Bikram, Day 7
It’s been one week of Bikram now.
Today was OK, my body was resisting more than I like. But I still felt I pushed myself. It’s never about putting in the time, I really want to focus and make the time matter when I commit to things.
There’s so much going on at once in that class, sometimes I just pull back and focus on breathing. There’s an impulse to hold your breath in a pose, but you really should push through it, use the breath to help deepen the posture, etc.
I spoke to today’s teacher after class, since I’m not very flexible, so I was curious how to know which thing to focus on. Like if one pose says to keep your righty foot on the ground, but then lunge sideways to the left, keeping your left thigh parallel to the floor, to me those are either/or situations. I can either keep my foot grounded, or set the left leg properly, but not both. So, she said to always go by what they say first. If the position starts with the foot plated, make that my mission, and then only work the left leg until it starts to affect the right’s ability to stay in position.
Also, I was curious, so I started reading about Bikram, the guy who started the class. I was expecting the usual sunshine and light that often permeates this side of things. But, well, he sort of sounds like an arrogant prick. So… I’ll just stick with the class and not delve deeper into the guy behind it all.
Despite his attempt to copyright the series, they are all standard yoga asanas, so I’m improving either way. If I decide to do something aside from Bikram at some point, it’s all to the good, so I’ll continue.
