Bikram yoga

Submitted by hockeyMom on August 8, 2012 - 10:32am
Body: 

Since incorporating the WW posture about 1.5 years now, I have managed to go back to doing my Bikram yoga classes while always maintaining my lifted chest/lumbar curve. I have found that I can do all the postures now (except for the transition sit-up from the floor - nope don't need that!).

Not one teacher has ever called me out for doing anything weird so I can only assume that the posture does not seem wrong to them at all. I have talked to a few of my teachers about prolapse and the posture, and just the other day in class I heard one of them during modified tree pose (it is a little different than some) say, "DON'T TUCK YOUR BUM, but maintain your normal spinal curve". Egads, perhaps there is hope after all :-)

Forum:

yogimae

August 8, 2012 - 1:03pm

Hi Hockey Mom!
I have often wondered about returning to Bikram Yoga since my prolapse. I did it for years and then stopped doing it for other reasons than my prolapse.. mostly due to pain in the joints and some over active energy it caused me from the heat.... although I loved it!
Having practiced many forms of yoga and teaching yoga for years here is one concern I can say about Bikram and the way it may conflict with Prolapse/Whole Woman Posture.... Bikram will eventually call you out for not having locked knees! They will want to see that you have locked the knees to be in the full posture. Locked knees will automatically divert the energy of the balanced position of hips, pelvis and low back ... it all stops in the knees instead of going up though your spine to the top of your head. If you can try and practice without knees locked I think it might actually be a great yoga practice combined with the whole woman posture.

hockeyMom

August 8, 2012 - 2:14pm

Hi Yogimae

Thanks for your comments. I was unsure of going back to Bikram, but I returned after I felt I had a good grasp of the WW posture and pelvic support principles. I thought I would just try it, skip anything that felt bad, think about why and how to do it carefully and it seems to not be a problem for me.

I have no doubt that I probably do not lock my knee as Bikram would want! But I don't plan on attending his class any time soon :-). That being said, none of the teachers at my studio have any issues with how I do it. I really only think about contracting my thigh muscles, not locking the knee per se. I am not the most flexible person anyway, and so I don't go very deep into most poses as is. Going to deep in a pose and straining to hold it are two big detriments to prolapse, along with bad posture for pelvic organ support, as far as myself goes. I am very careful to never strain and create intra-abdominal pressure, if I feel it I back off the pose immediately. In fact the WW awareness has helped me to be more relaxed within the poses as I am now aware when I am straining or pushing myself to far. Also, keeping the chest lifted has made me more balanced.

The studio I practice at is quite liberal and non-dogmatic and the teachers only seem to call people out if they think you are going to hurt yourself by doing something in a dangerous way. In fact they encourage that you listen to your own body and do what you can.

I have chosen to interpret "locked knee" as being aware of contracting my thigh muscle and not bending my knee (either forward or backward), rather than to keep my knee in any extreme locked position. I want my knee neutral in the pose. I have a bone cyst at the bottom of the femur of my left knee and believe me I know when I am overusing my knee.

wholewomanUK

August 9, 2012 - 4:18am

Hi Hockymom,
Sounds great that you're able to pursue a form of yoga that you love whilst incorporating the WW principles and posture. I think if you have enough understanding of the WW work, get to know your body and listen to your body, then it can work for you. A great mindfulness practice!
Happy yoga :) xwholewomanuk

hockeyMom

August 9, 2012 - 10:30am

Hi wwUK,

Knowledge is empowerment for sure!

I must say that it is thanks to Christine that I was able to return to Bikram yoga. Her paper on the need for a women's yoga, and what is dangerous for prolapse within traditional yoga really opened my eyes and made me quite critical of what is being asked of me within a class. Just because someone says "do this" I no longer feel compelled to if I think it is a bad idea. Seeing her modifications to the traditional poses helped me to understand how to critique the poses in Bikram to be safe for me.

Also, I have the First Wheel yoga, and I love it and do the beginning yoga sequence at the end of all my workouts at the gym now. It gives you a good sense of how exercises that are beneficial will feel.

It took me awhile to fully understand that the WW exercises really end up strengthening your body in a way so as to fully support the WW posture. Once I got that, it seems liked it all kind of clicked and the improvement in my POP has been great. I do believe that understanding what an exercise is to achieve helps the mind focus and the body will respond to that.

MsNightingale

August 9, 2012 - 2:08pm

Thank you for sharing this post. It will help me and all of us in the future. I have not moved beyond the First Wheel and DVD for prolapse, but I so love hearing that you have that knowledge now to know what to and not to do. Getting there little by little. Best wishes to you.

Christine

August 9, 2012 - 4:59pm

It is beyond satisfying to hear women's stories of returning to natural posture. Love the revolution we all have created.

I'm recovering from running from one end of the city to the other yesterday - barefoot. Not really, but we decided to add an "outro" at the end of the new WWY3 dvd, as we've done with the others in the series. So...we started in the desert in the morning and finished up in the mountains at the end of the day. I was dressed in bright yellow leotards and my camera-woman kept dumping me out at different locations to run while she filmed. We got a lot of raised eyebrows in the city!

So happy to be doing this work!

Christine