Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Bikram Yoga competition photos up!
To everyone involved in the annual Bishnu Ghosh Regional Yoga Asana Championships, we have photographs now uploaded on the Bikram Yoga Fitzroy site for you to see.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Sierra Rose Appeal 2009
The month of November, for the second year now, is this little girl's special month at Bikram Yoga Fitzroy.
Karen is one of our teachers and Sierra Rose is Karen and husband Shane's beautiful young daughter.
Sierra Rose has severe cerebral palsy and medical expenses run very high for this family.
Last year, with the help of many Bikram students and other individuals, as well as other Bikram studios, both in Australia and overseas, Bikram Yoga Fitzroy ran a November Yoga Challenge that raised over $18,000 which helped the family fund a trip to Germany for ground-breaking stem cell therapy.
Click to read more on the Sierra Rose page. You can also donate to help.
Bikram Yoga Competition
The Yoga Competition is back on this year. Check our yoga competiton page for more details!
Monday, August 10, 2009
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Bikram Yoga & TCM
A few notes on the change of the weather, your Bikram practice and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Autumn is the time of the Metal element and the organs associated with metal are the Lungs/L.I.
The lung qi controls the opening and closing of the pores and the immune defence systems, called Wei Qi, which circulates internally and also on the surface of the skin. External cold is considered a pathogen in TCM and even though it might feel good to go outside into the cold without covering up, it’s probably the worst thing you can do right after your practice. Heat increases circulation and cold slows it down. Not only will you be reversing the movement generated by your practice, with your pores open, you have no immune defence. Cold penetrates easily and will stiffen the muscles and joints causing aches and pain and limited range of movement. It can easily invade the lung and cause a common cold. After savasana in these cooler months, to avoid the afore mentioned ailments, wrap a towel around you and always put on your layers before leaving the studio.
During your Bikram practice the pores open and the sweat rolls out. Sweat contains water, proteins, lactic acids, sodium, potassium, calcium, zinc, copper, a lot of trace elements. In fact its composition is quite akin to plasma. In TCM, sweat is thought of as the fluid of the heart. Fluids of any organ make up the Yin aspect of the organs. When the heart Yin and Yang is in balance, consciousness will be clear, calm and peaceful.
Excessive sweating, as one would experience during 4 or more Bikram practices a week or in a 30 day or 60 day challenge can start to diminish the Yin aspect of the heart. When this happens people can start to experience agitation, insomnia, poor memory and concentration, sometimes palpitations and anxiety and start to feel hot outside of class or at night or start to have a manic approach to your life. Menopausal symptoms in women can be exacerbated. If this is happening, it doesn’t mean you have to quit your practice or you are in danger, it just means that you need to find ways to support the Yin of your body.
If you are experiencing these symptoms or want to find out more about your body, TCM and Bikram practice, call Becky at Cloud Gate Therapeutics on 0424 949 962 to book a complimentary 30 min consultation at the studio.
The lung qi controls the opening and closing of the pores and the immune defence systems, called Wei Qi, which circulates internally and also on the surface of the skin. External cold is considered a pathogen in TCM and even though it might feel good to go outside into the cold without covering up, it’s probably the worst thing you can do right after your practice. Heat increases circulation and cold slows it down. Not only will you be reversing the movement generated by your practice, with your pores open, you have no immune defence. Cold penetrates easily and will stiffen the muscles and joints causing aches and pain and limited range of movement. It can easily invade the lung and cause a common cold. After savasana in these cooler months, to avoid the afore mentioned ailments, wrap a towel around you and always put on your layers before leaving the studio.
During your Bikram practice the pores open and the sweat rolls out. Sweat contains water, proteins, lactic acids, sodium, potassium, calcium, zinc, copper, a lot of trace elements. In fact its composition is quite akin to plasma. In TCM, sweat is thought of as the fluid of the heart. Fluids of any organ make up the Yin aspect of the organs. When the heart Yin and Yang is in balance, consciousness will be clear, calm and peaceful.
Excessive sweating, as one would experience during 4 or more Bikram practices a week or in a 30 day or 60 day challenge can start to diminish the Yin aspect of the heart. When this happens people can start to experience agitation, insomnia, poor memory and concentration, sometimes palpitations and anxiety and start to feel hot outside of class or at night or start to have a manic approach to your life. Menopausal symptoms in women can be exacerbated. If this is happening, it doesn’t mean you have to quit your practice or you are in danger, it just means that you need to find ways to support the Yin of your body.
If you are experiencing these symptoms or want to find out more about your body, TCM and Bikram practice, call Becky at Cloud Gate Therapeutics on 0424 949 962 to book a complimentary 30 min consultation at the studio.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Cancer & Bikram Yoga
Here is an article that is very interesting reading. We encourage our students to read this and further consider the many health benefits their practice provides.
