Hope that helps – if you had a different idea, do let us know and we can look at that!

Namaste

Robert

Yay!

Thanks for sharing your success – some things do take time to build strength and stamina – and then as you say, just when you think it ain’t ever gonna happen – there you are doing it.

Congratulations on your challenge and breakthroughs.

Now the challenge is to integrate your practice into your everyday lifestyle!

Namaste

Robert

PS. Welcome to the forum!

All the above tips are great … and … remember your toes have muscles too!

So unless you’ve been a ballerina in a previous life (though I see in your interests you list motorcycles – some toe work their depending on what you ride! Gabrielle & I love bikes … used to race ’em) you’ve probably not had a lot of opportunity to strengthen ankles/feet/toes.

It took me quite some months to get up high – and even now, the only way I’ll get my feet up on my toes as high as Gabrielle can is by wearing her high-heels.

But that’s another story … 😉

So I’d say, follow the advice & tips above and recognize that you are doing some degree of strength training and for that reason your progress may be gradual – and therefore harder to track. I’d suggest take a photo of your “best pose” now … and then again in 3 months time. You’ll be surprised!

Robert

PS. As a Private Member you DO have access to an excellent Pose Clinic on this pose, which I hope you have watched!

https://www.hotyogadoctor.com/index.php/site/comments-vip/hot-yoga-online-video-masterclass/

Good noticing Lubi!

You are in fact correct in the instruction you are following – it is considered less safe for the knee-joint to extend past the ankle.

The word is that when Bikram was questioned about this he said “That’s the way I do triangle – it is a question of body geometry.”

So there you have it. Keep doing it your way and you’ll be fine – aim for that lovely triangle shape (like Rajashree’s straight line on the RHS) and a vertical shin … there you have it.

Namaste,

Robert

Yes, two years that is what the doc said – tho’ this is 16 years ago now, so maybe advice has changed!

I think they are just covering themselves against over-enthusiastic people – plus it was a neck-of-femur shear so maybe worth letting it really get strong with a couple of years of weight-bearing.

I only waited 18 months and the specialist said cos the healing was v good, and me being healthy would be OK (but I was not very fit!).

Hi David – yes those surgery odds are what had me leaving it as a last resort.

No I don’t know anyone who bought the book (hence I always look for a guarantee myself) though the guy who recommended it to me is reputable. I’d recommend sending them an email asking for at least a money-back guarantee – I suspect you’ll be able to gauge from the response whether it is going to be useful or not.

As for “medical secret”, I agree with you – us marketers can get quite carried away sometimes!

Keep us posted,

Robert

I can empathize with your pain!

Well I’m not a knee specialist of course, so I’m only speaking from experience with my own knee; with teaching yoga; and from mentoring/coaching other teachers.

Personally I think the “go hard” approach is misinformed. It’s common to hear Bikram teachers especially asserting that doing sufficient yoga fixes “anything” – which is baloney IMHO!

But practicing the correct stretches – and in my opinion, avoiding any potentially severe knee twisting (ie tree/toe; fixed-firm; spine twist) could be prudent to avoid inflaming the healing. AFAIK parts of the knee are slow to heal due to more restricted blood flow; ergo – get better blood flow would help the healing process – so yoga that doesn’t aggravate the injury and that helps circulation & general health is a good thing.

For this reason it does take some time to heal – I tried normal yoga for 5 months (daily) before realizing it wasn’t doing anything. Once I modified and kept to my usual schedule, I got most mobility back, but can’t really run or do knee-based sport like tennis, though I do rollerblade with no issues.

If I don’t keep up my yoga though, it does become more problematic – kneeling & squatting for example.

At least you know your “point of last resort” – ie if your mobility with that knee becomes too restrictive then surgery might be your option. I’d take a look at this product below too – it came recommended to me by I guy I respect though I haven’t bought it myself – yet. (beware, it IS a sales letter!) http://www.drbillsclinic.com/avoid_knee_surgery.html. It’s the usual $97 ebook (no, we don’t make anything from it!). I don’t see any satisfaction guarantees otherwise I’d say what harm could it do to test it out!

Not sure if that helps – I’m thinking your sports doc’s stretch routines would be the ones to follow in parallel with regular yoga (modified where necessary to protect your knee from severe angles while you heal).

The other thing that really helps is continuing to build quadriceps strength but balanced – as I understand it over-pulling-up of the knee cap might not be a good thing – so switching on the whole group of muscles around the knee is the best option (ie using a wobble-board or some such device – see your physio).

These sites have good info if you’re happy to read up the more technical elements:

http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/cybertherapist/front/knee/ilateralmeniscus.html

http://www.physioroom.com/injuries/knee/index.php

http://orthopedics.about.com/od/physicaltherapy/p/kneerehab.htm

http://www.kneeguru.co.uk/KNEEtalk/

Namaste

Robert

PS. Do you still have a tough driving schedule? Forgot that might be another aggravation!

Hi Stefan – sorry for the large delay in responding.

It only takes me 10 minutes faster… Do you hold poses shorter time?

Not generally shorter no – usually with a silent class with one person “leading” you’ll lose around 20 mins. If I’m doing my own silent class, I’ll usually have shorter savasanas and since I know what pose is next, there’s no “setup instructions” – so that’s shorter still.

Also when away, I’ll do a single set, no savasana silent “class” which is very quick – 30-40mins – and still feels good, though obviously is only “maintenance” compared to a full class. Better than nothing!

