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| Sorry for the delay caused due to my out of state visit.
Cyndi: Please understand that I did NOT mean to state exactly about you, meaning Cyndi. Since you stated the loosening due to heat as your experience I did state your name. Now, I am also not suggesting you to give up Heating due to my statements. However, since you took it little personally, let me ask you a question before I go ahead?: Can you kindly tell me how long you have practiced with heated rooms for Yoga in a regular fashion?
Now, let us go ahead. When one says one goes deeperr due to heat, that exactly means the flexibility is cauused as a reaction to heat. Going deeper means, becoming more flexible than one is and that is duue to heat. When one uses and efffort to become flexible, the flexibility is more long lasting. When heat is used to become flexible, that is actually, not flexibility in true sense. One does go deeper into poses, if going deeper into poses is the goal. When one practices like this, one may not see the ill effects of that heat depending on other life style. To give a smiliar example, in India, you shall find many people who eat lot of hot spices and show a relatively good health for a prolonged life time. This is NOT due to the hot spices, whcih are alwayys always detimental to health. But, it is Inspite Of the spices. This means that other life style such as low stress, love full atmosphere, devotional life, vegetarianism, sunshine, etc. have balanced out the ill efffects of ths spices. Without a doubt, when one practices in a heated room (for Tourist, see what is natural below), where thhe heat has cauused the flexibility as a reaction to heat, the person looses in a long run. In other words, there is NO benefit due to heating.
Natural Heat: (Tourist): Natural heat means that when one is feeling cold, one raises the temperature to make one feel just normal, not hot. In other words, the temperatuure should not cause excessive sweating due to heat. I agree that this is different for different persons. But, it is neverr in the range of 100 degrees.
For Sister Cyndi and Tourist: Let me give you another simple criteria, which shall possibly clarify this topic: Choose whatever temperature you think is natual, good, good for flexibility, good for health. Now, tryy to stay in that temperature for 24 hours, 7 days a week. Like this for say 6 months. Then, if you still feel good in that temperature, in terms of health, flexibility, or whatever, then I call it a correct temperature. Now, of course, the actual number may be slighly different for different people.
Neel Kulkarni
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Expert Yogi
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| I somehow missed the stuff about the very old people in undeveloped countries. The trouble with that is that indeed there are individuals that live to ripe old ages in their country but it has happened within a context of something closer to natural selection. Those countries will also have high infant and childhood mortality so the odds of living that long, when you consider a whole life span, are not any better than they are in a developed country. But those who do manage to survive to say, middle age, are going to do pretty well in the long run. and there are those genetic wonders who do just have very long lifespans for reasons apparently unrelated to lifestyle, as Bruce so clearly illustrated. There is very good evidence that someone mentioned elsewhere that fairly rigid calorie restriction has a lot to do with it.
Neel, when you say to be in the same temperature 24 hours a day, I think I would not like that. I like to sleep in a cooler temperature than I live in during the day. But this is an example of cultural bias and cultures making virtues of things that are actually influenced by external factors. In cold countries we tend to think it is healthier to sleep in a cooler room and use more covering to keep warm. I have a friend who travels in hot areas of Africa without a lot of electric cooling. They think it is terribly unhealthy to drink very cold water, even when refrigeration is available. I could probably get used to sleeping with less covering, as I do in the summer, but soon would miss my snuggly duvet, cosy wool socks etc  We are such products of our environment! |
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| Yes Dear Tourist:
Sleepin gin a cooler room is healthier than artificially heated room, heated using forced air leading to dryness, heated using gas polluting the air, and heated using oil leading to air pollution and dryness if the oil heating is exposed. Additionaly, bad due to heating cost. However, in that case the heavy blankets imitate the effect of keeping the skin temperature same as it was with heating without blankets.
Now, when I same same temperature throughout 6 months, my aim is to give an idea of what is a good correct temperature in terms of health, and also while doing Yoga. The actual numbers shall differ depending on people, preference, etc. However, the number shall never approach 100 degrees as used for Hot Room Yoga.
Neel Kulkarni
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Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | Namaste` Neel Bhai, I say this out of the deepest respect...I am not Heating up at you - believe me or not:~) Anyway, I am very content with my present Yoga practice - the Bikram method. It's doing everything and more than I ever expected. So, having that said, I've been practicing in the heated style for a year now. I've been doing other Yoga methods for several years and when I was exposed to Bikram it clicked with my anatomy. I like doing Hatha yoga in a hot room but not overly hot...I really do not like it over 100 degrees and 95 is really about as hot as I get my house in the winter time. That is not very hot really if you think about a hot summer day here in the south. I really didn't mean to start an argument about this and it seems that everyone has an OPINION about every subject that comes along on this forum - myself included:~) So, I'm going to take a step back. Besides, Spring is coming and I'm going to get very busy with my garden and these bees in trying to produce some honey, its getting harder as man encroaches on the environment. So, I'm not upset with you Neel, I really like you alot, but its okay for me to be where I am and I'm not hurting...I'm healing my body and I'm much stronger than ever before. I just feel I needed to speak and say that I am not going to change my mind about Bikram because of one perspective and it just happened to be yours - no problem, right?? Take care and I'll be lurking around. Dan ya bad. CyndiBin |
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| Right Neel - I get it. I have often wondered where the upper limit of human aclimation comes in terms of temperature. In hot countries people are used to a much higher median temperature but when it gets hotter than the usual "hot" for that area, they still get very uncomfortable. I suspect it has something to do with a percentage above the norm (and of course individuals vary in their tolerance) and that if the norm rises over time, they get used to that, too. I know here it is uncommon to be above the mid 2o's (Celsius) but when it stays that high for a few days we do get accustomed to it and feel "cool" when the temperature drops again. Yet people from hot places find that cool and only complain when it gets into the 40's. I am not science-oriented in any way but these little puzzles, how conditions affect people and how people adapt to the conditions around them are fascinating to me. Even the idea of practicing in 95 degrees does not appeal to me. I am sure my past lives are all from temperate places!  |
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| thanks CyndiBen, and Tourist-er. I am waiting for Spring myself because that is when beloved Nancy (my wife) starts living with me after moving to Virginia.
neel kulkarni
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Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | Neel Bhai, I wish you and Nancy all the best in your life together. I hope you are as happy as me and Satyam. If you visit the mountains, stop by for a visit. I'll cook you an Indian/Nepalis feast!! I make really good Dal - Nepalis people use an herb grown in the himalayas called Jimu in their Dal with Ghee - it tastes really good. We'll have some Chai with my home grown honey too! Take care, CyndiBihin |
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| thanks thanks thanks. looking forward to all of you.
neel kulkarni
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| Bay Guy - 2005-02-23 8:37 PM
I wonder why it is that men seem to sweat more? It would suggest that they are
burning more energy, and thus have a greater need to cool themselves....
I want to know more about this....
I can think of a couple of physiological reasons:
Men sweat more than women because they have more muscle mass and a higher muscle to fat ratio. Muscles generate heat - yes they are burning more energy.
Men also sweat more due to more heat buildup because they have a lower ratio of surface area (skin) to volume simply due to their larger size on average. It's a well know biological fact that the smaller the animal, the more heat the animal must produce by it's metabolism to maintain a given body temperature - this is simply due to having a higher ratio of surface area to lose heat through. In some animals you will find larger forms of the same species in the colder climates.
Women usually complain of cold before men do, for the same reasons.
I don't know whether there are differences in sweat glands between the sexes.
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Location: A Blue State |
Thanks. These are good observations. I especially like the V/A aspect.
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Sweat, sweat, sweat
