First Timer | Bikram Yoga North Brisbane

12 Feb 2016

Sticky Post By Rachel Posted in First Timer, Yoga Permalink

Five reasons to give Bikram Yoga another chance

Sticky Post By Rachel On February 12, 2016

1 – Healing – Bikram Hot Yoga has been used by many practitioners and teachers alike to help with and often alleviate back pain, knee pain, arthritis, and so much more. The raised temperature of the yoga room combined with the specific series of postures (done twice) & Savasanas help to realign your body. Through realigning yourself and learning to work the correct muscle groups, not only can you alleviate existing issues, but also ward off future problems. The yoga promotes the movement of fresh oxygenated blood around the body, assisting and promoting healing . If you have an injury, it is imperative to speak to your doctor/pyhsio/ chiropractor/ therapist etc., to confirm they believe you are in a fit state to participate in this form of strenuous exercise. We would then ask that you arrive at least 20 mins prior to the start of class to fully discuss your injury with BYC staff and your teacher. The yoga can help, but only if we listen to our body and our teachers. Never push into anything that is painful & never alter the postures to suit you. Even if we can only do 1% of the posture, but we are doing it correctly, in the correct alignment, we will see the benefit. A study in 2013, on the effect of heat & cold on the human knee, concluded ” Heat is beneficial in increasing muscle and ligament flexibility and may help reduce athletic injuries”. (Effect of heat and cold on tendon flexibility and force to flex the human knee Jerrold Scott Petrofsky, Michael Laymonand Haneul Lee)

2 – Stress Relief – You wouldn’t often associate sweating for 90 minutes in a room heated to 40C with relaxation, but we are here to tell you Bikram Hot Yoga is a wonderful stress buster! This may not have been your experience from your first class – it was not ours – but we promise, give it a few classes and you will understand what we are talking about!

3 – Improved Flexability – Research has shown that heating our muscles improves their flexibility, safely. The heat of a Hot Bikram Yoga Class allows practitioners to safely move deeper into posturers. If we listen to the feedback of our body and take ourselves to the edge of our personal range, each and every class, our muscles listen and this range improves, improving our flexibility.

4 – Strength & Toning – All weight bearing exercise, when done regularly and correctly, tone and strengthen. Each and every posture in the Hot Bikram yoga serious is specifically designed to use your own body weight, to help build the strength and tone in your muscles. As you are using your own body weight, it is safe to practise everyday (should you so wish). In Bikram Hot Yoga, as with most forms of exercise, you only get out what you put in. Moving into the postures alone will not magically transform your body. It is your effort level, combined with the design of the postures, that will create the results you want.

5 – Weight Loss – The cardiovascular nature of some of the class, combined with the strengthening effect of all of the postures, can lead to weight loss. However, exercise is only part of the weight loss story, combined with a health balanced diet, and this is where the real results are shown. Warning, if you are a ‘scale addict’: muscle weighs more than fat, so, as you are melting away your fat and building lovely lean muscles, the scales may not change, or they may even go up! However, the results will be obvious in how you feel (and in your clothes!). On this weighty note, we feel it is important to let you know that we believe that being healthy is what is truly important.

Health, generosity, kindness, enthusiasm, warmth: these are the qualities that make a person a beautiful and should make you feel beautiful! It is easy to say it, but not as easy to live it!

How about we change our perspective together?

Connect with yourself in the mirror and realise that you are beautiful. Beauty is a feeling that comes from within. Cheesy as it may sound, try it!

We have one life and one body, in which to live. Treat it well.

Let’s build our body confidence together, in the room, on the mat. Build your strength, build your health, build your focus, feel the power that is you and your body. Work together to share your energy. You are beautiful. We are beautiful. Together we are all beautiful.

09 Jan 2016

Sticky Post By Rachel Posted in First Timer, Yoga Permalink

A yoga teacher’s letter to her first time student

Sticky Post By Rachel On January 9, 2016

Dear First Timer:

You don’t even realize how amazing you were throughout your first class! You stayed in that hot, sticky, drippy room the entire time. You followed instruction. You took a seat when you needed one. You even found stillness during Savasana.

I know you are doubting these words right now. I know that you looked at the folks in the front row and had the thought, “That will never be me. They must have been born with freakish flexibility or godly strength,” but I’m here to tell you that they started the same way you did, following along, trying their best, and wondering how they had found themselves in this crazy yoga class. The only thing they did that others sometimes do not, is come back. And not just a couple of times, but again and again and again as they looked for a way to master the class, to master their body, their mind, and their breath. To master their lives.

I wish that for you. That you come back. That you try again. You might have resistance to this practice. You might find an excuse why it isn’t for you. It was too hot. The teacher was too loud, their voice booming through the microphone, so that you cannot even pretend that you cannot hear them. And at times they even called out your name to encourage or correct you and you wished with every loud beat of your heart pounding in your ears that they would simply leave you alone. It was too bright and and the mirrors were too much, as you watched your face get an alarming shade of red you had never witnessed before. You might even have a headache tonight as your body urges you to drink more water and eat better food after you dripped with what seemed like buckets of sweat throughout the class.

I hear you. Yoga is not easy. It is a challenge. Taking up a regular yoga practice is one of the bravest things you can do in life. It means you are willing to become better than you are today. It means you are ready to take responsibility for your own life’s story and face yourself on the soul level for at least an hour, day after day, to see where you are locked up both physically and mentally in order to free yourself from past injury and emotional turmoil. It is more than a workout. It is a work in.

I hope I see you in my class again. For me, there’s nothing better than sharing this yoga and I want to share it with you. I look forward to the day you look in the mirrors and smile at what you see or maybe even pull your mat up to the front row, so you can really get a good look at you and your practice and where you are in that moment. For someday, if you stick with it, you will find your own strength and your own flexibility, in and out of the studio and you, my friend, will shine.

Sincerely,

Your Yoga Teacher

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