I'm a yoga devotee (outfit for Bikram Yoga)

Announcement: I've taken up Bikram Yoga. I used to do Ashanga Yoga, off and on since 2001, but I needed some variety. Another type of Hatha Yoga seems adventureous enough, don't you think?

 

Bikram Yoga is also called Hot Yoga, as in yoga in a very hot and humid room. I really like it! 

 

I quickly discovered though that you can NOT (at least I can not) practise Bikram yoga in capri yoga pants, I did the first time and it was painfully warm. They say it's between 38-40 degrees celsius in the room, and though I don't really believe that it's THAT warm, it's warm.

 

Here's a Bikram class (picture from www.bikramyoga.com via http://www.bloomspot.com)

 

I only added that picture to prepare you all for the pictures of me in my new outfit further down (I am normal!).

 

So, after my first, schocking experience I bought a pair of hideously expensive yoga shorts right away (after I had had to ask for help to turn the shower on after my first class)! 

 

Then I discovered that I really need two sets of Bikram-clothes since I don't have the time to wash them often enough to be able to work out as often as I like, the clothes are soaking wet after class. I also needed more towels, I use up three every time, two to cover my mat, they're wet too. I think it's quite cleansing, I like it. And now I can actually turn the shower on myself after class :-)

 

Hence this outfit, at a fraction of the price of the first one; a pair of shorts (a simple copy of the ones I bought) and a top (a copy, kind of,  of one of my favourite bikini-tops). All sewn on my serger (overlock). 

 

Big relief maker making the shorts: I bought a loop-turner, it's one of the best sewing gadgets I've come upon yet! It's a metal stick with a hook in one end and a loop in the other, you push the metal stick through a bias- (or non bias jersey-) tube that is to become a drawstring or strap, fasten the hook in the end of your not yet turned bias-strap, pull it through the tube and voila, the drawstring/strap is turned the right way! No safetypins involved. No swearing. The drawstrings in these shorts wouldn't be the same without it (and they would have taken a few times longer to make) Easy peasy! 

 

Here's the top closer up. It doesn't have any kind of closure in the back, I pull it on over my head and tie the staps behind my neck.

 

If I make another one I'll decrease the spacing between the cups (I have to tie it tight enough for my nipples not to peep out during the poses when you bend forward, and that's about half of them). But then again I'll probably make one in another style altogether, I like variety (even though I follow not one but two kinds of yoga with very strictly dictated series of movements...).

 

The shorts side drawstring closer up. The drawstring is really only there as decoration, but I guess if it's really hot I might pull it up as much as possible! But it looks better on me tied something like this.

Here's the Bikram series, in case anyone wonders what on earth this is all about. 

I like posture no. 3, 5, 11, 12 and 22. only because I'm good at them. I don't like posture no. 8, 18 and 23, because I'm really bad at them. My neck is as stiff as on a 90-year old and I really have to struggle in all neck- and back-bending poses, but that's why I endure. I want to make my neck more flexible!

I want to be like a dancer, like an elf... (and I want to be able to tie my own shoelaces when I get old).

 

No pain, no gain, they say... (I listen and obey).

 

Image borrowed from http://www.pimpmyspace.org

 

Oh, if anyone else here is into Bikram Yoga, you'll know mr Bikram himself has actually banned the colour green from his studio. I feel like an Ashtanga Yoga-rebel when I roll my green mat out, heheh. Lucky me he's not there to tell me off..!

And here's the Ashtanga Vinyasa primary series. Very different it is, not. More same same but different! The first two rows show the movements in the two sun salutations that you always start the Ashtanga pratice with (I miss them in Bikram Yoga!), then follows the other poses. I never did all of them, only a selection.Image from http://yoga-pictures.co.tv

Ok, thank you for listening. I swear, I will not mention a word about yoga in my next post ;-)