Ashtanga and Sweat : Avoiding TOO sweaty an Ashtanga practice

Spinach was probably on the list they gave me after that first time but I was a meat eater then and not a fan of anything green, I probably didn't even register it.

A few years later I discovered Ashtanga, became a vegetarian and when green smoothies became the rage I jumped on the band waggon, those with spinach in where my favourite. I was having a green smoothie with spinach every day. Go, healthy me!

Spinach too however is HIGH in oxalate 

The excess of spinach was probably the cause of my second kidney stones experience.

I've been relatively mindful of what was on the list, avoided spinach and rhubarb obviously....God, just noticed eggplant is on the list, bugger, love aubergines. Still, I haven't gone overboard on them recently or anything else on the list. If you ever have Kidney stones you DON'T want to have them again certainly not a third or indeed a fourth time.

So I've been doing some googling and came across an article on the connection between Kidney stones and sweating, I've quoted from it at the top of the post and included the article at the bottom of the post. 

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When I moved upstairs to the new home shala, I revelled in the warmer closed room. I started practising Ashtanga again, a hot sweaty Ashtanga practices where I would sweat one, one and a half, even as much as two kilo's in a practice, felt good after the practicing through winter in the draughty open plan room downstairs. Detox right? Although supposedly there's not much evidence to suggest sweat removes toxins from the body, that's the job of the kidney's, we get rid of toxins through the urine not the sweat glands.

After a week of seriously sweaty practices in the new home shala I did start to wonder if it was a bit much, googled around, looked at a lot of marathon runners sites, they take on liquid before, throughout and after their marathons.

In Ashtanga we are taught to avoid drinking during practice, we don't want to cool down that internal heat that we've worked so hard to create right, or lose focus, lose our concentration by taking a drink breaks.

I want to create some internal heat, I want to keep the muscles warm and flexible but do I need to be sweating like crazy, doesn't it suggest I'm overdoing it somewhat, that I have the balance wrong, am not regulating my practice sufficiently.... and do I (we) really need to practice in such hot rooms. In hot countries, in Mysore India for example , isn't the idea to practice at the coolest part of the day. 

I changed my approach to practice, perhaps too late it seems for this stone. Rather than trying to sweat more I've sought to sweat less

• Practice earlier
• A cooler room
• A slower practice
• Breath more slowly, longer fuller inhalations and exhalations
• Conserve energy, more delicate jump throughs and back (Sharath style), better movement of the body
• A lighter ujjayi
• More subtle use of bandhas
• The occasional mini savasana where I begin to overheat

Hydrate more
I do still sweat quite a bit  during my Ashtanga practice and even though I practice my Ashtanga more slowly than most perhaps it's still a long practice and the weather is getting warmer. I'm going to sweat to some extent even when I take a more Vinyasa Krama approach to my Ashtanga. So I need to think about hydrating even more than I have been, before, after and yes perhaps ( as a last resort) during practice.

from the AYA2 House recommendations
"Water. Ashtangis need more than other people. We’re detoxing. Drink a ton. But not during practice. It’ll compromise your focus, cut the internal heat that fuels practice, and slosh around".

I've read good things recently about drinking a 16oz glass of water as soon as you get up in the morning, I've started doing that but perhaps I should aim for two glasses an hour or so before practice. And half hour an hour after practice start re hydrating as much as possible.

But what about the big taboo of drinking during practice. I have a tendency towards forming stones, should I perhaps modify the approach to practice here.

I could take a mouthful, just a mouthful after the standing sequence and a mini savasana but with a good focus on the breath and bandhas to not allow myself to cool too much, another mouthful and mini savasana after navasana say and again after badha konasana, another perhaps after Urdhva Dhanurasana (there used to be a mini savasana there anyway once upon a time) and finally a last mouthful at the end of the practice before taking rest.

Half an hour after practice I could start re hydrating as usual.

But doesn't this beg the question, why practice Ashtanga at all. Shouldn't I as a Kidney stone former, switch back to a lighter Vinyasa Krama practice, perhaps Ashtanga just isn't for me?

This surely suggests a fixed idea of what Ashtanga is, haven't we moved past the idea of Ashtanga as fixed and unchanging, unmodified asana practice.

In a Vinyasa Krama practice I still have to choose a number of subroutines to build up my practice. I do that but choose to keep that choice of asana relatively fixed, the Ashtanga sequence(s), I believe there are benefits to this. Vinyasa krama also includes, drishti (although the gaze tend usually to be down), ujjayi, bandhas. The breath though is long and slow in Vinyasa Krama but that is also how it was recommended by Krishnamacharya in his Mysore days and by Jois in Yoga Mala. Practicing slowly is still Ashtanga. Ramaswami recommends a mini savasana if we lose control of the breath or the heart begins to race but this too is in keeping with Ashtanga, the breath and heart beat should remain regular throughout our Ashtanga practice. I think it follows that if we become TOO hot, begin to sweat too much then we should perhaps consider a mini savasana also, just as we might with the breath or hearbeat or perhaps practice less asana altogether or modify some of those we have. Perhaps in the hot summer months we should practice half a series, spend longer on the finishing sequence on pranayama on chanting perhaps.




And besides I suspect, have a theory, that it's my Ashtanga Vinyasa practice that dislodged the stone from the wall of the kidney and encouraged it to move along it's merry way BEFORE it became too large and need surgical removal or an invasive procedure. Yoga asana practice, those tight marichi binds and supta kurmasana, the heel digging into the kidneys in yoga mudra, these are all ways Ramaswami, would I think argue, that the yogis found to massage the internal organs. I will be asking the specialist about this when I have my scan Wednesday.

So here's a few ideas, the beginning of a strategy. Many of these suggestions are already a part of my practice, these days I try conserving energy, I use Sharaths' delicate jump through for example, my ujjayi is subtle as are my use of bandhas....



1.  Drink a glass perhaps even two of water half an hour to an hour before practice

2.  A cooler practice room

3.  A more subtle Ujjayi

4.  A more subtle engagement of bandhas

5.  A slower approach to the practice in general, long slow inhalation and exhalations

6.  Aim to conserve energy throughout, a more subtle jump back and through or perhaps not between each side of an asana

7.  Take mini savasanas

8. Consider a shorter practice in the hot summer months, more time spent on the finishing sequence.

9. Half hour after practice begin to rehydrate ( weigh yourself before and after practice to work out how much you have lost in sweat).

An for kidney stone formers only perhaps

10.  Drink water during practice* - if your still concerned about sweating too much 

      a. Take a mouthful of water, just a mouthful after the standing sequence followed by a mini savasana but with a good focus on the breath and bandhas to not allow myself to cool too much,

      b. another mouthful and mini savasana after navasana

      c. another after badha konasana,

      d. another perhaps after Urdhva Dhanurasana (there used to be a mini savasana there anyway once upon a time)

      e. another mouthful at the end of the practice before taking rest.

*rather than just grabbing your bottle of water and losing focus, come to formal dadasana, take your mouthful of water, lay back in savasana for five to ten breaths, chakrasana back into where you left off.