Our only concern is the comment about glass bottles in the studio. We have requested that glass is NOT used as the heat shock has broken glass bottles in hot studios before and this causes a huge problem with glass slivers on the carpet. Hard plastic bottles are best it you want to reuse a water bottle. We would be interested if anyone knows anything about stainless steel bottles? The soft bottles are best discarded after first use.
Our only concern is the comment about glass bottles in the studio. We have requested that glass is NOT used as the heat shock has broken glass bottles in hot studios before and this causes a huge problem with glass slivers on the carpet. Hard plastic bottles are best it you want to reuse a water bottle. We would be interested if anyone knows anything about stainless steel bottles? The soft bottles are best discarded after first use.
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Sunday, January 25, 2009
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Sierra is home
Hi everyone,
We’re back home now and are pleased to say the trip was our most successful yet. The planning and preparation paid off and the travelling went smoothly. We enjoyed seeing our friends (and family!) in London and the consultations with the specialists we see were very productive and positive. Here’s an update of the results:
As a result of the Stem Cell treatment Sierra has shown some significant improvements.
There has been a reduction in spasticity/tone (tight muscles) all over her body. Her hands are frequently open and relaxed instead of being in tight fists. We can bring her arms forward to touch her elbows together and can also take her arms behind her in a full range of motion for the first time. We’ve heard the joints clicking as they open up. Both the physiotherapist in London and the one in Prague confirmed the reduction in tone. The best part is, unlike Botox, it’s permanent.
It’s much easier to move and learn normal movement if muscles are not tight. The arms have especially benefited as they were the tightest area. This will give Sierra better access to communication at this early stage, by touching picture icons of what she wants, playing with toys and later through a computer. All of which requires the arms coming forward and hands being open
Sierra’s vision has improved dramatically this year. She has gone from having no ability to focus to having almost normal vision. It’s as good as saying she was blind and now she can see!! In March we introduced +3 glasses and in July, contact lenses. The lens is supposed to entice the brain to learn to focus. This is progressive therapy compared with Australia and the UK but the Eye Doctor in Prague does this treatment with hundreds of children and is very surprised about the progress Sierra has made. When asked by our friend who was translating, “Really?”, the answer was “Really! Much more than the usual improvement, a real leap forward in her vision”.
The exciting thing about vision is that communication really relies on Sierra being able to see and see well because she may not talk and if she does it may be delayed. With vision she can use a computer to communicate and this gives her access to normal schooling
80% of all movement in small children is learned from vision
Sierra’s mouth has gained better movement and control. Sierra’s type of Cerebral Palsy encourages her to extend. This means involuntarily pushing herself back and at the same time extending her arms and legs as well as her tongue. The tongue was previously in extension a lot of the time which is both unattractive and very limiting for learning to talk. Her tongue would almost always only go forwards in a thrusting motion or back into her mouth. It almost never made an up and down motion or side to side motion which is what you need to be able to talk. The pushing has greatly reduced all over the body and the tongue thrust has greatly reduced also.
Benefits:
- A chance at speech
- Better able to eat normal foods with more adult textures
- Better appearance, not looking as disabled
From working with the Physio in Prague and in London (both coming from different disciplines) we got great input in where to take Sierra next with the physio “home program”.
We will be focusing on re-learning to roll. Sierra was rolling in October then went into hospital with a virus. At this time she stopped rolling and hasn’t rolled since. It was about this time that her epilepsy became more severe. Every time we tried the type of physio that focuses on rolling and crawling it gave her seizures. Tereza (Sierra’s physiotherapist in Prague) has shown us ways to work with Sierra that should allow us to treat her and not cause the seizures or not nearly as many. We are committed that she has some floor mobility.
We will also be focussed on Sierra taking weight through her arms and legs, with the emphasis on the arms. If you imagine for a moment that you were disabled and I had to move you, think how much easier it would be if you could take weight through your legs and arms so you could hold your body for a few moments or minutes while I transition you from one position to another or actively push up with your arms to help me take your weight. Anel (Sierra’s physiotherapist in London) has been working with us last week to get Sierra to actively push up and hold herself with straight, strong arms. Sierra is doing really well at this and her head holding is improving at the same time.
The fact that there has been a reduction in spasticity indicates that the stem cells found the damaged area and so we should continue to see improvements. Both Shane and I are very happy with the results and what we’ve accomplished. Thank you very much for being part of getting us over there.
Added Bonus!!
