In 1999 my stress levels had been increasing slowly. Computer software deadlines always seemed to come up faster than I expected. Managers in the software industry regularly underestimate the effort required. Why is that? Some sort of internal time estimation clock malfunction? Not sure but I was caught up in it and with the impending separation from my girl friend the stress was slowly building. I thought I had a good solution to it all. I would just increase my weekly running mileage from 20 to 25 miles, throw in a few hills, and it would be smooth sailing. In the past my extra stress relieving effects of 5 hilly miles seemed to work well.
One morning I ran halfway up the 600 ft Mount Soledad in La Jolla, Ca, turned around and started back down. It was always fun running down except that morning was a little different. The extra mileage had been building stiffness into my hip flexors, low back stabilizers, and hamstrings and I had been busy. Too busy to slow down and stretch like I knew I should or wished I would. On the way down I stepped off an ordinary curb in an ordinary way and planted my foot … Ouch! Now there were sharp pains shooting down my left leg. I stopped, tested my leg a little and thought, “No biggie, I can stretch this out when I get home. I have felt this kind of sciatic pain before.”, so I walked a mile or so back home, stretched for half an hour and went to work which meant 6-8 hour in a chair. All day long I had a low level dull ache in my left hip. “Not too bad” I thought, “I’ll stretch more over the next few days and it will be fine.” But by the end of the week my low back and hip and the sciatic pains shooting down my leg were steady and constantly distracting.
I knew it would take a little while to rehab so I decided to rest it well and really stretch it all out. I knew all the muscles (I thought), the Piriformis, Gemelis, Gluteus Minimus, Hamstrings … they were all involved and I would just spend the extra time to stretch them out just like the athletic trainers had shown me. I would put the extra time into the stretching that I was not allowing because of my busy software schedule and everything would be fine right? Not quite right. The next few years of my life would be dramatically different. I would not exercise regularly and I would often struggle with low back pain during my long days of sitting in an office chair.
I was in my mid thirties and things were getting stiffer. For many years I had a minimalist stretching routine, a regular exercise schedule, and I was spending 8 hours a day in a chair. I unknowingly set myself up to be a walking time bomb that was exploding slowly (imploding is probably a better term). It did not seem like a “really” big deal; the big “Ouch!” while descending Mt. Soledad but that pain was sitting on top of a mountain of muscular tension that I was mostly unaware of. For years I was not doing any deep stretches. I was only doing the maintenance stretches that I thought athletes should do. Only the ones that I knew well enough to do quickly before I had to hurry off to work or dinner or get to my chores. I had no pattern of long slow stretches for all the muscles involved. Just like most non professional athletes I had been slowly increasing my muscular tightness in the legs, hips, and back and slowly decreasing my strength in the core abdominals muscles. Unknown to me were the micro spasms that were occurring regularly in many deep stabilizing muscles. They really did not hurt that much they simply resulted in the slow progressive shutdown in my hips, sacrum and spine. I was a recipe for disaster.
For the year following the big “Ouch!” I stopped running, started, increased my tried and tested stretching routine, visited chiropractors, got MRI scans, got new orthotics for my shoes, adjusted my chair posture, tried some acupuncture, and took plenty of Ibuprofen. Things got better but were never right. I had a chronic condition where rest and everything else were not enough to get my body back to where I liked it.
One day I decided to try a yoga class. Fortunately for me it was a class taught by Rama Birch the founder of the Yoga Alliance. The Yoga Alliance sets the standards for certified yoga teachers nationwide. Rama is a very knowledgeable yoga teacher. Her conviction and experience were amazing to me. I told her my dilemma and she said something like, “Well, I saw you walking across the room and your spine is all locked up. You need to release your tail bone. It’s going to take some time.” I thought to myself, “geez, my spine is locked up, hmmm; I can touch my toes and even get my legs into a semi lotus position.” I had even done extra stretching the month before class so how could I be that locked up? Rama said something like: “Almost everyone who walks in here for the first time is locked up. It’s chronic in our society. It’s is up to you if you want to see how the minority lives.”
I started taking classes and did the extra homework that Rama suggested. For a couple of hours a day for several months I did this: #1, the chair forward fold (head hanging between the knees), #2, the cross legged forward fold for both legs (in a chair, ankle on opposite knee and fold forward), #3, kneeling lunge for both legs (knee on the ground and opposite foot out in front and bring the front leg to vertical), #4, lying stomach twist both sides (lying on your side you look like your in a chair with you head twisting the opposite way of your knees). I added a few more yoga poses and some abdominal exercises given to me by a chiropractor that would not cause more spasm. Slowly over time my body changed. The pains started disappearing and 6 months later there were significant improvements that allowed me to jog a bit and go dancing, I decided to take regular Vinyasa yoga classes at the gym I had joined. After a while I was going to yoga every other day and feeling great. I was running 1 mile a day and cycling a lot.
