By Sandra Miller
Daily Evening Item
The windows of the Yoga Passions studio were steaming up, and the 8:30 a.m. Saturday class hadn’t even started. As students filed into the 90-degree room, instructor Peter Skivlas asked them, “Did you drink your 32-ounces of water?” which they are supposed to drink 15 minutes before the start of the Bikram Yoga class.
The studio in front has people of all ages and sizes streaming in at 8 a.m. Saturday, a half-hour before class, to find their space, take off their shoes, flex, drink, chat, do some stretching in the heated room, and drink their water.
The front of the office features Fresh Samantha juices, Power bars, and a case of books and yoga mats for sale. At the desk, Skivlas, the barefoot, shaved-headed instructor, is tall, thin and muscular, dressed only in tight black shorts. He says to one student who signed up for unlimited visits, “I’m glad you took the bull by the horns.” As others sign in, he asks, “How much water did you consume in the last ½ hour?” Water is important in Bikram, because you’ll be sweating most of it out during the next 90 minutes.
Bikram is a style of yoga, designed by Bikram Choudhury of India, consisting of a series of 26 poses performed in a room heated between 90 and 100 degrees. The heat warms your muscles up, increasing flexibility and circulation.
The studio itself features soft lighting, and an entire wall lined with mirrors. We lay a towel above a yoga mat on the carpeted floor, and sit before a mirrored wall and Peter Skivlas, the instructor. The class starts with breathing rhythmically and deeply, so you can hear it in the back of your throat. “Your own breathing sets a rhythm not only for class, but for the whole weekend,” he says.
As the class gets into more strenuous moves, the more everyone is dripping with sweat. One move, which involves gripping my knees to my chest, is difficult because I’m, well, slippery. In others, when I don’t reach the full stretch, Peter comes over and helps me achieve it. We’re asked to push ourselves; when a woman talks to her friend, Skivlas scolds her -- “Danielle, if you can talk to your friend, you aren’t giving it your full effort.”
The sweating feels good, because I feel as though my body is cleansing itself of toxins. Lactic acid flows through my body instead of stalling within my limbs. However, after only 20 minutes, I’m winded, and apparently I don’t look pleased. “There is no saber-tooth tiger in the room, Sandra,” Skivlas teases me. “This is a humbling experience for one and all. The more you come, the easier it gets, and the more you feel the calm within yourself that is unmistakable.”
We are told we can work at our own level, but by the 45 minute mark, I’m feeling dizzy and a bit nauseous, and so I lay on the floor a lot, and so do a couple others. When I get up to, um, expel some of that 32 ounces of water, he urges me to keep working, but I insist. A few others do the same, and he tells the class that in some Bikram workouts, they lock the room so you can’t do bathroom or water-fillup breaks. “We aren’t as strict here,” he says, but also urges us to bring larger water bottles next time.
The end of the class we lay on the floor to relax, and we can stay there as long as we’d like. I am exhausted, and stay longer than the veterans, but I feel energized, too. There are no showers, so I go outside for air, and it’s like leaving a swimming pool. Everyone is smiling. Everyone seems to feel great. Later, when I’m home, I feel an overwhelming need for a nap.
As it turns out, the dizziness, nausea and sleepiness are normal reactions, sort of an alarm telling me that I need to drink more water, and that my body has begun to cleanse itself.
“The yoga is designed to bring your being back into balance. If you have been running on adrenaline ... pushing yourself ... if you have engaged in activities overloading the body with toxins such as caffeine, sugar, alcohol, whatever, emotional plaque, etc. your body might naturally want some integration time after your class.”
He adds, “People respond differently to Bikram yoga. Some people have so much energy they undertake long-neglected cleaning projects around the house. Others need to nap more in the early phase of their practice. The key is to come to at least 2-3 classes per week to build up some momentum. If you are saying you can’t, that’s what you get back. We try to get you to say, ‘I can, I can, I can.’”
Yoga and meditation helped Skivlas gain energy and focus. A Peabody native, Skivlas was a school athlete, but in his teens his grades started slipping. A Merv Griffin show featuring meditation changed his life, however; his anger decreased, his grades improved, and he graduated in 1979 from Peabody High. He earned a degree in philosophy from Northeastern University, and studied yoga with the Tibetan Lama when he was 20. He learned and taught for several years at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in the Berkshires. When Bikram came to Kripalu, Stivlas and the other staffers were blown away. “It was hard, but it was like when Bob Dylan plugged in his guitar and went electric. It was intense.”
Skivlas opened up Yoga Passion 3 years ago, which he calls a sanctuary currently for about 800 students. Since May 23, the studio has been running a challenge – anyone who attends a bikram session every day for 30 days gets a free month of classes. About 15 have signed on so far.
