Bikram Yoga & The Female Body.

We've done 67 classes of yoga now that we are at the start of our 7th week here at Bikram Yoga teacher training. That much yoga in just over 30 days does things to your body.

• Eating a lot.
• Not eating at all.
• Peeing a lot.
• Not peeing a lot.
• Pooping too much.
• Not pooping at all.
• Delayed menstruation.
• Menstruation coming early.
• Random colds that show up one day and are gone the next.

Lots of stuff. We've all talked about it here. But for me, all this yoga did my ovulation cycle in a little. It delayed it by about 5 days, and made it really painful.

So painful, I could barely get through class this evening.

I couldn't side bend or back bend... As ovulation pain shows up in my lower backsides. Usually just on one side. It's typically a dull ache. But tonight it was full on cramping, on my right side. I couldn't even do the spine strengthening series.

I am counting down the classes till I can return a normal Bikram practice schedule. (Only 30 classes left.)

"We Can See Your Balls. Put Them Away."

Please note:

Whether you are male or female, if you wear shorts that do not go right up against your skin - but, rather, hang loosely around your thighs - when you do Standing Bow Pulling pose, we will be able to see whether or not you are wearing underwear.

More importantly, should you choose to NOT wear underwear under your loosely hanging shorts, we will be able to see all your "goods in the hood" contained in the shorts.

So, for men, this means we will be able to see your balls. For women, we'll see whatever you got hanging around down in your shorts too.

So for the love of Sweet Baby Jesus on Christmas morning, please wear underwear. I don't want to inadvertently see what you're packing.

"I Feel Like Crying."

I took a newbie to class tonight. She was once a competitive dancer, and now works in digital marketing with me. So she has plenty of stress (like me) and needs a way to get it out of her system at the end of the day.

So last week she came to me and asked, "Do you mind if I tag along to yoga with you one night after work?"

Of course I was thrilled that she wanted to come! I think I have convinced a few people in my time to give Bikram a try. Some have onky tried it once and never come back. Others practice as regularly as they can since the first day. But I am always ecstatic when someone wants to give it a try.

Tonight's newbie was amazing. She stayed in the room the whole time. She had proper yoga etiquette. She tried to get back in and do the poses when she could. She was definitely overwhelmed at times... But we all are!

We wouldn't be doing the yoga correctly if we didn't occasionally get overwhelmed at times. Shit, I get overwhelmed with Standing-Head-to-Knee. Something about shoving my leg into my chest just to get at my foot... It gets me every time. And I want to vomit. And my heart starts pounding really, really ridiculously fast. But some poses make me want to have another reaction. One I only in the past year began having. But the newbie had it tonight on her first class....

"I feel like crying," she told me after class.

I got excited for her. I told her, "This is what is supposed to happen! You are releasing emotions! This is good!"

I don't know if she believed me. But I see crying for now reason as a good thing. Usually happens to me in Poorna-Salabasana or Ustrasana. (Trying to get used to the Sanskrit names.) But crying means something is coming out that needs to. I see it as a greeat thing. And to have experienced it in the first class you ever take???

LUCKY!

Backwards, Forwards. Balance Needed.

The bane of my existence in any Bikram class is a forward bend.

Lately, I find myself developing the "pukey acid reflux" feeling as soon as we do the first instance of Pada-Hastasana. It lasts the rest of the class... Often seriously hampering my efforts in Standing-Head-to-Knee and Rabbit poses.

But back bends? Those I LOVE!

Bending backwards is easy-peasy for me. Standing Bow, Half Moon Backward Bending ("You're back is going to hurt like hell, don't be scared!"), Cobra, Full Locust, CAMEL... These are my favorite poses!

"Back bends are therapeutic," one of my teachers said while teaching class this past Friday evening. "There was a time in my life when I was really struggling (emotionally?)... And I would stand in my apartment and just do back bend after back bend after back bend. It helped!"

I feel this way too. I think that back bends come very easy to those of us who like to express ourselves (sometimes too much). Whatever is in my head, you can pretty much guarantee will likely end up coming out of my mouth or out of my finger tips as I type it into something.

But the point is to be "balanced." And right now, I am "out-of-balance." I am too efficient at the backward bending. And not nearly as efficient with the forward-bending. And while I am certainly not going to stop trying to progress with my back bends, I do need to do what I can to improve my forward bends.

I need to improve my ability to be more discreet.

It Is How You Know The Bikram Is Working.

"Great #Bikram class tonight. I got my mojo back!"

This was a Tweet from one of my buddies in the Bikram community. She been having a few rough classes lately. But tonight she bounced back and was in the zone.

"This is how you know the Bikram is working!" I Tweeted back.

While she was having a kick ass class tonight, I was having an awful class. Horrible acid reflux was present, which sent a burning sensation in my chest and throat during Standing Head to Knee pose. It started then, and remained for the rest of the class. And it really sucked.

If you've never had the "pleasure" of experiencing this feeling in your Bikram class, consider yourself "unlucky."

Yep, you read that right. "Unlucky."

For me, when I have small aches and pains in my Bikram practice, it is because (I have learned) that my body is healing itself in some way. When I eat badly (too much wheat and dairy), I get acid reflux. My body has a tough time digesting and recovering from these things (which I am not allergic to, but have an intolerance to when eaten too frequently).

The burning sensation to me is a sign that my body is trying to process and detox from the crap that I have put into it. And it shows itself in this way.

Over the past few years, I have noticed changes in the way my body works as a result of my Bikram practice. How it reacts to certain things. (Like gluten or alcohol.) How it affects my cycle. and ovulation. How it affects my dreams and sleep.

It is amazing. Everyone should do this. Everyone should be so lucky.