I lived this way for a few years but was never really satisfied. I was aging faster than I wanted to. I wanted a regular aerobic exercise routine that was invigorating. I wanted to feel really healthy. Every time I tried to increase my running mileage the pains would come back and linger throughout my day. I tried to work out the pains in the Vinyasa yoga classes and that helped but not enough.
Rama retired from teaching and started working on the Yoga Alliance full time so I made it my goal to find another yoga teacher trained by Rama in the Svaroopa style. I found Skyler Myers at yoganic studio. I started taking her bliss classes (restorative yoga). Skyler would talk about “really letting go of deep tensions using props and supports for at least 2 minutes”. This is how Rama used to talk so again it seemed I was on the right track. Slow deep restorative yoga. My body started changing on a deeper level. I was slowly releasing more of the years of bound up tension from deep within my spine, tailbone, hips, hamstrings etc. I was doing a larger variety of yoga poses that were getting into all the crack and crevasses of my hips and low back. I slowly discovered new poses I needed to add to my regular routine that would release deeper. After a year of yoga with Skyler I started running a few miles at a time again without pain. I was gliding like a gazelle like I could in my early 20s. Everything started getting easier. My stress level was dropping to the level of many years ago and the 2-3 colds I used to get per year were now either mild or not happening at all.
One day I decided to share my joy of yoga with the world. I borrowed a friend’s professional video camera and shot a yoga class with a few friends. After struggling a bit with that video I purchased a few more cameras and other equipment. Over the next few years we have produced several yoga DVDs. I am especially fond of the Therapeutic and Restorative yoga DVDs because of my history and awareness that came from moving deeper into my body. The DVDs are for sale online at Amazon.com and at MyYogaVideo.com
While healing my body I tried many forms of yoga. I own about 50 yoga DVDs and know many yoga teachers of different styles and have taken their classes. My deeper healing came when I really slowed down and listened closely to my body. I needed to try different things, experiment with positions, and find out what it was like to really relax into a pose. Without restorative yoga I probably would never have discovered what my body needed. In other types of yoga classes there simply was not enough relaxation. My mind did not slow down enough and I could not sense what needed to release in the deeper muscles. There are so many muscles in and around the hips and shoulders and these muscles store tension in layers (I also fixed a shoulder issue using restorative yoga). Some muscles like those in and around the coccygeal nerve need to release before you can get a good release in the piriformis. And to do this you need to find out if they are tight. Right now do you know if the muscles in and around your tailbone are tight? It is a feeling thing that takes time, patience, and the right poses with a deep sense of relaxation.
The yoga video/DVD projects were gathering steam and as they chugged along I was determined to create DVDs that would help all yogis move deeper into their practice. When I practiced yoga in a class or when I used a DVD, if the instructor was talking all the time it was not always helpful. I liked it when she was suggesting something new that helped me explore my body but often she was saying things that distracted me from noticing my deeper muscles and my breath. I needed to escape the mental nature of the instructor’s voice. This mental nature is almost always present on DVDs where the instructor is talking about alignment and it is there every time you play it. So in addition to restorative yoga DVDs we created a series of Vinyasa Yoga DVDs where you can choose how detailed the instruction is. You can also choose the music that inspires you, that helps you go beyond the mind, or choose no music and/or no detailed instruction at all (just the pose changes). And to further inspire you to practice more so we filmed most of them outdoors in beautiful locations.
The home website for the videos clips and DVDs is MyYogaVideo.com
and the teachers are Laura Hawes (restorative yoga , yoga therapy), Skyler Myers (restorative yoga , yoga therapy), Christina Pedersen (Vinyasa Yoga, Kripalu Yoga), Jennifer Tipton (Vinyasa Yoga), Jyl Auxter (Vinyasa Yoga, Ashtanga Yoga), Maral Hadidi (Vinyasa Yoga, Iyengar Yoga, Anusara Yoga), Ishwari Gonnot (Vinyasa Yoga , Anusara Yoga). Together we have produced a series of yoga DVDs with different yoga styles and difficulty levels. We have the restorative / yoga therapy DVDs and Vinyasa Yoga DVDs that include all the other styles (rolled into or combined with the Vinyasa). Coming soon we will have Kundalini Yoga combined with energizing aerobic dance and Hatha Yoga, Office Yoga, Airplane Yoga, Urban Yoga, Pilates, Aerobics / Kick Boxing, and Nutritional and Healthy Lifestyle DVDs. I hope you check them out and enjoy.
Namaste,
Steve Bickel
July 1 2008
Sampler of Vinyasa DVDs :
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