Made it through week 7, still smiling...

Bikram Yoga Teacher Training has BEGUN! (It started 7 weeks ago but now, the heat is ON.) Temperatures in Las Vegas were in the 90's at the beginning of the week but by the end, the temperature was in the 100's and it was H-O-T in the yoga room! Now THAT is how we like it! (I'm secretly happy it hasn't been like this the whole time, I think I might have died...although, they say we aren't lucky enough to die in the yoga room so I suppose I would have just suffered mercifully.) It was a short week because of Memorial Day but that didn't stop Bikram from sharing his wisdom and favorite movies well into the night; we were saved by a technical issue one night. Our yoga classes this week rocked, literally.

 I do hot yoga right? Ok, so that is suppose to mean I LIKE a hot room, right? Wrong. I hate being hot and I hate sweating. So why do I subject myself to heat and sweat for 90 minutes twice a day? Because I like to suffer for 90 minutes rather than 90 years...oh, and because it feels so great to walk out of the room, sweaty and tired, the air, no matter the temperature feels cool and refreshing. It doesn't matter how tired or exhausted I am when I start, I feel alive and energized at the end. That is pretty much how this week went. Was exhausted most of the week, physically and mentally. Walked into the yoga room and whoosh, a blast of hot, steamy air hit me in the face...every class, every day, twice a day. WOW! HOT! The misters were claimed well before class started, what was left was just hot, not that being under a mister is that much better but any little bit helps when you think you might pass out.

So I'm tired from yoga twice a day, posture clinic, lecture and movies...and here comes a power house teacher from Texas kicking our butts in yoga class, in a HOT yoga class. Wow. Lisa Ingle rocked out the yoga room with a fantastic class this week. She gave us exactly what we needed, a tough, but good, very good class. She played Bob Marley after the last savasana and everyone got up and started dancing, it was so great. My roommate and I even got up and danced around. A great ending to a wonderful class.

Wednesday I discovered ice. I mean, I know what ice is, I don't live in the dark ages. I noticed though several people were bringing in ice in little baggies. After a really hot class where I secretly wanted to bad things to happen to everyone I saw enjoying their ice in class, I decided I would try it too. I took ice in to two classes last week. Oh my gosh, how nice! You can do lots of things with it too, put some under your towel, lay on it like a pillow, suck on the ice through a posture, let ice roll off of you in savasana, stick ice in your bra top, etc. Believe me, I found many ways to enjoy the ice and distract myself and believe me, it is a distraction! I don't recommend it. It is nice in the short term but long term, you can't concentrate on the yoga really at all because your brain is so fixated on the darn ice and how you can get another piece without the teacher seeing. So the moral is, suffer the proper way, receive the proper benefit. "99% right is 100% wrong" ~ Bikram

And speaking of Bikram, how great is it he loves to share is movies with us? Uh, it is super great! (yea, that's the right answer.) One night we were in the middle of several episodes of Mahabharata and all the sudden the screen went blank. The bulb burnt out in the projector! LOL Now if that isn't a sign I don't know what is. So funny. Poor Bikram, poor us. We had to go to bed. LOL Not to worry, he caught us up on everything the next time.

Can't believe it's almost over, just two more weeks. I have almost made it. Amazing. So excited for the new possibilities life has to offer. 

Best quote is posture clinic:
Teacher to student after delivering dialog. "how is your breathing?"
Student "Shocking"

When all else fails, just roll with it.

 Joseph and me before yoga class

Amazing, It's already week 7 of my Bikram Yoga Training! I can't believe it, time has really flown by. I started week 6 feeling sore and my sciatica was really getting to me but after rolling my butt on the floor and on the foam roller, I managed to somewhat fix my sciatic issues. Bikram was here the first part of the week, we had lectures on fascia best of all, Joseph Encinia was here! Plus, Bikram gave us a nice surprise and gave us Monday off!

Have you ever tried to fix a problem without knowing really where the problem is? It's the hunt and peck method I think, just trying different fixes until something works. That was me with my sciatic nerve issues. Our anatomy teacher had convinced me, not because he told me specifically but because I deduced from his lectures, my sciatic nerve was pressed against a gluteus muscle and THAT was what was causing the nerve to express pain. Fine I thought, I'll foam roll my butt. Which I did, with not much success. Then on day, I think it was Monday after class, I started rolling my butt on the floor. It looks a little funny but us very effective. I could totally feel the knots in my muscles. It sounds weird but I had knots in my butt! So, I rolled around for a bit in the hot room and felt a noticeable difference in my glutes. Not much difference in my sciatic nerve. So I foam rolled more and rolled a little farther down, kind of where my "cheek" meets the back of the thigh. OH MY GOSH! Man, did THAT hurt! AH HA! Now we are talking...So I rolled around on that area for a bit and wow, I could feel the spot where I "think" I twisted something in November, when all my issues started. Long story short, I am foam rolling every day and this is the first week I have been able to actually lock out my knees in Hands to Feet and Standing Head to Knee without pain in my glutes and leg. YEA! Love the foam roller.

Now after I fixed one part of my sciatic nerve issue, I found another. Only after sitting in lecture for hmm...4 plus hours did I find an annoying, shooting pain in the side hip area. Now because I like to self diagnose, I quickly decided I had alleviated one knotted muscle but hadn't fixed the other so now instead of pain in one area, it was now showing up on the other side. So frustrating! I squirmed around in my chair as long as I could but ultimately decided I had to get up, even if it was Bikram lecturing, I just couldn't take it anymore. I finally got up and walked around outside for a minute.

Enough about my sciatica. Who cares about that anyway? LOL Besides, Joseph Encinia was in town, that is WAY more important than my health issues. It was so exciting, I saw a guy that looked like Joseph walking down towards the tent with Dom, as I got closer I realized it WAS Joseph! It is so awesome to see people at training that are from Dallas, it brings a little bit of home to the yoga bubble. Even though Joseph hasn't been in Dallas for a few years now, we all still think of him as part of the Dallas studio.

Joseph taught one of our yoga classes, he was awesome of course. His energy and passion for Bikram Yoga and life in general radiates from him in every possible way. You can't help but be inspired to be more, try harder, give more. Joseph was the first person in Dallas to suggest I should come to teacher training, even before he was a teacher himself. I didn't believe then that I could possible do this training. To have him here watching me go through training is one of the greatest feelings.

Bikram also had Joseph come up and demonstrate his winning competition routine, in jeans no less! Here are some of his postures.

 Standing Head to Knee, no hands

 Standing Bow Pulling Pose

 Peacock Pose

 Scorpion Pose

He left today for India, he going to teaching for Bikram at a studio in Mumbai. I was tearing up as I gave him one last hug today before class.