Hot yoga - yes or no? I'm hypo with hashi

[Brubru]

Has anyone tried hot yoga? I'm thinking of joining aiming to build some muscle strength and loosing weight.

[Marz]

You could try it and see how you feel. Personally I would start with Hatha yoga or something gentle and then move onto Bikram. Building strength can take time - I think it depends on your age of course and the other exercise you do. I started weekly yoga classes late - when I was 57 and started teaching 2/3 times a week at 65 ! Not sure if I have built that much muscle strength or lost weight but am certainly flexible..... ( but then my passport tells me I'm an old lady ! )

[foxglove in reply to Marz]

Agree with Marz, also came to yoga (hatha) late then started teaching but I retired at 65, then went back to classes as a student. Good luck with whatever you try!!!

[Brubru in reply to foxglove]

Thank you foxglove! I'm going for it! And see if it improves my strength so I can do better at my other yoga classes! Wow! You thought yoga till you were 65!?! Well done you. That's why I practise it I want to feel good

[Brubru in reply to Marz]

I bet your passport lies! I've been doing yoga for five years, about three times a week on my good weeks. But heard the hot one makes you even more flexible. I've signed up for it they opened one just around the corner. I'll report back :-). Thank you Marz again and always

[Marz in reply to Brubru]

I guess I am fortunate to live in Crete - so it's HOT yoga for us with every class Looking forward to reading how things go for you....

Go for it

[Brubru in reply to Marz]

Thank you! I will see how it goes. Trying one new thing is always different

[Hidden]

Hello Brubru,

For many years I practised Ashtanga Yoga ( always my first love) and later sampled a little Bikram. Here in Brighton we had the first hot yoga studio and it very ..".fashionable..".. ! ! ! .

Bikram is supposed to promote prana (energy) through a mindful, moving meditation in an extremely hot room. I must admit it just made me very sweaty, dizzy and experience an elevated heart rate. I persevered for several months but decided it wasn't very mindful or spiritual or even that good for me....! ! ! .... You perform in front of a mirror..! !

I find Bikram to be a superficial endurance (yoga..? .? ) .. practice, performed by people more interested in their appearance and asanas (postures) than appreciating the actual art of internalisation.

I still practice yoga at home most days and prefer a small yoga ( hatha..? ) class shared with the like minded ...... held in a local church hall.... . It is a case of accepting my limititations now adays... lol.

If you are looking for a more challenging class, I would highly recommend Ashtanga Yoga which retains the spiritual element as well as following a progressive fitness journey.

Namaste,

Flower

[Brubru in reply to Hidden]

I think you're right about the endurance thing and that's why I want to do it. Even though I've been practicing various types of yoga for a while I still can't do the plank nor the sticky insect one. Anything actually that needs strength. I have none. My only worry is that my blood pressure is very low 90x60 when hot it gets lower. We will see! I've signed :-). I'll report back. Thanks for the reply.

[Hidden in reply to Brubru]

Well good luck Brubru.

I think you quite brave and apologise for being so derogative above Bikram.... not very yoga - like ..! !

It's good to try new experiences whatever they are.

Not sure what sticky insect pose is though...? ? Crane..? Firefly..??.. Lol

Flower

“Do your practice and all is coming.” ~ Sri K Patthabi Jois

[Brubru in reply to Hidden]

I don't think you were derogative, Flower I feel its the truth! I do kundalini yoga once a week and always when we have a new comer and their only experience of yoga is Bikram, the teacher goes: "oh well, now you are in are in a treat for something that is completely the opposite of bikram, we are here to connect, there is no right or wrong there is only compassion towards yourself as well as others, its all about your practise, so we try to keep our eyes closed.... Most of them don't come back. So I will still do and believe in yoga for the spiritual awakening, and if I do well in the hot one just for some time to get strength.

[Hidden in reply to Brubru]

Arrrr ...waking the serpent..!!

Good luck.

F

[Brubru in reply to Hidden]

waking the serpent? I've googled stick insect that's how my teacher calls it, it's chaturanga. I just dream of being able to it and head stands! Five years and not yet....

[Hidden in reply to Brubru]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunda...

I haven't practised Kundalini Brubru.

F

[Brubru in reply to Hidden]

To begin with I found a bit strange. It's very unorthodox but now when I can't go for some reason I miss it :-).

[greygoose]

If you have low blood pressure, are you not still hypo? You can't build up muscle from nothing. You have to have good hormone levels - testosterone, HGH, T3, etc. It's not just a question of exercise. Same goes for losing weight.

[Brubru in reply to greygoose]

Greygoose greygoose..... I knew you'd comment on those lines... Well i don't think I will ever get to a proper dose. I do well a while then something goes cuckoo. I'm loosing hope. I've been eating the healthy fats you are always mentioning, my supplements, I was well on 3 grains then felt odd, two weeks ago cut to two, feel better now. I'm gluten and sugar free, soya free since I came across this forum. I think I've screwed my health at an early age. The more i read, the more I believe I was hypo/hashi/hyper from childhood and only started getting treated in my thirties. To make things worse i became vegan when I was 13, so soya was my staple food for years. But comparing to where I've been i'm light years better thanks to selfless people like yourself in this forum.

