Too hot to handle

Posted in ashtanga yoga, Uncategorized on 12/07/2009 09:00 am by karen

Experimented with a hot bath before practice, followed by a few minutes on the rack.

Miscalculated slightly, and ended up in a SCALDING bath. I’m a fan of much-too-hot water, but this was even hotter than that. Pain receptors are less sensitive in the morning, perhaps? It wasn’t until I was lying in the water that I realized I was burning. “Oh well, I’m already in,” I thought.

Read for 15 minutes about research done on yogis in the (um, I think) 50s, re: how they could control their sympathetic nervous systems. Hearts running at super low speeds, imperceptible pulses. The conclusion was that they were using the valsalva maneuver to slow things down, and muscular contractions to possibly move their hearts outside of the range of the EKG probes.

Yeah, whatever, you crazy rational scientists. It’s savasana! And it’s MAGIC.

Alrighty, so 15 minutes in the HOT bath. Perfect, right? Uh, well… if feeling super faint upon exiting the bath is perfect. Then a few minutes on the rack and out the door.

Practice was bendy, which was the purpose of all of this, but there was a bit of a catch. I had a REALLY hard time regulating my breath. I did intermediate instead of primary today, and my breath wanted to default to shallow — which isn’t really anything new, but it was less fixable than usual. I attribute that to the stimulation of the overly hot water.

I managed pretty well to make the in- and exhales even, until kapotasana. Everything went to hell there, because MM is having me do long holds of kapo B over and over before we do kapo A. Then another B at the end.

I don’t think it’s my imagination here: MM is happier when I do second than when I do primary. I have no idea why this is.

 

10 Comments

  1. I like the scalding :) I’m happiest post bath when it takes a full 5m for my heart rate to come back down…

  2. Karen! you nut… not feeling the burning skin until you’re totally in! I can’t handle burning baths. I like them hot, but can’t last too long because I start to sweat and it’s not so relaxing anymore!

    I keep forgetting to do lunges before practice to see if that helps loosen up the stupid hip flexors before I hit Ushtrasana, Laghu, and Kapo. Maybe I’ll remember today. You were doing lunges for awhile, right?

    Interesting that he wants you to do 2nd so badly. Maybe it’s just fun for him and he sees how you take it seriously and really work. I think most teachers enjoy the students who put real effort into things and don’t just do the motions. Not to say that most people work really hard, but there are those who would rather find excuses to why they can’t do things instead of figuring out how they CAN do things!

  3. hi Karen, oops, bad self spa experience. hugs, Arturo

  4. Hi Karen – what is the rack? Is it a prop? It sounds interesting and a little medieval :-)

  5. Here’s the rack: http://www.ec-securehost.com/CustomYogaProps.com/barrel.html

    I know you’ll go looking for some adult version of this, KMB… :-)

  6. Hmm… valsalva maneuver.

    Hmm….!!!

  7. If it’s the valsalva maneuver, then powerlifters ought to be able to stop their hearts.

    Oh, and pics of the rack in action: http://www.yoga.com/store/images/Vendor_Images/Custom_Yoga_Props/yogabarrelx.jpg

  8. Ah, the rapid pulse is what I hate about baths… not too hot for me, please! You are a nut : )

  9. oooh I like it, that is a great idea for a prop – sometimes we use foam blocks for something like that but a cylinder would be so much more comfy! (p.s. adult version – LOL!)

  10. everyone is having hot baths.

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