Community

Jesus Rico
Studio: Grapevine

Wow! I have to share that I am pleasantly surprised with myself for having the big honor of being "student of the month"! (I used to think that I was very far from belonging to the clan of "those" smiley people on the bulletin board). First I have to give credit to my wife Barbara since she is the one that discovered and introduced me to the Bikram Yoga world and for all her support while I was doing my 60 day challenge.

I am not sure what to tell you about my experience since it has been a little of each color and flavor of the rainbow...I guess I can start at the beginning; the always intriguing and very unique first class; well I have to confess that it was not that bad for me, Sherri was the teacher, Barb was next to me, I didn't run out of the room, I tried almost all the poses, it was not super hot and it felt pretty good to sweat like in the old days after an intense basketball game. Hum! –Not the typical class!- However in my third class things hit the fan! I was SO nauseated that I barely could keep my balance. I left the room in direct route to the bathroom and I stayed there for a while.

After this episode of serious detoxification I realized that this Yoga was the "real" thing. I started in December 2008 and for several months I was coming 2 to 3 days a week... some times with big gaps between classes. Even with this discontinuity in my schedule I improved with every class, so very quickly I was convinced of the physical benefits. However it took me a while to find the "comfort" zone of enjoying the practice; I had an internal battle about depending on this class to feel good outside the room (you know men and their fear to commitment). When I decided to relax and enjoy the positive energy from my practice, I started to come more often; the mental battle gradually started to disappear. Then I noticed that I was calmer in all my relationships and more focused to tackle all the mental challenges of the "outside the room" life.

I had always been somewhat active in my life but I never experienced the benefits in my body that Bikram yoga practice gives you. I have a couple of examples of those medical/physical benefits: one day Barb and I were trying to put the solar cover on our pool and somehow I fell into the water hitting half of my body (toe to chin) on the stone edge. As a result, I had a tremendous bruise on my leg that developed into a staph infection, I had a fever and a swollen leg; so I came to yoga and after one minute in the always toasty hot yoga room I could feel the healing "inside out" and by the end of the class, my leg was practically back to normal. In our house last winter we had a serious wave of colds and respiratory infections, even pneumonia but I didn't get sick at all. My breathing has improved tremendously; I am not a runner but during the year I do 3 or 4 5K races; before Yoga I couldn't finish the races without stopping, I needed to walk to catch my breath and my times were in the 50 minutes. Now I am able to run all the way, focusing on breathing and in my last race I almost broke 30 minutes!

So I could give you a lot more examples of how good Bikram yoga is, but we'll share them when we cross at the studio, instead I will share my impressions of the 60 day challenge. With the help of this economic recession I had the opportunity to do the challenge while remaining employed. This January I started it without being certain that I would be able to finish it (I guess that's why it is called a challenge). Things were pretty smooth for the first 2 weeks but when I hit the 20th class my body didn't respond to my head, so I decided to take a day off to recover which was very good until I realized that I needed to do a "double" class in order to finish. Then I had a couple of other missed days. I ended with 6 doubles! If you want to feel the definition of "wipe out" try back-to-back classes. Taking a class at 5:30 am and then 8:15pm was the best formula for me. I lost some weight, lowered my BMI and went down 1 pant size! And even though I am still pretty far in some poses---it was worth it! Plus I have that beautiful brown T-shirt with the fabulous text on it!

Whether you decide to do a challenge or simply come more often, I would encourage you to keep it up, find your time, leave your expectations at the door, engage in the "dialog" (between the voice of your teacher and your body!) use right "form" and try your best! -but really try your best ;-)!! – The results will surprise you!!!

I also would like to remark that we have a stupendous studio at Bikram Yoga Grapevine. All the staff and teachers are a genuinely nice group of people. I had the opportunity to participate in the summer trip, synergy and posture clinics and every time, I left with a big smile on my face for being part of this circle of people with good vibes/energy.

Happy sweating!.