Wholistic Fitness

MOUNTAIN YOGI SIDDHIS: RACING IN THE HEAT

{last summer in LA: mounted upon my trusty pony, “Nalanda”… cranking up “paved Reseda” in brutal heat enroute to a PR on the famous leg breaker; Reseda-To-The-Sea mountain bike course. photo; Ananda.}

Coach,
I did my sprint workout today, and did pretty good.� One thing I am noticing, however, is that in the heat and humidity I am having trouble breathing.� I had asthma as a kid, and bronchitis, and it feels like that.� I have been taking Conco, 2 tablets 2X daily.� Anything else?
Love, feather

Most Noble Feather,
Training and racing in the heat and humidity…
nothing more sapping. when we were Tribal, we would hunker low in cool caves, seeking shade and ventilation from Sister Breeze.

Doing hard core berserko workouts in such weather is truly not very smart for such a ‘smart’ modern warriors of the sweat.

Oh well, right? Gotta train.

Indeed, keep the Conco herbs coming in to feed and support directly the Respiratory system; excellent call. Some other yogic tricks of the trade include;

{though technically not a ‘backbend’, your performance of ‘visvamatriasana’ will not look too elegant unless you’ve done the rib cage expansion and intercostal ‘ungluing’ necessary to rotate the torso as shown above. the Journey toward enjoying these poses will erase most respiratory dis-eases and afflictions which the Outer World terms, “chronic” and dispenses spirit-bleeding pills to ‘treat’. the genuine yogi always looks within for the answer…as Hubbel said, “The motive for a deed usually changes during its performance.” we might begin by doing asana to help our asthma, for instance, then as we continue our Practice, we realize that the Asthma was nothing but a Spiritual Wake Up Call…are you tough enough to answer the Call, or continue Seeking outside yourself?}

Backbends:
increasing your backbends in asana serves a number of helpful purposes for handling both genetic and environmentally induced respiratory challenges. A couple of these benefits is expansion of the pulmonary CT, enhanced vasoelasticity, bronchial dilation, and invigoration of the subtle energy flows within the nadic and chakral systems.

Pranayam:
while you are working out, you can internally cool your core temperature by engaging Sitali Pranayama here and there.� i used it frequently in LA, have engaged it mightily while doing ultra racing through Death Valley, and even yesterday when Flag’s temperature climbed into the 90’s…the heat and some wildfire smoke was getting to me, so, i cranked off a few rounds of Sitali and my pace during my duathlon workout never faltered.��Remember, the genuine yogi always looks within for the answer.

this ‘internal cooling technique’ is perform thusly;

Sitali (Tongue hissing)
During inhalation, curl up both edges of the tongue so that it forms a kind of tube. Breathe in through this tube. During inhalation the air passes over the moist tongue, cooling down and refreshing the throat. In order to be sure that the tongue remains moist, roll it back as far as possible against the palate. Do this during the entire exhalation so that the next breath is just as refreshing as the first. The resulting tongue position may appear more like the lower portion of a bird’s beak than a tube, but variable opening or closing of the tube-like passage in the folded tongue, in cooperation with faster or slower inhalation, makes possible variations in loudness and softness and smoothness of the reversed hissing sound. Again, a cooling effect may be noted and, indeed, sought through this and the foregoing technique whenever needed. The tongue is drawn back into the mouth and the lips are closed at the end of inhalation. We can breathe out either through the throat or alternately through the nostrils.

May be cooling Breath be with you
like the Kachina breeze among the aspens…

love,
the mountain yogi