Without a doubt I give primary credit to my current health and vitality to my daily Bikram Yoga practice. I started practicing in Whistler and Vancouver 10 years ago, and I’ve never looked back. As a competitive snowboarder and lifelong athlete, I had done some serious damage to my body over the years, but with time, yoga has given me back my youthful flexibility and then some. I was never able to do the splits as a young girl, even though I competed as a dancer, (a tap dancer, can you believe it?) so in no way did I have a history of being flexible.
So how did I do it? I started off by just coming to class a few times a week, and then after a few months, when school pressures were getting me down, I started to go almost every day. After about 3 months of this, I did a 180 with my life and headed down to L.A. to immerse myself in a Bikram Teacher Training. At Bikram’s College, we do 11 classes/week for 9 weeks, as well as over 8 hours a day of lectures, posture clinics, and whatever else Bikram has in store for us. At training, I met a bunch of incredible yogis who told me about the Advanced Bikram series, and the athlete in me was hooked. I asked the more flexible guys and girls to give me some exercises to do, and I made it my regular habit to come into class 20 minutes early and work on my splits. I started to practice the Advanced Series whenever I could make it to L.A. and learn directly from the great Emmy Cleaves. And I just continued to plug away at the Beginners Series on a daily basis. I competed in the Bishnu Ghosh Yoga cup 5 years, and during my final two years, I decided to really take my training to another level and I went to a coaching clinic in Boulder, CO, to train with Esak Garcia, the first International Men’s Champion, with about 20 other eager yogis. He introduced me to daily deep backbending, as well as several other exercises, and that changed everything for me.
What do I now do? Now, I am more interested in maintenance rather than improvement. I spend a lot of time training in the gym, and I don’t want to lose the flexibility I’ve gained. At the same time, I always want to leave the door open for sudden leaps in evolution, (that’s how it kind of happens with yoga, you just wake up one day and can suddenly lock out in Standing Bow after years and years of frustration). So now, I do 20 – 40 backbends against a wall before class, and then I do the splits 3 ways, holding for about 30 seconds. I then do a stretch for Standing Bow on the floor, and that’s about it for pre-class stretching. Post class, I do the Tortoise Series from the advanced class, (that’s where you put your legs behind your head) and finish with Guillotene pose. Then I do Leg-Breaking or Bow-Legged Pose, and end with 5 Handstands, one Handstand Scorpion, and one Handstand Lotus, and then Nuali Breathing. These last exercises are my “work-in-progress” and keep me eager to grow and change….
Videos of the advanced series are here on the blog and on you tube…Hope that helps you!
Nothing compares to regular, dedicated practice and bottomless patience….
Happy New Year!!