“I have never felt better, both physically and mentally,” says one challenger, Tracy Camarro, 36, a registered nurse who previously taught aerobics for 18 years and trained with weights for 13. She started doing Bikram in March, and reports losing body fat, and gaining muscle definition, strength and flexibility. “Because I’m using my own strength, I feel with this workout the challenge will always be there. I do not feel the need to supplement with any other form of exercise -- I believe it to be a total body and mind workout.”
Another challenge participant is Russian-born Henry Domnich, 55, of Revere, who had been doing Bikram for 40 days straight. He does a lot of work on the computer, so he came to Yoga Passions to ease the chronic tension around his neck and eyes.
“I really had to force myself, I had to clench my teeth. But I feel like I’m finally breathing. Otherwise, I hold my breath. I have seen a huge improvement. I’m becoming more firm, definitely.”
kivlas recalls Domnich’s first few classes: “He was more nervous, more jumpy, and had a hard time focusing. He would talk in the class. Today, I see a radiance in his skin and eyes.” But, he cautions, “No one will master yoga in 30 years, or ever. It’s about the journey. Henry knew it would not be a quick fix. Henry is not some sort of genetically well-suited yogi. Henry and our many yoga studio members enjoy the benefits of yoga because they stick with it.””
He did recall one client who had experienced nerve damage and memory loss from brain surgery; after four months, her husband came in to shake Skivlas’ hand to thank him for his wife’s recovery. “I don’t see her anymore. I think she should keep trying.”
Nationwide, many devotees claim Bikram has helped them get off insulin, drugs, and alcohol, and ease everything from back pain, anemia, weight loss, and migraines to emphysema, hemorrhoids, varicose veins, even your complexion.
“ Your body is dynamic,” Skivlas says. “If it is contracted and chronically tense, then you are walking around with emotional flak jackets. The endocrine system will get weaker or it will get stronger. We can heal our own bodies. One woman was about to lose her thyroid gland, now she’s been off the meds she’s been taking for 10 years. We get a lot of golfers. They say it helps them with their golf game so much, because it helps with stress relief.”
But Skivlas stresses that yoga is more about the spiritual journey.
“This opens people up psychologically and physically,” he says “It’s not what you do. The person has to feel they are so worthwhile, so loved, that requires a whole change of consciousness. Many people work out not because they love their bodies, but because they hate it. What kind of messages are they sending to the world, to their children?”
As part of its commitment to children, Yoga Passion is starting a play care program in the back, so parents will be able to work out; teacher Mary Grace Conti is teaching yoga to children, including Bikram, although they won’t achieve the same benefits because they lack sweat glands. But the idea is to pass along healthy attitudes about their bodies and peer pressure.
Conti has been doing Bikram yoga for 2 ½ years. Before, she worked out daily at the gym, working up a sweat, yet she suffered from what she calls “the cold-hands, warm-heart syndrome. Basically, I was always cold. It must have been a thyroid imbalance.” A certified nutritionist, she took herbal supplements and medicines to remedy it, but after trying Bikram, she says, “I have left all of that behind. I have learned it isn’t what you take, or even what you eat. It is how you think, how your body’s energy circulates, how you feel, and more than anything, it is moving my body and sweating hard.”
She began doing it every day, and the class helped her not only with her cold hands, but also to end a bad relationship, and to switch careers. “I found out who I was by looking in the mirror every day. It wasn’t who the clothes hid, or the outward toys that made me - there I was, bare and naked, just me. Kinda like how I came into the world, a little wet, a little slimy, very intense.”
She has been teaching at Yoga Passions for more than a year, and now enjoys seeing others’ “transformations.” Says Conti, “I see tri-athletes come in, their tough strong frame, and within the first 10 minutes, they too are as winded as the arthritic ladies who come to yoga so they can sleep with less pain.” She calls the studio “the rehab for runners.”
Conti and Skivlas see little miracles every day at their studio.
Kara Ritchie had arrived to class limping from rheumatoid arthritis, but wore a big smile. Ritchie, 31, a bank examiner from Beverly, had working out regularly at the gym, but when she was diagnosed last summer with rheumatoid arthritis, she tried everything. She was taking dozens of powerful medicines, including steroids, but the swelling never went away, and the medicine was making her sick. Then she read an article about a Cambridge woman battling rheumatoid arthritis who had success with Bikram.
“At Yoga Passions, Peter told me that it would be work and I would have to come as much as possible, but if I was persistent, it would help me.” She has been coming about 3 times a week since January, and has been off her meds for two months. “I try my best though and keep at it. I have noticed that after each class I feel better -- mentally and physically.” And she left the class without limping. “The swelling goes down so much that I actually can walk, especially up and downstairs with little pain. If I don’t go to class regularly, I can tell - my joints are much stiffer and more painful.”
For beginners, Yoga Passion is offering a coupon -- $15 for as many classes as you can take in 10 days. Call 978-750-8866, www.yogapassion.com
