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Post #53 – How to Optimize Your Immune System? –  Part III  – with Exercise

30 Monday May 2016

Posted by in Aging, Living to 120, Optimal Exercise, Optimal Health, Puposely Living, Vigor, Vitality, wellness, Yoga

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In Post #51, I discussed some basic terminology of the immune systems, how immune system works, and what kinds of issues happen when it does not work.

Things that are in our control to enhance our immunity and also so the immune system does not go haywire are the ones that you have heard about gazillions of time by now and are probably tired of hearing about: Nutrition, Exercise and Lifestyle.

In Post #52, we discussed how to boost your immune system with nutrition.   In this post, let’s focus on how and what type of Exercise can boost the immune system.

Impact of exercise on Immune systems

Quite a bit of research is available on how exercise impacts the immune system, although most of it is about impact of exercise on colds and flu. Based on the available research, here are some theories why exercise helps improve the immunity:

  • Physical activity may help flush bacteria out of the lungs and airways. This may reduce your chance of getting a cold, flu, or other airborne illness.
  • Exercise causes changes in antibodies and white blood cells (the body’s immune system cells that fight disease). These antibodies or white blood cells circulate more rapidly, so they could detect illnesses earlier than they might have before.
  • The brief rise in body temperature during and right after exercise may prevent bacteria from growing. This temperature rise may help the body fight infection more effectively. (This is similar to what happens when you have a fever.)
  • Exercise slows down the release of stress-related hormones. Some stress increases the chance of illness. Lower stress hormones may protect against illness.

Getting a little deeper into the subject, here are some findings from some specific studies:

  1. Exercise can provoke moderate acute elevations in IL-6 exerting anti-inflammatory effects
  2. Exercise increases numbers of Neutrophils, T and B lymphocytes, and NK cells – all key components of the immune system
  3. Exercise improves antigen specific T cell function for better protection from infectious agents and greater immunosurveillance
  4. Exercise enhances a variety of macrophage biology and capacities
  5. Exercise improves gut microbiota,  i.e., the bacteria collection in the gut

But how much exercise should you do?

We have all heard that exercise is good for you.  And, as this blog post is emphasizing, among other things, exercise also enhances the immune system. But how much exercise?

In this study, the researchers examined three groups of people: elite athletes, recreational athletes, and sedentary controls. Their results were kind of interesting:

  • The elite athletes had the most upper respiratory issues (66% got sick).
  • The couch potatoes were next (45% got sick).
  • The recreational athletes were the healthiest (22% got sick).

All kinds of other research has found the same thing, so exercise scientists tend to use a J-shaped curve to model the immune effects of exercise. It looks like this:

immunity vs exercise

So one thing is clear, moderate exercise is significantly better for you than no exercise at all. If you are sedentary, it does not seem to take much to get the benefits of improved immune system. For example, daily walking for one hour at a 60 to 65% maximum heart rate (computed as 220-your age) gets you near the optimal range in the above chart.

From the chart, it is clear that there is a point where the benefit of training stops and the negative effect of over-training on the immune system sets in. This literature review article, goes into much more specifics on the kind of exercise that produces the immune-suppressant, i.e., harmful, response:

  • Relatively long workouts (1.5 hours or more), especially without refueling during the workout.
  • A reasonably high intensity, but not excessively difficult (since you have to be able to keep it up for a while).
  • An inadequate recovery period between workouts.

Basically, the kind of grueling training elite athletes often go through preparing for a competition, such as running a marathon.

This article puts it slightly differently:

“No activity is worse than some, while too much may be worse than none at all. The ideal lies somewhere in between – though not necessarily in the middle, but rather smack dab in the “just enough” section. Can “just enough” be quantified? Perhaps it could be quantified using a battery of round-the-clock tests and measurements of anabolic and catabolic hormones, various serum concentrations, lactate build-up, cortisol, testosterone ratios, etc., but that would be expensive, unwieldy, and completely individualized. … If you want to avoid over-training, there are some grand, overarching principles to follow, but you’ll also want to pay attention to certain personal, entirely subjective cues.

