Why Yoga Part 4 of 4: Yoga as a Metaphor for Life
July 10, 2009 by dr. lam · 2 Comments
I always laughed at the mat-toting yoga fanatics in the past. Now, I have become one. Man, I must not laugh at anyone anymore. The word yoga means “union”. It is a union between mind and body. It is a union for your life as well. My yoga instructor says that “Yoga is life. It is not just a practice of your asanas (poses). It is what you carry into your life.” That can mean a lot of things but this is how I take it. First, I believe that the peace that I feel during the workout and the meditation that I practice at the end of each session are ways that I would like to conduct my life. Second, the intensity of focus that I practice should be carried into my daily activities, as I am an intensely focused guy but at peace. It is like how I practice surgery. Many people ask if I get nervous because they would if they were working on a face. I say no that I don’t get nervous but that I am intensely present and at peace. That is how I engage with each patient that sits in front of me. I am intensely present and at peace.
The other expression that I heard a month or so ago was, “Don’t just quit but modify your pose.” During half moon pose or boat pose, etc., I am dying and want to quit. I love that. My body is shaking, my sweat is streaming, and my mind is intensely focused BUT I WANT TO QUIT. I like working through the pain and getting to where I need to get. If I can’t take it anymore, I move into a modification that still keeps me going but not quitting. Sometimes, I just need to get to active child’s pose so that I don’t collapse. I think this discipline and focus as well as the desire to move forward is a great practice that trains your daily habits and can enter every nook and cranny of your life.
Namaste.
Why Yoga Part 3 of 4: Intense Workout
July 9, 2009 by dr. lam · 12 Comments
I remember bringing a very fit friend of mine to yoga for the first time who is a self-proclaimed fitness fanatic. She said, “I hope this is real cardio.” I said, “Well, let’s see.” She finished the entire 1.5 hours (better than I did the first time) and said, “Wow, that was a workout.” Another friend that I brought (who is also intensely fit) declared, “This routine should be designed for only the military.” I brought another friend from Austin on Monday night who posted on her Facebook that she believes all other forms of yoga are for sissies after she tried the yoga I attend. Now, not all yoga is the same. I believe that some light stretching exercises can be good for some, but I crave intensity. I want it to tone my body, strengthen my muscles in ways that cardio and weights cannot accomplish, i.e., longer, leaner isometrically-toned body. I want a challenge for my cardio workout and also for testing me to advance in my poses.
The yoga that I attend is Suze Curtis’ Power Dynamic Yoga Plus (as if the word power was not enough she needed all the adjectives she could muster to differentiate this workout) in Addison, Texas. It is an hour and a half to 2 hours in 92 degree heated room. Trust me that this can be worse than Bikram because of the intensity of the constant flow of her movements and poses. It is intensely difficult. I love the challenge of trying to improve, a practice that I know will require years of effort to perfect.
Emina asked me if I was so fit why couldn’t I hold my poses so long, which after 4 months I am getting much better at it. I returned to her that if I took her to a spin class and had her go through 2 straight hours with me that it would not be easy for her. Our body gets used to certain prescribed movements and our heart gets lazy by focusing on the same redundant routines. What is great with yoga is that the routine constantly changes and there is such a huge room for advancing in your poses. I am at the bottom of the barrel for level 1 right now but love the idea that I can advance to level 2 someday and 3, etc. Given these constraints, I still believe very much that intense high-speed cardio (I do step and spin) are great ways to challenge your body in other ways like weights and swimming (both of which I do too). Whenever we get too comfortable in life, we should shake it up a bit. Yoga does that. Well, that is something I am concluding with as a subject tomorrow.
Why Yoga Part 2 of 4: Clarity of Vision
July 8, 2009 by dr. lam · 3 Comments
In the past, I was the consummate weekend warrior. I would workout with incredible intensity on Saturday and Sunday and perform either no or very minimal working out throughout the rest of the week. A huge problem for me was lacking the desire and discipline to wake up early in the morning like 5 am to workout. Just did not want to do this, and I know my own limitations for desiring to implement something consistently into my life. At night, I was always exhausted and lifting weights and doing intense cardio did not appeal to me. The real death knell for this was anytime that I did intense cardio at night I would be left with the sensation of complete fatigue at night when I got home but then an inability to fall asleep thereafter.
Yoga has changed all of that. It is the perfect evening workout. It is so intense during the exercise that no matter how tired I am or distracted, I am totally present and cannot focus on anything else but the asana, or pose. I am consumed with being present. That also allows me to let go of my daily ruminations that plague me at night. Allowing yourself 1 to 1.5 hours of not thinking about anything before or after is truly practicing the Power of Now we discussed months ago, and I encourage my new readers of this blog to go back to search my blogs on the Power of Now or to purchase Eckhart Tolle’s wonderful book. Beyond that, it also allows me to get home and feel this intense alertness. The feeling I get after yoga is unrivaled. I am completely awake and intensely present. HOWEVER, when it comes time for sleep, I fall asleep immediately and get a pronounced depth to my sleep. It is almost bizarre how it is the exact opposite pattern that I experience with working out doing conventional weights and cardio. Now, if I did weights and cardio in the morning then I have no problem at night and actually get great sleep. I just have problems when I do conventional working out at night, a problem that I don’t have with yoga.
Why Yoga Part 1 of 4: You Are as Young as Your Spine
July 7, 2009 by dr. lam · 4 Comments
I have been doing yoga now consistently for the past 4 months and would like to thank my hair transplant coordinator and friend, Emina Karamanovski, for introducing me to this wonderful habit, way of life, and physical exercise. As many of you might know, I have done spin class and weights for many many years but have not found these outlets as challenging or invigorating as I would like. I have found how yoga has helped me as a person in my personal quest for self growth and maturity in many ways. Because it has had such a profound influence in my life, I wanted to share with you what I have learned and perhaps encourage you in your own time to think of how to incorporate a bit of yoga into your life.
One of the most profound quotes that I heard during yoga class was, “You are only as young as your spine.” My instructor, Suze Curtis, then imitated the older individuals with bent, kyphotic backs stumbling around in the local Sam’s Club with a walker. That stiffness is progressive. It is not like one day you wake up not being able to move well. It is a slow, inexorable part of aging that leads to an overall stiffness and debilitation. As a surgeon, I must protect my spine as I am stooped over operating for most of the day or injecting patients with Botox or fillers. If you live a relatively sedentary life, you will find that you become progressively stiffer and less flexible.
I remember my colleague telling me in 2006 that, “Hey Sam, you look terrible.” He was right. My posture was quite terrible. What saved me was Michael Solberg, a Rolf Practitioner, who has lengthened and released the fascial adhesions in my body so that I am now much more limber and upright. I believe that even yoga is not enough. I look at bodywork as combining 3 elements (beyond weights and intense cardio, which we will talk about later this week): rolf for fascial release and alignment, massage for relaxation/meditation/ and muscle health, and yoga for strength/toning/flexibility.
Also, even if you are an intense person who likes to workout, you are going to be much more prone to injury lifting weights and doing cardio without yoga. Obviously, pilates is a great alternative, but I am more ignorant of this wonderful activity. If you just lift weights even with stretching, you can pull something until it snaps. Or if you are doing intense cardio, a 5-minute stretching exercise before and after may not be enough if you are still overall very stiff. You do not obviously need just 5 minutes of stretching before and after yoga because you are doing 1.5 hours of it during your session. Tomorrow we will focus on clarity of mind and focus that it has given me.