Can one really do that? I have heard Bikram say the savanasas is very, very important.

Bikram says all sorts of contradictory things (ref your remarks about timing for example!) – since the advanced series doesn’t have savasanas between poses, I imagine he’s not firm on that. But anyway, that’s not so important – I think you are correct yes that savasanas (between poses) are beneficial. One of my favorite teachers on this subject is a guy called Tony Schwartz who believes we should actually train & ritualize “recovery” skills. I think that savasanas are good “recovery training” in that it teaches us how to calm down rapidly and practice the “good health practice” of bringing the heart rate back to a healthy resting pace as quickly as possible after stress/vigorous exercise.

But for regular practitioners, doing a class very now and then without savasanas between poses is a great challenge!

The timings are so strange. In the the Bikram Yoga beginning class book it says 10-20 seconds, but in a class more than 1 minute, and in this guide also 1 minute is certain poses.

Is it OK to do it shorter time? I am a great fan of ayurveda, and according to ayurveda you only work up to discomfort and hold back. If you need to mouth breath, hold back, if you feel pain or discomfort, hold back, if you loose form, hold back.

Stefan, it’s your practice so in the end, it’s up to you. In terms of full muscle recruitment to “get” the stretch and to turn off the golgi-tendon organ reflex (protection from muscle tearing), it takes a full 10-20 seconds to get the 100% effect – hence why poses are usually held that long. So if you hold a pose for only 1-sec – there’s little benefit in it! (Other than satisfaction I suppose!)

I think that one of the great successes of the various hot yoga series is the elevated heart rate and breathing stimuli – coupled with some of the longer poses (30/60sec) that really improve cardio-stamina – but for sure, anything that causes pain or is obviously aggravating a condition must be modified – for example, I have a minor tear in my meniscus (allegedly!) and so for 3 poses in particular, I simply don’t twist that leg/knee, but modify the pose, as it only makes it sore, without any improvement.

So with your back problem for example, it may not be a good idea to attempt full standing head to knee at all. For those with a bad back, or a minor injury (and I’ve done this myself after a back strain), we usually recommend just holding the knee and standing straight. This is no longer a compression pose obviously, but it is still practicing the balance, quadriceps stamina and some cardio in preparation for returning to the first part of the pose once the injury has healed.

Some yoga – such as Yin Yoga for example – specifically uses looooong holding (3-5 mins) to focus on opening joints/stretching into notoriously tight ligaments etc. So it depends on your aim I think!

I hope that helps – the timing guide as far as I know is accurate to what is commonly practiced in most Bikram-style studios. As always, for anyone reading, you should follow your instructor’s guidance.

Namaste,

Robert

I have gained enough experience to gauge when the room is going to be hotter—level of heat and humidity outside, number of people attending class, who is the instructor (is she one who likes it hot?), time of day, how does the room feel when I first enter. I usually pick my spot in the class once I have evaluated the situation.

Well said yogalifer.

There is an algorithm that works for the heat/humidity. If it is dry ie less than 30% humidity, most regulars could practice in a 110F/43C room without feeling it – in fact at 101F/38F it would feel too cold!

But if the measured room temp is 98.6F/37C and the humidity is over 65-70% – it should feel great!

Now let’s add people and sweat levels – for example if there are a lot more men in the room than normal, for some reason they give out more radiant heat (radiant heat = a person giving off heat to keep their core temp down) AND they can sweat more, which means more relative humidity … then our own sense of how hot it feels will change – no matter what the thermometer says (due to your own body working harder to keep YOUR core temp regulated – see this excellent article by Lesley Funk: http://www.bikram-yoga-noosa-australia.com/hot-yoga-facts.htm)

A wise instructor not only keeps an eye on the prevailing temp in the room (and how this is accurately measured itself is a huge conversation!) and the relative humidity – but also notices the amount of puffing/red faces – especially with those “regulars” that normally tolerate it. Our studio is in a very humid climate for summer & v dry in winter so it is amazing how room management can change. In summer we can actually turn heaters OFF and open a window/door and still be dripping with sweat and red-faced.

In our experience, an instructor’s personal temperature regulation is running far less hard than the students (common sense really since they’re not the ones doing the cardio!) so they need to really look for outside sings rather than how THEY feel about the heat.

Frankly, any yoga student paying for classes is a customer – and as a customer you certainly should feel OK about raising any issues with your studio owner and how you could work together to help you accommodate your needs along with everyone else.

As for “turning it up high so everyone has a challenge to face” … don’t make me go there. It’s certainly not how we operate 😆

Robert

Sounds great Jeff – do let us know your progress (the Radiant Yoga looked good too).

Good point about kids & hot yoga – we find under 10 is usually too hard – and between 10 and 14 or so, the balancing poses are still somewhat intense – but those that do come report great benefits, even if they find balancing tricky.

We had a 15-yr old doing the standard 90-min class whose homework concentration not only rocketed, but it got easier!

Wish I’d been taught yoga at school (though thinking about how I was at school they wouldn’t have wanted me in the class … blech!).

Robert

Yey! You got it working – so glad. Now we can get down to the business of tips … Gabrielle is traveling back from Thailand today/tomorrow so she’ll be a little while before you hear anything.

Robert

Hi Ana – sorry about that – the link should not have shown up as that Pose Clinic was available until Feb 28 – however I’ve extended its availability until March 10 to make up for your inconvenience!

Standing Head To Knee

Thanks again for pointing out the issue!

Robert