That’s what my trainer and yoga teachers call “listening to your body”. There are days, when I am feeling physically ragged since I may not have slept well, or I may be catching a virus, or am feeling physically exhausted or whatever.   In such situations, I need to carefully “listen to my body” and either take it easier than usual or just totally skip the session.

Bottom Line

To optimize immune systems, exercise plays a critical role. It only takes a moderate amount of exercise to get the optimal benefit of exercise for improving immune system. For example any of these activities or some combination of these done daily would optimize the immune systems:

  1. walking for 1 hour at a pace of 60-65% of maximum heart rate of approximately 220 minus your age,
  2. An hour long yoga routine,
  3. A strength training session with body weight or light weights could do the trick

On the other hand, extended periods of over-training can compromise and may lead to sub-optimal immune system. It is more difficult to define over-training with objective measures and may depend upon many individual factors.  It is best to listen to your body and develop a subjective feel for what level of exercise may be “just right” for you for optimal immune system.

 

What are your thoughts on this subject?

Would love to hear from you and learn from you.

Please click on Comment to leave your comments or question so others can benefit from your input.

 

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Post #30 – How much and what type of exercise do you need for optimal health?

15 Monday Dec 2014

Posted by in Bikram Yoga, Living to 120, Optimal Exercise, Vigor, Vitality, wellness, Yoga

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We have all heard exercise is important for good health.

But how much exercise and what kind of exercise, do we need for optimal health? As soon as you ask that question, the answer is not that clear anymore.

Here are some of the answers you might get if you ask around that question:

“Any exercise is better than none”

“At least three days a week, thirty minutes each day”

“More is not necessarily better”

“Start slow and then keep increasing the intensity and time”

“Three days of aerobics and three days strength training”

Most of these answers seem either arbitrary or quite useless, if you are in pursuit of  optimal health. Most of the people you ask either don’t know the answer or assume that you may not be able to handle the real answer or might get discouraged if you knew the real answer.

Just like the way I posed on question on nutrition, let me restate the question, “If there were no excuses, what should be the optimal amount and type of exercises for optimal health?”

No excuses: I am too fat, I am too slow, I don’t have enough time, I am not in shape, my — hurts, I don’t feel well enough, I am too young, I am too old… None of such excuses allowed.

There are so many options available for exercising:

  1. Aerobic Exercises – Walking, Jogging, Running, Cycling, Swimming, Hiking, Rowing, Stair Stepping, jumping rope, and so on.
  2. Cardio Exercises – Generally same as aerobic, done a little more intensely.
  3. Resistance or Strength Training – Working with free weights, body-weight exercises, working with nautilus machines, working with Kettlebells
  4. Cross-fit – Aerobic, cardio, strength training are all combined in the same sessions
  5. Balancing Exercises – Using BOSU balance trainer, medicine ball or simply using body alone
  6. Yoga/Pilates – there are many different types of yoga ranging from simple and easy postures to intense yoga practices like Vinyasa, Iyengar or Bikram yoga
  7. Stretching Exercises – to build and retain flexibility
  8. Musco-skeletal alignment Exercises – For example Egoscue eCises
  9. Breathing Exercise or Pranayama – help cleanse the body and build aerobic capacity.
  10. Endurance Training – Running longer distances for building endurance
  11. Interval Training – alternating between high and low intensity to increase capacity
  12. Rebounding – jumping on trampoline
  13. Exercise to improve reaction times – those involve catching
  14. Myofascial exercises – Rolling using foam rollers for myofascial alignment

Lots of choices. So, how do we sort through all this stuff?

It is a good question, Is n’ it?

In the process of writing this blog, I thought, as usual, I would find some additional information and also sort out information I have in my head to-date and share that knowledge.

Well, I got stuck right here while writing this blog.

