Thursday, September 4, 2008

77/79 The Importance of Heat

8:15 pm with Margaux

It just wasn't my day.  I felt stiff to begin with, especially in my left knee.  And my left hip started to complain again.

Just before class started, the heating system shut off.  Margaux didn't turn it on again, and the woman next to me gave a conspiratorial wink and a short giggle just as we went into pranayama.  It felt like we were getting away with something.  So, as the warm-up progressed, the room started cooling off. 

I mentioned the heat after the first set of pranayama, and Margaux turned up the heat without turning it on.  So we moved along.  And then we finally turned the heater back on after Eagle.  

This made the beginning of class seem alot easier, but overall I think it had a bad effect.  I never felt really warmed up, and the later postures suffered as a result.  Fixed Firm was back to square one.  I couldn't stay down on the left leg in Toe Stand.  My final stretches were really bad, on both sides.  Even my final spinal twist felt off.

The funny thing is that the heat was back to normal probably by Balancing Stick.  So the problem at the end wasn't the lack of heat, but the lack of a really good warm up.  There have been many times when I've cursed Half Moon, the First Forward Bend, and Awkward Pose, because they feel just so hard.  Zeb says in every class that Half Moon sets the tone for the entire class.  The harder you work there, and the better you do and more benefit you will get later on.  I used to think this was hyperbole;  now it seems pretty clear that its just plain truth.

Even so, I feel much better after class, especially in my left hip.  So, a below average Bikram class is still really good.



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