chararcadipane

I completed the 60 day Bikram challenge and the were a little disheartening. I came from 5 years of Pilates. I love it but wanted to change it up and decided Bikram yoga as both my sister (who was certified in Bikrams very first certification program) and my brother do Bikram and just have been raving about it. So that is why I decided to do the 60 challenge. I completed it on Feb. 28, 2013. My back was hurting, my hamstrings are very uncomfortable from my sitz bones to behind my knee they are like in a spasm and my legs are weak, and my arms ached terribly and they go numb at night along with the little finger and ring finger. My upper back at night gets very tight. Since I have stopped my back pain is gone my arms are starting to feel a little better (it has been 2 weeks since I have stopped)… numbness at night is still happening but once in a while it doesn’t.

But I truly not complaining believe it or not… My body was going through some changes some good and maybe some not, but I am taking this time to find out what was and is happening. To address the back and hamstrings I believe that my hip muscles are extremely tight and need to be opened up. If the pelvis hip area is not able to move freely back and hamstrings will be affected as in my case. The arms were definitely overworked but there is what is called the ULnar nerve that starts at the back of the neck and runs down the arms… and from the locust when the arms go under the body I know my hip bones would press on my elbow area and I believe hitting that nerve so towards the end I was keeping my arms on the side of my body also since the nerve starts from the back of the neck, my neck are being worked, in a good way straightening it may have triggered something with that nerve.

So for me going into forehead to floor pose and the instructor says first the achilles stretches then the calf then the hamstring and then the hips….actually for me and maybe others the hip muscles need to open up first. I am working on some exercises for that but I do plan on going back with a new realization of my body… My knees need to bend slightly until I get my hips to open up. Also I may have not been consuming enough water throughout the day to replace the loss during class.. I think the instructor should have emphasized the importance of that. I wish the studio would hold pose clinics so that one can learn proper in and out of poses for alignment etc. I think part of the challenge I was also learning the poses and not doing them correctly at times. So that is my summary of my 60 day Bikram challenge. But I will be back!!! 🙂