So I took a break and finished reading the book, I recently bought: “Which Comes First, Cardio or Weights? Fitness Myths, Training Truths and Other Surprising Discoveries from the Science of Exercise”, by Alex Hutchison, Ph.D.

Picture 2

The book offers answers to numerous frequently asked questions regarding exercise citing the latest in scientific research in the field of Sports Medicine. And, of course, that includes, the very poignant question on the book cover.

If you want to get to the punchline from the book, here is an excerpt from the last chapter where Hutchison offers the following as a summary:

“..Knowing is half the battle. The other half is the real challenge – putting the knowledge into practice. To that end, I hope you’ll take the following three messages from this book:

  1. Do Something rather than nothing: …if there’s one overriding theme in the research presented here, it’s that any exercise, in almost any amount, brings significant and immediate health benefits. Start doing it, and worry about getting it right later.
  2. Figure out your goals and monitor your progress: …Think carefully about what you hope to achieve in six months, a year, five years – bearing in mind the aphorism that most people overestimate what they can achieve in the short term and underestimate what they can achieve over the long term. Choose a program that will move you toward those goals and monitor your progress.. If you don’t start to see progress after 6 to 12 months, consider whether your program is appropriate for you goals.
  3. Try something new. Whenever researchers line up two or more exercise techniques against each other, the conclusion is almost never “A is better than B” or “A and B are the same”. Instead, it’s, “A has these strengths and weaknesses, while B has these strengths and weaknesses” Moreover, all programs suffer from diminishing returns after a few years… Trying something new every now and then will force your body to adapt in new ways, keep you mentally fresh.”

Well, this is not quite the answer I was searching for. But it seems to be the reality out there.

It is also a good working strategy. And, is pretty close to the one I have personally been following.

What do you think?

What are your thoughts on this topic?

I would love to hear from you.

 

Post #12 – My SECOND Year of Experience with Bikram Yoga

20 Tuesday May 2014

Posted by in Bikram Yoga, Living to 120, Vigor, Vitality, Yoga

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Here is my SECOND year of experience with Bikram Yoga that I wrote down in February 2014. This makes a nice sequel to my last week’s blog post, where I shared the first year of experience.

Today is Presidents Day 2014, two years after I started the Bikram Yoga. It seems like a good time to reflect on my progress with Bikram Yoga.

Experimenting for Regaining Control of Breath

At the beginning of my second year, I started experimenting and also talked to various teachers about my desire to keep control of my breath and conserve energy to perfect my poses. Most of the teachers discouraged skipping an asana, emphasizing that that asana are designed with certain flow in mind. Best suggestion, I thought, came from Rosa. She advised to do the first sets as easy as I needed to and then give my all in the second sets.

I started this technique with almost skipping the first sets. Then slowly I started to do the firsts sets lightly to build endurance and maintain form. I would then give my all in the second set, reminding myself that I could always skip the first set of the following asana if I needed to regain control of my breath. I felt better and better with this method.

Reintroducing Strength Training

One downside I found for doing Bikram only was that after a year I started to feel that my strength was waning. I did not feel as confident in simple things like lifting my laptop brief case, which is about 30lbs. In April 2013, Kimberly and I restarted working out with our trainer Saleem for one day every week. Initially, I would do three times Bikram and one time Saleem every week. For the last few months, I have settled into twice Bikram and one time Saleem. With Saleem’s workouts, my strength is definitely back. With Birkram twice a week, I am able to maintain the flexibility and balance.

Visit to the Egoscue Clinic – Crooked Body Fixers

Another thing I was quite encouraged by was improvements in my knee pain through Bikram. So, I decided to see if I could really get them to be 100% cured. For that I decided to visit with the local Egoscue Clinic. Kristen Thor, the therapist there, showed me that my knees were misaligned in that they were pronated, i.e., faced outwards. Although, knees were my major concern why I went to her, she also showed me that the reason my right shoulders kept getting stiff whenever I worked out with heavy weights is that my upper body was misaligned in that my right shoulder was rotated forward. That, she said, was also the reason why my right wrist would hurt when I would put weight on it, for example, when I did pushups. She was clearly able to demonstrate these issues.