Also, while in London Sierra became ill and that usually means a hospital stay. Shane and I took Sierra to A&E with our bags already packed, resigned that it was going that way. However, the doctors looked at Sierra and decided she was hydrated enough to try to get over it at home. We gave her rest, Vitamin C and Panadol and she managed to keep eating and drinking. Usually, I suppose because of the effort it is for her, Sierra’s mouth goes ‘on strike’, she gets dehydrated and we have to get her fed via a nasal tube until she recovers. This time she kept drinking and eating perhaps because of the better mouth control. It was such a WIN to have her turn it around. For the first time she turned an illness around herself!
Warm regards,
Karen, Shane and Sierra x
We’re back home now and are pleased to say the trip was our most successful yet. The planning and preparation paid off and the travelling went smoothly. We enjoyed seeing our friends (and family!) in London and the consultations with the specialists we see were very productive and positive. Here’s an update of the results:
As a result of the Stem Cell treatment Sierra has shown some significant improvements.
There has been a reduction in spasticity/tone (tight muscles) all over her body. Her hands are frequently open and relaxed instead of being in tight fists. We can bring her arms forward to touch her elbows together and can also take her arms behind her in a full range of motion for the first time. We’ve heard the joints clicking as they open up. Both the physiotherapist in London and the one in Prague confirmed the reduction in tone. The best part is, unlike Botox, it’s permanent.
It’s much easier to move and learn normal movement if muscles are not tight. The arms have especially benefited as they were the tightest area. This will give Sierra better access to communication at this early stage, by touching picture icons of what she wants, playing with toys and later through a computer. All of which requires the arms coming forward and hands being open
Sierra’s vision has improved dramatically this year. She has gone from having no ability to focus to having almost normal vision. It’s as good as saying she was blind and now she can see!! In March we introduced +3 glasses and in July, contact lenses. The lens is supposed to entice the brain to learn to focus. This is progressive therapy compared with Australia and the UK but the Eye Doctor in Prague does this treatment with hundreds of children and is very surprised about the progress Sierra has made. When asked by our friend who was translating, “Really?”, the answer was “Really! Much more than the usual improvement, a real leap forward in her vision”.
The exciting thing about vision is that communication really relies on Sierra being able to see and see well because she may not talk and if she does it may be delayed. With vision she can use a computer to communicate and this gives her access to normal schooling
80% of all movement in small children is learned from vision
Sierra’s mouth has gained better movement and control. Sierra’s type of Cerebral Palsy encourages her to extend. This means involuntarily pushing herself back and at the same time extending her arms and legs as well as her tongue. The tongue was previously in extension a lot of the time which is both unattractive and very limiting for learning to talk. Her tongue would almost always only go forwards in a thrusting motion or back into her mouth. It almost never made an up and down motion or side to side motion which is what you need to be able to talk. The pushing has greatly reduced all over the body and the tongue thrust has greatly reduced also.
Benefits:
- A chance at speech
- Better able to eat normal foods with more adult textures
- Better appearance, not looking as disabled
From working with the Physio in Prague and in London (both coming from different disciplines) we got great input in where to take Sierra next with the physio “home program”.
We will be focusing on re-learning to roll. Sierra was rolling in October then went into hospital with a virus. At this time she stopped rolling and hasn’t rolled since. It was about this time that her epilepsy became more severe. Every time we tried the type of physio that focuses on rolling and crawling it gave her seizures. Tereza (Sierra’s physiotherapist in Prague) has shown us ways to work with Sierra that should allow us to treat her and not cause the seizures or not nearly as many. We are committed that she has some floor mobility.
We will also be focussed on Sierra taking weight through her arms and legs, with the emphasis on the arms. If you imagine for a moment that you were disabled and I had to move you, think how much easier it would be if you could take weight through your legs and arms so you could hold your body for a few moments or minutes while I transition you from one position to another or actively push up with your arms to help me take your weight. Anel (Sierra’s physiotherapist in London) has been working with us last week to get Sierra to actively push up and hold herself with straight, strong arms. Sierra is doing really well at this and her head holding is improving at the same time.
The fact that there has been a reduction in spasticity indicates that the stem cells found the damaged area and so we should continue to see improvements. Both Shane and I are very happy with the results and what we’ve accomplished. Thank you very much for being part of getting us over there.
Added Bonus!!
Also, while in London Sierra became ill and that usually means a hospital stay. Shane and I took Sierra to A&E with our bags already packed, resigned that it was going that way. However, the doctors looked at Sierra and decided she was hydrated enough to try to get over it at home. We gave her rest, Vitamin C and Panadol and she managed to keep eating and drinking. Usually, I suppose because of the effort it is for her, Sierra’s mouth goes ‘on strike’, she gets dehydrated and we have to get her fed via a nasal tube until she recovers. This time she kept drinking and eating perhaps because of the better mouth control. It was such a WIN to have her turn it around. For the first time she turned an illness around herself!
Warm regards,
Karen, Shane and Sierra x
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