Ooops! Did I Drip on You?

Ooops! did I drip on you? I can’t help but smile; Dripping Instructors is kinda the deal in Bikram Yoga 🙂 So, occasionally other peoples sweat mixes with your own. Depending on conditions the sweat might be flyin’ (just kidding, we are not moshing at YM; but it’ll DEFINITELY be dripping). The instructor opens the skylight and the sweat travels down her elbow as she turns the handle and it lands on the shoulder of the newbie. Like I said. Ooops! 🙂 But it is done now, it is in the past, and what’s the worst that happened? Nothing happened. It is just another little external thing that really doesn’t matter. When you’re working that hard none of that stuff matters.

But when you’re the newbie the initial reaction might be yeuck! That’s ‘SKUstin! (as my 5 yr old might say) and this may become a distraction, a mis-focus. When you’re new to the Yoga and if you have not been athletic before, the sweat volume might be a bit of a shocker! Not just your own but other peoples, so close to you too. Believe me, you have more important things to be concerned with (‘tho I think you know that).

Someone once said to me that the sweat feels like flies crawling over the skin, I expect they are past that now; if not they will be! I remember I couldn’t sweat when I took up Bikram; my body simply didn’t seem to know how; never having been athletic (I came straight from the couch to Bikram… via a few pubs/nightclubs/raves! HEY, I’m 42!). I would get as far as Balancing Stick and a little trickle of sweat would travel down from my brow, the length of my nose and inside I would be going c’mon, c’mon (egging it on to fall before the pose finished) YES!, it dripped and hit the towel. This was a mini victory for me, a landmark. Yes I know when your new it feels like a ten year pose but it is actually only ten seconds and I didn’t want it to be over before my drop of sweat had its day! I desperately wanted to sweat just like all the other Yogis around me.

Usually the things you hate when you start out in this Yoga will become the things you love
. If you have ever done a Bikram Yoga class in the cold you know how unsatisfying that is. Not to get a sweat on – my Yoga hell. I LOVE in Padahastasana the drip of sweat that flows up my nose and transports me right back to my childhood days of jumping in Lough Derg on a hot summers days (yes we had a couple of them in Ireland when I was a kid :)). Just think, one drop of sweat at a time you are transforming yourself. You’ve simply got to let the sweat flow; no wiping. Think! no-one ever drowned in sweat. So next time you extend your arms for Full Locust and your hand lands on your neighbour’s saturated towel, don’t sweat it! it is only sweat.
Namaste ~ Trisha

A NOTE ON SWEAT! So it is everywhere in this environment but what is sweat? composition depends on the individual. Mostly its water and then salts, minerals, chemicals etc. quantities dependent on what is in your body (google to find out more if you wish). Your skin is a big organ exposed to the external environment and it absorbs ‘stuff’ good, bad and we deliberately rub stuff on it too; so when you sweat you will be giving your skin a good flush! terrific. But it is highly unlikely that you are lying in a pool of toxins in your sweaty Yoga class (think composition) {see ** at the bottom of this page links to some recent studies, it may take time to reveal what these findings mean in a way that they won’t be presented as weasel words by the sweat industry, in any event it will only be a positive slant if anything} {Jan2015- and there have been further studies since I first wrote this that also conclude that sweating may have clinical relevance to the elimination of toxic elements – just more of the same really – I’ll wait for the real conclusive evidence}. THANKFULLY, YOUR BODY WORKS HARD FOR YOU MAINTAIING HOMEOSTASIS. YOU HAVE ORGANS OF ELIMINATION THAT ARE VERY EFFICIENT DETOXING YOU 24/7. In your Yoga practice with all the deep breathing (transporting oxygen) and tourniquet effect on your internal detoxing organs (you know that stretching, compressing, twisting and massaging you do!) you are keeping those organs in top working order to do their job. But PRIMARILY THE SWEAT IN YOUR BIKRAM YOGA CLASS IS ABOUT TEMPERATURE REGULATION.

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE go to our website tab ‘You & Us’ click ‘Love Yoga’ and Scroll down to read about Heat & Acclimatisation and ‘Thermoregulation & Sweat‘.  Read my blog articles about electrolytes and hydration hydration hydration. search in our blogs for tons more info on hydration} PS it is that time of year when you may want to consider taking a few layers off to allow the sweat to evaporate from a larger area of exposed skin.
Namaste ~ Trisha

**
S. J.; Beesoon, S; Birkholz, D; Lobo, R. A. (2012). “Human excretion of bisphenol A: Blood, urine, and sweat (BUS) study”. Journal of Environmental and Public Health 2012: 185731. doi:10.1155/2012/185731. PMC 3255175.PMID 22253637. edit
“Human elimination of phthalate compounds: Blood, urine, and sweat (BUS) study”. The Scientific World Journal 2012: 615068. doi:10.1100/2012/615068. PMC 3504417.PMID 23213291. edit

 

MAY 2013