As she worked through those issues, I also told her about my awkwardness with the Awkward Pose (Utkat Aasna) or even weighted squats. For that she showed me that my upper back lacked flexibility and did not have the proper curvature. This made it difficult for me to balance when I did the Awkward Pose or the squats. For years, Saleem and my sons have been telling me to stick my butt out while squatting, which was hard to do, according to Kristen, if my upper back did not provide me the counter balance when I was sticking my butt out.

Finally, I talked to her about how it felt difficult and my back used to get really tired when I was doing the Standing Head to Knee Pose (Dandyamana Janusheer Aasna). For that, she told me that my hips were not open and flexible enough.

So, over a period of about seven months, I worked with her. I started to feel improvements with my posture in general, my Saleem workouts, and the Bikram poses. Knees got even better. Finally, she gave me routines to do before doing my Saleem and Bikram sessions. Pre-Saleem exercises are to warm up my shoulders before the workout. Pre-Bikram e-cises are to open my hips and upper body before the class.

My knees pain is mostly gone. I can comfortably do weighted lunges, weighted squats, and single leg jump ropes. I have not really felt any significant pain in months. Although, based on memories, I still often hesitate before I do knee straining exercises, as I have been conscious of the knees for years now.

The Joe Dillon Difference

Oh yeah another thing. During our May 2013 Vistage meeting, I met our Vistage speaker Joe Dillon. He was a 69 year old in-your-face kind of guy, who has coached Olympic swimmers and thousands of other people. He got me thinking that it was possible to change my body composition, with the right nutrition. You mean I could dramatically reduce my body fat percent by simply changing what I eat? With the information I got from him and his book and videos, I dramatically changed my eating habits. With Joe Dillon’s protein shakes and Full Strength protein shakes, I added about my body weight equivalent in grams of proteins every day to my intake. I eliminated most raw sugar and flour based products from my meals and started to do a better job for sugar management. I also added to my diet fish oil (Omega-3 Ultra from X-tendlife.com), Flax Seed Oil and a better quality of daily vitamins and supplements (from Premium Daily vitamins from X-tendlife.com).

Since June 2013, when I started the program my weight has decreased only by about four to six pounds, but body fat percent has decreased from 25% to 18%. That means I have added about 7 lbs of muscles and lost about 12 lbs of fat. And, my belly fat is down by 3 inches! I like the trend.

Wow, I Can Touch My Head to My Knee and Hold!

With all these factors and as my endurance built up at Bikram, I started to do the first set more and more deeply. And, I made significant progress on some harder poses. While all of the poses can be done better and at a deeper level, by now, I can reach closer to the final expression of most poses. In the Standing Head to Knee pose, I can now touch head to knee as the final expression for the three counts, though not very gracefully. My knees get a little wobbly. I can almost do Toe Stands with hands in prayer position, but not always for the complete time. My awkward poses are fairly deep and decent, and am able to rise much more slowly in the third part. I can see my complete foot over my head in the Standing Bow. I am able to touch my head against knees in the rabbit pose. My Triangle pose is nice and deep and stable.

And, at times, if the room is not too hot, or my body is feeling up to it, I even attempt the first sets with all I got.

No More Lipitor

Oh yeah. I did two blood works to test my Cholesterol over the last seven months, WITHOUT taking Lipitor. In August, my LDL was 135, so I added Red Rice Yeast to my supplements and in January it was 124. My primary care physician said that with these types of results I can safely stay off Lipitor. Yeah! That is another big goal accomplished. Check.