[greygoose in reply to Brubru]

That was a drastic reduction! Might have been better to reduce by half a grain.

I'm 99.9% certain that I've been hypo/Hashi's/hyper since childhood, too - I can pick out the phases when I was hyper - so different to the rest of my life. And I wasn't diagnosed until I was 55 (sorry, not trying to upstage you, lol, just saying I know what you mean). I went through a vegetarian phase and had quite a bit of soya, too. And, funnily enough, that started just before I got so badly hypo that I finally got diagnosed - coincidence? I think not. But, I think I've over-come that. I also know what you mean about doing well for a while, and then everything goes pear-shaped!!!

Have you had any other hormones tested? The one I'm thinking particularly about is HGH. Lots of hypos have low HGH - which isn't surprising given that you need T3 to produce HGH, and HGH to convert T4 to T3. So, it's a vicious circle.

When your HGH is low, your muscles are reabsorbed, and replaced by lots and lots of fat! So, you put on weight and have reduced muscle strength. But even then, you can't reduce the fat by diet and exercise. Might be Worth looking into if you can.

[Brubru in reply to greygoose]

yeah yeah... you are upstaging me ;-). One more vegetarian that became hypo/hashi/hyper then. I know a few and wonder if it's all the soya we ate? I haven't tested HGH as far as i know. I might increase half grain then, when i can get myself organised i will write a post with my results to get some suggestions, but on my last blood test my T3 was around 6!!! Never seen such number in my tests tsh nice and supressed, t4 lower than range. So would you say you still have bad periods then?

[greygoose in reply to Brubru]

Oh, Don't get me wrong! I was 51 when I went veggie, so although I think the soya made things worse, enough to get diagnosed, I Don't think it was the cause because that happened when I was a kid.

If you have been tested for HGH it would be called IGF 1 on your results.

I would say I have tired periods (like this afternoon - it's not quite 6 pm and I just want to go to bed!!!) But that's nothing to the times I just couldn't get out of bed. I've been busy today.

I think I'm a hell of a lot better than I was two years ago. Three, four, five years ago. But I've got better by avoiding doctors and tryig things out for myself.

My worst period was when I was on NDT. That was horrendous! But on T3 only, I'm getting a tinsy bit better every day - well, every month, anyway. But I had to find that out for myself. My doctor at that time just kept insisting that NDT was the only way to go. For me, it wasn't.

[Brubru in reply to greygoose]

Well at least you had a doctor who prescribed NDT. My one kept me on levo 50mcg for 7 years. One day i got fed up doubled my levo to 100 and told gp that it had been a doc back home. Luckily he didn't ask for a prescription, just kept me on 100 did the blood tests and nothing had changed! Blood test results wise, i did feel better, than i found this forum, cried till endo added t3 to my levo, then self medicating on NDT but haven't yet got the courage to tell them. The best I have ever been. When i read you and others doing so well on t3 only im tempted, but it hasn't been 6 months yet on NDT so I will persevere for now. Can you imagine the conflict? A whole life being veggie, having pig thyroid now. That was out of despair and after lots of consideration

[Brubru in reply to greygoose]

ah I see, but yes i do have other female friends who were vegetarians from a young age that are hypo now, with similar symptoms of depression, PMS, heavy periods, mood swings weight fluctuation etc. My wardrobe goes from size 10 to 16 its awful. Even shoes change size, GP thinks im cuckoo. Maybe I am. Setember last year 72kg,this week 87kg! awful

[greygoose in reply to Brubru]

I do not doubt that a combination of eating soy and not eating meat can cause hypo. Seems very possible to me, just saying that that wasn't the way it was with me.

As for shoes!!! Very sore subject. I've always had big feet, spent a life-time with sticking plasters on the backs of my heels because it was so difficult to get shoes that fit properly. As a young adult, I took a size 8, which was difficult enough. But at least, I thought, that's it. won't get any bigger! How wrong I was! They've gone up by about three sizes!!!

I used to live in Paris, which made things easier as far as shoes were concerned, because I could buy them in shops that catered for transvestites! lol Got some very classy shoes there! But no such luck out here in the sticks. lol

[Brubru in reply to greygoose]

I'm size 8 too since my teens! I used to buy smaller shoes because I was always embarrassed. But now depends on my 'mood' I'm wearing anything from size 7,5 to 9,5. Its madness.

[greygoose in reply to Brubru]

It never embarrassed me, but it certainly annoyed me when sales ladies would look down their noses at me and say 'oh no, we Don't have that size in anything!'

Had a terrible row with one snooty sales lady in a boutique in Paris that proclaimed they 'specialised' in larger sizes. I told her exactly what I thought of her stuck-up attitude and that she should change the name of the boutique if she was going to react like that, then swept majestically out! The shoes were expensive, too!

But I crossed over the road to a shop that was having a sale, and there, on the rack outside, was a beautiful pair of navy blue suede sling-backs, just my size, and dirt cheap. Best pair of shoes I ever had! lol

I won't try and wear anything that doesn't fit me, I value my feet too much.

