“focus on yourself for the next 90 minutes,” says a voice in my head. “look at yourself in the mirror, and realize that you are looking into the eyes of your own best teacher.”
as i stand toe to toe, beads of sweat are beginning to form on my brows. i can feel them crawling slowly through my back, neck, and chest and i haven’t flexed a muscle yet. the blowers arrayed throughout the studio aren’t air conditioners, they’re space heaters, designed to keep the room temperature at a toasty 38 degrees celsius. not quite the sauna sensation people warned me about, it feels more like stepping out of an air-conditioned car into a hot summer’s day. the heated room is meant to facilitate stretching by warming up the muscles, and promote detoxification through sweat, lots of it.
after two warm-up rounds of pranayama breathing exercises and halfway through the 26 asanas (yogic poses) i stare blankly at what seemed like an impossible pose to me. i chugged in some water, resisting the urge to wipe off the perspiration that’s about to get into my eyes, inhaled heavily and started to get into the asana. by this time, i am sweating profusely, unable to breathe, exhausted, light headed and my heart feels like it’s going to pump out of my body. my dry fit shorts are literally soaked. and when i say soaked, i mean it feels like i just got off a pool of sweat, that kind of soak. as i try to endure the heat of the room, i am thinking how badly i want to step into my car, turn the a/c on, listen to the latest chill out tunes as i drive home to sleep. but i make an effort to focus and try the best i could to follow the postures so i can get the most out of the asanas.
the ninety minutes passed like my heart rate. the elegant hardwood floors of the studio are glistening with droplets of sweat, and i can see and feel myself glowing with a new-found feeling of well-being, energy and tranquility. hopefully, when i wake up the next morning with every muscle sore, the memory of this feeling will carry me through to the next workout.
as i head off to shower, unable to believe that i lived through the ordeal, i told myself, “ah, so this is bikram yoga!” a.k.a. hot yoga, it is to yoga what starbucks is to coffee, i jokingly told my yoga-mate. meaning, it has the zest yoga lacks, it’s my cup of tea although more expensive by 50 to more than a 100% depending on your choice of class, it’s a cup of affogato with an extra shot of espresso, giving one practitioner the added zing. and more importantly, it’s what’s hot, trendy and cool as of the moment-the very reason why every body wants to have a taste of it.
i’ve been into the practice of yoga for a little over two years now. looking back, i blame the celebrity factor for the absurd yoga boom. Madonna does it, Oprah does it, J. Lo does it, Woody Harrelson teaches it and supermodel Christy Turlington came out on the cover of Time Magazine to promote it. every body else seems to be doing it, so it must be THAT good.
a prospective yogi has different types of yoga instruction to choose from. in the age of media mass marketing, even yoga comes in brands. there’s Iyengar, Ashtanga, Kundalini and now, Bikram. i vowed to the practice of ashtanga vinyasa yoga ever since. this method involves synchronizing the breath while moving into and out of each asana in a well-defined set of movement called suryanamaska (sun-salutation) combined with ujayii breathing —a process that produces intense internal heat and a profuse, purifying sweat that detoxifies muscles and organs.
so when i heard about bikram yoga, i didn’t even consider it. thinking i’m good enough with the kind of yoga i have learned to love. not to mention the many desperate measures i placed myself under to lose the baby fats-swimming, badminton, belly dancing, street dancing, hitting the gym, aerobics, aero-striptease, pilates, tae-boxing and every drastic measure one can think of. i am getting sick of the gym and aero; tae-bo strains my feet a lot; swimming makes my hair and skin dry; stripteasing can only be done in the privacy of one’s home, unless you’d want to be labeled immoral by many judgmental and narrow minded people; the ashtanga yoga and dancing part – i love dearly, but curiosity got the best of me so i decided to give bikram yoga a try.
after undergoing a “yoga bake-off” everyday for the last two weeks it became a favorite. true to it’s yogic philosophy every session, i find myself dead beat, yet strangely energised at the same time. although i have been a yoga practitioner for a while now, i find bikram the most detoxifying of all since the 90-minute session, composed of 26 asanas, got everyone sweating like mad. aside from the obvious weight loss, the biggest attraction for me is that you don’t have to be a Chinese acrobat to get into the poses. the whole process allows you to regain your birthright by; aligning the spine, cleansing the internal organs, improving the nervous system and joint mobility. the practice also promotes stress reduction and clarity of mind (miraculously, taking my mind off shopping and credit bills).
the physical, mental and emotional well-being of a person is greatly improved with any form of yoga, but Bikram has more noticeable results, and for me a glowing skin, internal cleansing and a healthy mind and body is enough reason to get hooked. and if that’s not enough reason for you to go, how about this… a studio full of good looking men and women who are almost naked. haha
kidding aside, yoga is generally good for everyone no matter what size, age and flexibility level you’re in so you might as well give it a try and say hello to a new you: a younger looking, physically fit, mentally at peace, supermodel postured, and toned down you. believe me, once one gets used to the heat, the sessions are bearable. “dandayamana-dhanurasana or standing bow pulling pose” is the code name of my favorite, next to “savasana,” the corpse pose, it made me believe that one day in my practice i’ll be able to do the most difficult of poses.
interested? check out bikram yoga manila, the first and only accredited bikram yoga studio in the philippines.
mood inspired by Tamia’s so into you ::..