So, today on Presidents Day, February 17, 2014, on my second anniversary of Bikram Yoga, where to from here:

  1. All the poses can of course be done better. I would like to keep working on improving the poses and my teachers to keep critiquing me for the finer points of my postures. Twice a week seems like good maintenance discipline. At some point, I may want to do another 30-day challenge to see if I can get another step improvement. At this time, I am doing too much other stuff to do any more than twice a week.
  2. I have already raised my goal for body composition – Six Pack at Sixty! For that I would need to get to 12% body fat percent by my birthday. I have another six months until my 60th birthday. I may need to add another couple of days’ worth of workout a week, even just aerobics or walks with weights to create the needed caloric deficit, to get to the body fat target. And, I have to make sure I am providing my body enough protein to build the needed lean mass.   Saleem has also recommended for me to do some Abs and Core workout during the week on my own.
  3. I would like to get an X-ray done of my knees to see if there is any cartilage that is worn out and not yet rebuilt. Then I could more precisely focus on getting that to 100%.
  4. Continue to do Egoscue a couple of times a week in addition to the pre-Saleem and pre-Bikram sessions. Also, work in at least one set of Egoscue Tower e-cises a week for alignment. Getting Tower in has been the hardest part for last couple of months.
  5. Ringing in my ear has not abated. I only feel it when I focus on it. I need a solution for that. Don’t have any solution yet, other than getting a hearing aid, which the Audiologist said, sometimes fixes it.

Post #11 – My first year of experience with Bikram Yoga

12 Monday May 2014

Posted by in Bikram Yoga, Reversing Chronic Diseases, Uncategorized, Vigor, Vitality, Yoga

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There are few topics on which if you get me started, it is usually very hard for me to stop.  You may even be sorry, you asked me a question.

I have already shared a couple of these in my blog posts – reversing allergies and fixing headache without meds. Here is another of my favorite subject these days – Bikram Yoga.  I have been practicing Bikram Yoga now for over two years.

Here is my first year of experience with Bikram Yoga that I wrote down in February 2013.

If this invokes any thoughts or questions, I would love to hear about it.

Our Thursday Night Date

“How about we go check out this place that does Bikram Yoga in Columbia and then we will go out to dinner somewhere there?” I asked Kimberly suggesting this as an activity for our Thursday night date.

“Ok,” She said very agreeably.

On the way there, I told her that for several weeks I had been feeling stiffness in my shoulders and at times in my neck also.  I had heard that Bikram Yoga is done in a hot room. I was thinking that may be over the upcoming long weekend for President’s day, it would help limber up my shoulders and neck.

When we got there, the woman at the front desk, Rachel, introduced herself as a Bikram Yoga teacher and gave us a tour of the facility.  She told us that we should come in with a yoga mat and three different towels, one for the mat, one for shower and a hand towel. I made up my mind right there and then, and asked Kimberly for her support and company in doing the yoga over the long weekend.

So, How Was the Class?

The next day, Kimberly said that she was not feeling very well, but went with me anyways for moral support. So, I got to experience the first class by myself, while she sat out in the lobby with a book.

As I returned from the class, she looked up from her book and asked, “So, how was the class?”

I blurted out the first thing that came to my mind, “There is a lot of growth opportunity here.”

You see, I had been working out quite regularly, for over 10 year with my trainer, Saleem Udqa.  I started with him as I was approaching 50. In fact, both Kimberly and I and even our sons Daniel and Justin have been working out under his guidance at our home.  Saleem advocates a very holistic type of regime, strength training, free weights, cardio conditioning, reaction training, TRAX, lot of conditioning, balance, stretching for flexibility and a lot of skills for everyday life. So, I thought I was in a pretty good shape. But it was not easy being in the heated yoga room and doing the poses for full 90 minutes.  I had to stop several times, either being out of breath or just too hot and feeling dizzy.  I was not even close to getting into many postures. I definitely felt very challenged.  So, I told Kimberly I was going to do the yoga every day for one week, taking full advantage of the one week subscription that I had purchased.

