Day 52 Frequency, Intensity, Precision
These are three ways to improve your yoga practice, according to guru Ida Ripley, who nearly killed me last weekend, in her hot-hot-hot Master Class. I can’t really increase my frequency of practice, seeing as how I’m going every day, and I’ve already experienced a double-class day for the first and last time.
Intensity, well, I’m pushing about as hard as I can in my postures. Since I’m feeling pretty strong this week, I’m working into deeper backward bends and I can feel it.
Precision, that’s something I can focus on. When I actually listen to the instructions and breathe into the postures, making subtle adjustments to align my hips, keep my knees parallel, flex my thigh muscles, everything feels different. My postures are cleaner, I can feel joints releasing and ligaments and tendons lengthening.
But it is really subtle.
“Lock your elbows, Roxanne,” Anthea tells me when we’re doing Half-Moon pose. “Keep them against your ears.”
So I move them up a scant inch, from my temples, up against my ears, and what do you know, I can feel my chest open and my sides lengthen.
“Beautiful!” she says immediately. And hearing that, I can hold it for another second, just barely.
“Forehead down, Roxanne,” Randee told me in Half-Tortoise. And it made a difference.
“Heads up, look forward into the mirror. Heads up. Heads up. Roxanne! Keep your head up!” said Colin, when I was cheating in my seated forward bend, curling down, instead of keeping my back straight for a pure hamstring stretch. And, yes, it made a difference.
Frequency, intensity and precision are important, but there’s one thing that is even more important: good instructors. I wouldn’t have made it this long without their feedback and encouragement.
But some days, I still think they’re going to kill me.
Day 51 Muscles Need Fuel
If you’d have told me in January that I’d be tackling a 60-Day Bikram Yoga Challenge as soon as we got back from Maui, I’d have snorted rum through my nose. I knew I’d be getting back into it, and I’d even tossed around the idea of a 30-Day Challenge, but 60?
And now I’m almost there. YAY ME!!!
Of course, this past weekend, I almost threw in the towel, so I better not get too cocky just yet.
It’s reassuring to have a strong day, especially after a few rough ones, and now I’ve had two strong days in a row. I did all my postures yesterday and today, even Camel, the deepest backward bend. My problem areas right now are my lower back and my right knee, who knows why. I haven’t hurt them, that I remember. Parts just seize up for no apparent reason, it seems, once you’re in your (ahem, late) forties. My hamstrings, of course, are still very tight, but they loosen up quickly in class. Will they ever stay more flexible? I doubt it. I spend too much time at my desk for that.
I find I’m less concerned about my weight – which still hasn’t changed much – and more focused on function and form. My back-fat and meat-flaps are still there, but they seem longer, distributed over visible muscles. I’m definitely leaner, according to the fit of my jeans, and lean and strong is good. Let’s face it: if I really want to lose weight, I have to eat less and I just don’t want it that badly.
If anything, I’m eating even more. I recall going through this earlier in the challenge. If I wasn’t in my (ahem, late) forties, I’d suspect PMS but that excuse is no longer reliable. I’m ravenous, especially at night. The other night, I got up three times between midnight and 6 am, because my stomach was hurting, I was so hungry. (Some yogurt first. An hour later, a half a banana. Two hours after that, a glass of milk, a fig bar and the rest of the banana.) Probably I wouldn’t have noticed if I’d been asleep, but that’s another joy of the peri-menopause stage: insomnia.
Anyway, I put those restless nights to good use, thinking about what I want to eat the next day. So, I’ve got a luscious lasagna bubbling in the oven right now, home-made with fresh pasta sheets, extra-lean ground beef, diced Italian plum tomatoes, ricotta, loads of spinach, and a mixture of Italian cheeses. Also, a loaf of two-cheese sourdough to go with it. Oh, and a strawberry-rhubarb pie for dessert.
Don’t judge me. I told you. I’m hungry.
Day 49 It’s All About Balance
*Warning: If you have a super-sensitive gag reflex, ie: you can’t change a diaper without a Haz-Mat suit, this post may not be suitable for you.*
Yoga’s about balance. Inside, and out. In this, my second 30-day Bikram yoga challenge, things are happening to my body on a cellular level. Muscles, ligaments, osteoblasts, osteoclasts, yada, yada. Structures are changing, got it.
I hadn’t thought about what might be happening on a chemical level. As in, electrolyte imbalance.
Everyone knows that during an illness involving a loss of fluids – like vomiting and diarrhea – the delicate balance of electrolytes can be disrupted. Sodium and potassium levels go out of whack, resulting in all sorts of problems, if left untreated long enough.
But excessive sweating also results in a loss of fluids. Ie: Bikram yoga. Duh.
Now, I don’t go anywhere without my trusty BPA-free water-bottle, and I down a LOT before and after a class. I know better than to let myself get dehydrated. And, if y’all recall my post on my special recovery drink, I thought I had the whole electrolyte thing covered.
That was before I did two classes in one day.
It was a slow process, but I think that was the tipping point. I’d been aware that, over the past 49 days, my gastro-intestinal system had been getting somewhat… unbalanced. Sluggish. Underperforming. Okay, backed up like the Number 1 Highway before the Port Mann bridge. I’ve always considered my colon one of my reliable organs, as opposed to my various defective ones, so this was disconcerting. My diet is good, lots of whole grains, fruits and veggies. So, WTF?
It must be cancer, was where my mind immediately went, naturally. But, upon further research, I think I stumbled upon a simpler cause: excessive sweating in yoga was making my bloodstream suck the fluid out of my intestines, and kids, that’s a place where you really want your liquids and your solids in perfect balance. I won’t go into details here, but you never appreciate your GI system until it’s not working properly. (And for the record, while I’m not squeamish – I love nothing better than a good projectile-anything story, like Dave Barry’s colonoscopy experience – my kids get snippy when I over-share. But for the right price…)
Anyway, desperate to reboot my colon, getting no love from Raisin Bran, flax cereal, prunes or Metamucil, I finally downed a few shots of Milk of Magnesia – which is quite tasty, by the way, creme de menthe with a medicinal finish – on Friday night, after my double-yoga-day.
It was that or dynamite.
Report: reboot successful. I stayed close to home yesterday. That sweet, minty taste packs quite a wallop.
I’ve learned my lesson. Now, in addition to my own recovery cocktail, I replenish my electrolytes with HydraLyte solution – which tastes like blackberry-infused sea-water – after every class. My colon and I are in a careful detente at the moment, but I’ll be watching.
I could use this as an excuse to quit, and I did skip several postures today but I’m going to try and hang in there for ten more days.
And the Milk of Magnesia’s going on the high shelf. Don’t get me wrong: I feel much better now. But that stuff is scary.