[Brubru in reply to greygoose]

ha ha ha you made me smile now. I was in my teens when id buy shoes a size smaller now I wouldn't do it, but still get embarrassed, the other day went to get some trainers for my son he is 12 and size 6, the guy at the shop asked if I was going to try I said yes but not that one a size 9 for me please the shop assistant looked down at my feet. wish you were there with me to intimidate him lol . I'm 5'9 so smaller feet would get me out of balance anyway and im not a geisa

[greygoose in reply to Brubru]

I also have very big hands. Finding a wedding ring 50 years ago proved to be very difficult! They were all made for ladies with dainty little hands!

In one jewellers, the shop assitant took hold of my hand to try a ring on it, and said, 'Wow! That's quite a mitt you've got there!" I was so shocked, I couldn't say anything. I looked at my future husband, and he just stood there, like a great lump of blancmange, and didn't say a word!

When we got outside, he said "bloody cheek! I should have knocked his block off!"

I should have taken the hint and run away as fast as my legs could carry me! But it's easy to be Wise in retrospect...

[Hidden in reply to greygoose]

gg

I have been investigating more immunology stuff as feel I'm acquiring more & more symptoms.......

I have Sjogrens and am reading the possibility of it attacking the nervous system and can be accountable for peripheral neuropathy, evidenced by a raised lGF1 and lymphocytosis.

You mentioned HGH levels above.

Do you have experience of these tests and what other conditions they might indicate please ?

Flower

[greygoose in reply to Hidden]

I've had the IGF 1 test a couple of times, but it was to test my HGH, nothing else. Each time it was very low. But I Don't think I have any other conditions. Maybe a bit of Psorasis, but not confirmed.

It would appear that it's difficult to get a clear reading when testing HGH itself, but it is directly linked to IGF 1, so they test that. What confuses me is that low IGF 1 also indicates low vit A. However, it would seem, vit A has nothing to do with HGH levels... I can't quite get my head round that one!

Had anyone asked me off the cuff, therefore, I would have said that elevated IGF 1 indicated elevated HGH... But perhaps it dépends what you're looking for and it has to be taken alongside other things. I Don't know.

Sjogrens is about blood circulation, isn't it? I must confess I know nothing about it. It's cold fingers and toes and dry mouth, isn't it? I Don't have that - well, cold toes, yes, but not the rest. But I do have bad neuropathy - think I've had it all my life and it's been getting worse - doctors said it was due to low thyroid. I think it's due to a life-time of low B12. Who knows! Certainly my IGF 1 isn't raised!

[Hidden in reply to greygoose]

Sjogrens attacks all the fluid glands.

I have even read it can dry up synovial fluid and I've had two lots of cortisone in frozen shoulders in my youth.

Wouldn't go there now! ! !

Thanks for info,

Flower

[mado]

Marz said what I would have said. The idea of hot yoga is tempting, but maybe not as good in reality. I went to one class. Ended up feeling really faint and had to lie down for about ten minutes. It was a bit strange. Everyone else was young 30 something, lithe and tall. I am the opposite, twice the age. However I have been doing hatha for 23 years and have just started teaching at 64. If you want to see faster results, practice more than once a week. I have to say I think hatha is the best but I am biased. Good luck though whatever you choose.

[Brubru]

Mado! I loved reading that you also became a yoga teacher at 64! Congratulations that's a massive achievement! I practise yoga 3 times a week and take part in a restorative yoga workshop once a month, i just want to see if the hot one will push me further in the flexibility and give me some strength. Thank you for replying.

[Brubru]

I'm going for it Angela Blu! I love yoga, just thinking the hot one will be more demanding and i might faint if my blood pressure gets even lower than already it is normally.

[Babette]

I practice Iyengar yoga and feel so much better for it.

[donna8077]

If you have Hashi's and want to do Hot Yoga I wouldn't personally. It's a breeding ground for bacteria and the extreme temperatures have been found to promote a whole host of issues.

If your gut flora are compromised you would do well to avoid it! I've started doing yoga and I just do a little more each time with a structured plan gearing up to strength. I started with a stretching set of poses and moved onto creating a gentle strength class. I have been known to be found in corpse sound off though because I relax properly these days! (Not under medicated dozing, I genuinely relax to my core!)

It's helping an awful lot! I also agree with grey about the low blood pressure. The heat may well put you on the floor and not in a good way! To be honest the heat is a fad, I chatted with a lass that had been practicing since her teens and she said yoga will help you get supple and strengthen your muscles as long as there are no underlying conditions being untreated. She screwed her nose up at hot yoga like I was trying to get her to do it in a paddling pool of excrement!

[Brubru in reply to donna8077]

Ah wish I read it before. I've paid for it and attended some classes already. I quite enjoy it now and feel my muscles showing. But yes because of my badly treated conditions for many years I've lost a lot of strength among other things. Done a dry blood test yesterday with a natural doctor her face said it all my blood is so messed up its hard to know where to start! Her words