On the second or third day, I decided to pick up the two books by Bikram: Bikram’s Beginning Yoga Class and Bikram Yoga – The Guru Behind Hot Yoga.  The first one is about the postures and the other about his life story and has details about concepts yoga.  As I read those two books I was even more intrigued about the Bikram Yoga routine. In the books, Bikram Chaudhary lays out the rationale for his routine. He described how the routine works out every part of the body, both inside and out.  And, he described the principle of extension and contraction, to flush out all organs in the body with oxygen rich blood flow and how that is a key to healing.  In his books, he also challenges readers to do the routine every day for 60 days and promises that after 60 days, they will be able to do 80% of the postures 80% right.

So, I announced to Kimberly that I was going to put our workout with Saleem on a hold and to do Bikram Yoga every day for 60 days.

Why am I Having Such a Hard Time Simply Bending Backwards?

It took about a week to get used to the heat and a few more days before I started to get through the whole routine without having to take breaks.  After a couple of weeks, I could tell what posture was coming next and see in my mind the whole routine.  About then I also started having breakthroughs in different postures.

Well into the third week, I still could not even bend backwards for the Camel pose without getting dizzy.  Finally, I asked yoga teacher Kat, “Why am I having such a hard time simply bending backwards? It does not seem the Camel pose by itself is such big a deal.”  She told me that that experience was very common and I simply needed to push through it. And, lo and behold, that day I “pushed through it” and was able to bend backwards without getting dizzy.

For the Firm Fixed pose, in the beginning I had excruciating pain in my knees. I could not even fully sit between my feet with my butt on the ground. When knees got better, ankles hurt. When ankles got better, quads were too tight and hurt. Each day my body got more and more limber until few days later, I was able to push through and do the full pose.

Learning the Nuances

Starting with the fourth week, Kimberly joined in. By that time, having accompanied me so many times, she had become, according to one teacher, “the most well-known non-yoga student in the studio”. So, now I had someone to talk to in detail about different postures.  I had read through the technical details of poses in Bikram’s book.  We started comparing where we were with respect to the final expression of the poses.  I would also talk to other guys in the locker room to get hints and tips. I noticed that because of me showing up every day I was progressing quite fast and was soon beyond where a lot of guys were who had been doing Bikram Yoga for much longer but not as regularly.

We would also discuss what we would hear from different teachers in their dialogue. Kimberly and I would always talk about and share any nuance we would learn. Heidi would always emphasize breathing. So, we learned how to breathe properly from her. Kat started us off on the fully relaxation during the last Shava asana. So, I started developing a routine to fully take advantage of Shava asana at the end. I started setting my mat right next to the teachers, so it would be easier for them to see me doing things wrong and correct me. I would always take time to thank them for correcting me, so they would feel even more comfortable correcting me. When Bikram Chaudhary was in the area, we went to hear his talk to pick up any further motivation and nuances.

In those beginning months, my yoga practice also seemed very susceptible to who was teaching the class. I would come home, discouraged, wiped out, elated, encouraged or feeling that room was all over the place based on who was teaching. That was in spite of the fact that I found I could always learn something new from every teacher. I even requested a couple of teachers if they could enunciate verbs a little louder. As the time passed, I learned to focus more and more on myself and it became easier to hear and stay in sync with the teachers.

60-day Obsession

It turned out to be not that easy to do yoga every single day.  I was quite busy at the office and was also traveling quite a bit. Once I had a dinner meeting in Crystal City. So, I found a studio in Falls Church for an afternoon class before the meeting. While traveling to Peachtree City, I found a studio in Decatur, GA outside Emory University.  I found a hotel room near the studio, did a session from 7:30 to 9pm and then another session starting at 5:30am the next morning.

