Bodybuilding and yoga,

[Guest guest]

Ok! Ok! I seem to have started something (lol).

First, I am not an old frog, but I am getting there. I

have a number of medical problems: obesity,

hypertension, diabetes. The last two are under control, with

the main struggle now involves getting the weight off

fast before I suffer any more medical damage. I

started the yoga, hatha yoga, in Washington,DC, where I

was one of those stressed out feds. I did it as a

dare for a girlfriend at the time who was 8 years

older than me. I was 32. She called hatha yoga the

"marines" of yoga and flat out told me that I could never

do hatha yoga. I took this in stride, until one day

I observed her doing her AM yoga workout in the

nude. Forget nude! Never in my life had I observed the

beauty of the human body being that fluid and

controlled. I wanted whatever it was she was doing to herself

for myself. I wanted it even more when I learned she

was much older than I was.I had closely scrutinized

her body and NOTHING on it even remotely suggested

that she was 40 yrs old. Hatha yoga was easy for me.

Relaxing. Breathing. Holding. Releasing. It was like this

was something that was made especially for me. I had

very little problems doing the asanas. I would have

quit, except that I found something in the practice,

besides the serious bodywork on some of the yoginnis. I

found a way to look inside of me that I had never

discovered before. I have gone from a 52" waist to a 42"

waist and I am currently experiencing energy gains but

not strength gains. I am losing almost 5lbs/wk. I now

weigh 245lbs from 300lbs. I am 53 yrs old. And time is

not on my side. Now, I have difficulty doing my

poses. I have had to stop a pose because I could not

breathe correctly and surrender. Since April, 2001, I

have lost almost 55lbs; Iyengar has said many

bodybuilders don't do the weightlifting that requires alot of

stretching in its movement, because it's too hard. Arnold

Schwartzeneger was the exception (his bypass was brought on by a

genetic disposition, not because of unhealthy habits).

Sometimes, when I do an asana I do not feel anything, no

resistance, nothing. And because of my girth I often have to

resort to props to get to where I need to go. My Cobra

is now my Bull Walrus. But its means reaches its

end. It is impossibly difficult to do binding and

twisting poses without props, but poses like the Warrior,

Sun Salutation, and even the Cobra I can visualize in

my minds eye with light weights. If you add

controlling the breathing and holding the pose for say, 5-10

breaths, and SLOWLY releasing the pose, I would say you

gained a deal of strength, stamina, and endurance. Ab

workouts I go nuts in. I blast my abs. When I leg lift, I

use ankle weights (now up to 10lbs) and the results

are a 10" loss. You have cautioned patience, but I

can not be patient, knowing that I am in a medical

situation (obesity), that the longer I'm in it, the greater

the danger I'm in and the more the damage I am doing

to other parts of my body (joints, in particular). I

have to get the weight down to at least 200lbs. Slade,

like you, I do therapeutic yoga, lots of it. I also do

some realignment, but until you recommended the

anatomy texts, I never had a good reference for it. I

only had Yoga Journal's website. I also look at

eastern medicine, both oriental and ayurvedic, as

compliments to my medical treatment. I have inflammation on

my knee joints and cold weather makes it unbearable.

So, I take 2-3 drops of Reishi mushroom extract in a

cup of green tea, potent stuff. I no longer wear knee

braces when I go out anymore, plus the fungus has other

benefits as well: relaxing, deep breathing, lowering blood

pressure, and adjusting caridac output. I am not sure if I

have articulated my case for the weights within the

asana but when I have read through what I have been

suggested and have gotten an understanding, perhaps I shall

post up again if I have the revelance of it.

[Guest guest]

" I now weigh 245lbs from 300lbs. I am 53 yrs

old."<br><br>Given this bodyweight and I would say you most

definitely should not try to add resistance to your yoga

practice through weights, you are carrying plenty of that

already, no pun intended. Ashtanga practice should be more

than challenging enough. If it is not, you may need to

reexamine your practice.<br><br>"Iyengar has said many

bodybuilders don't do the weightlifting that requires alot of

stretching in its movement, because it's too hard. Arnold

Schwartzeneger was the exception"<br><br>Way off-topic here, but

Arnold didn't do anything different than all the other

top-level bodybuilders, that includes rather little

stretching and plenty of anabolics. Just the nature of that

game, I was in it for a while.

[Guest guest]

Thanks for the additional info. I'm still not

sure of why you are wanting to use weights with asana

practice. I do understand the urgency to change your

condition. I would suggest that just as you could do some

supplemental weight training in addition to yoga, you could

also do some supplemental aerobics work. And of course

diet is a major area to pay attention to. Many would

say that you must be a vegetarian to "be a yogi". I

like to think that people can make dietary changes as

gradually as they are comfortable with. I have never been

overweight, so that is not something I know about from

experience. But I think the general theory of weight loss is

to burn more calories and take less in. There are

many approaches to diet and I don't think there is any

need to get too radical, but that's always an option.

Some people fast for days or weeks at a time on just

water. I would suggest that if you get as radical as

fasting, to drink juices instead of just water and don't

overdo it. But there is a lot you can do without going

that far. I have a list of recommended food books

here:<br><a href=http://www.ionet.net/~tslade/foodbook.htm

target=new>http://www.ionet.net/~tslade/foodbook.htm</a><br>Check around on my

site for other book recommendations

too. Ashtanga may provide all the aerobics and

strengthening you need, but you can always do some running,

biking, swimming, etc as well. If it is the weight that

you are most concerned with, it seems like aerobics

would be more relevant that strengthening. And there

can be a danger in overtraining. Really, patience is

a good thing. Probably you know of the favorite

saying of Pattabhi Jois, the guru of Ashtanga yoga, "Do

your practice and all is coming."

[Guest guest]

Wow! I'm all excited Zekes and thinking about doing some nude yoga right now!

Too bad it's 20 degrees outside. Oh well, summer's around the corner.