One day I flew myself back from Fayetteville, NC, did an afternoon conference call, ate a piece of cold Mediterranean pizza while on the call and then ran off to do yoga. With the very first set of postures, as I bent down for Head to Feet pose, I felt like I was going to throw up.  After completing the yoga session with great difficulty, I did a forced throw up to purge my stomach. I came home and got sick anyways. I realized that I had been pushing myself way too hard and had probably compromised my immune system – before I even talk about eating pizza right before yoga. I still had one week to go before my 60 days were up.  It took me 5 days to heal, after which I did do the last week to complete my 60 day personal challenge.

The Rewards, Proselytizing and Bikram Yoga Lifestyle

After 60 days, it did seem that I was doing about 80% of the postures about 80% right. Right after completing 60 days, I went in for my blood work for cholesterol.  That came out really well. LDL was lowest it had been for a while. HDL was highest it had been for a while. My weight was in ideal range, between 162 and 164 lbs. My knee pain had mostly abated.  I had started prancing on my toes down the stairs. My sinuses had become very clear.  I had lost an inch of my height over the last few years; I got most of that back.  My meditation felt deeper and quieter.   I noticed that Kimberly’s skin was much more moist and softer than before. She has had very dry skin in the past. She noticed that her varicose veins were disappearing.

After that initial period, Kimberly and I decided that we will just do Bikram as the main form of our physical exercise and discontinue Saleem.  I decided that may be this was the way to take my health to the next level and achieve my goal that I set a couple of years ago, “Better health at 60 than at 50.” So, we settled into our routine of yoga 3 times a week.

6 months later, in August, I went in for a complete physical. Everything was still great.

When Boys came home during the summer, we introduced them both to Bikram Yoga.  Both seemed to enjoy it and benefited from it. Excited about our new find, we also introduced Bikram friends and family. We personally introduced about half-a-dozen people to Bikram. Out of all those folks, two have taken this up as a regular part of their life.

We took almost 3-week break from Yoga in October when we did Pancha Karma program at the Ayurveda Institute in Albuquerque, NM. During the PK program, while on Kitchuri, i.e., Rice and Lentils, diet, body was too weak to handle the full Bikram routine.  In fact, we learned a very gentle form of Yoga at the Institute, they called Ayuer Yoga.

At the beginning of 2013, I decided to do another 30 day challenge and may be even turn that into 60 day challenge, if I was feeling good.  After 11 days, I got sick.  I think, again, I had been pushing myself hard, both at work and otherwise.  So, I backed off for a few days.  Another time, my lower back was hurting a little.  But against my better judgment, I chose to push through all the postures, including sit ups, which teachers always remind us to skip if there are any issues with the back.  That night my whole back froze.  It took me four five days to limber it up to get back to normal.

One Year Later

So, on President’s day 2013, a year later, as I write this, where am I?

  1. Bikram Yoga continues to offer significant potential for growth, in conditioning, balance, flexibility and general health.
  2. I can do most of the postures quite well. All of these postures can always be done better. Progress happens every time, but mostly in inches and centimeters
  3. For certain postures, I have yet to achieve anywhere close to full final expression, notably, for Standing Head to Knee and Toe Stand poses.
  4. I always feel like pushing myself, but lately I have been more conscious of keeping control of my breath.  It seems appropriate to back off, if I am losing control of my breath. So, I skip one or both sets of a pose to regain control of my breath and then jump back in.
  5. Based on above observations, I am thinking of an experiment: just to do only every other pose, so I will have enough energy available to perfect the postures, while maintaining control of my breath.  In one session, I will do poses 1, 3, 5… and then next time 2, 4, 6 etc. Once perfected I would start doing all 26 postures together again.
  6. Although I have much more flexibility and balance than I had a year ago, I don’t feel quite as strong as I used to feel. I have been wondering about experimenting with strength training to supplement yoga.

About 2 to 3 months into Bikram Yoga, I started experiencing ringing in my ears.  I don’t know if that was a coincidence.  I got the ears checked without any definitive diagnostic or cure. Ayuervedic Institute folks thought it was correlated with high Vata. I would like to heal this.