Bikram for heat

[Ky]

I`m not sure if this is the best place to discuss this, but I thought I`d ask anyways. Sorry- I`m new.
Anyways, I`m doing Ironman Canada in August. It`s hot there in August- very hot- and it's hard to train for that kind of heat in Victoria. A number of years ago, I passed out from heat exhaustion in a 36-hr race, so I focused all the following winter on building up my heat tolerance, nutrition, and hydration habits by practicing Bikram yoga (in a 110 degree room) a few times per week, and starting to monitor my in-training nutrition better.

Has anyone else tried this? How can it fit best into the program? I'm on week 20 of the pre-season phase, and I'd love to stick a once-per-week Bikram session in there somewhere, but I know how exhausting it can be.

[Mike Llerandi]

I've found Bikram to be a great addition to training, more for the flexibility, balance, and core strength than for the heat acclimation. IMC isn't always killer hot, although it certainly has been on occasions!

I actually blogged on this back in Feb 2008, if you want to check it out:
http://www.opentri.com/profiles/blogs/1441492:BlogPost:24599

Cheers,
Mike

[Ky]

Ah, sweet!

I actually need to get clearance from my physio before doing it, as I have been banned from yoga due to over-flexibility (leads to knee/hip problems, and stems from my lifelong love of stretching) by two different physios. My 2-yr anti-flexibility program seems to be working well (if you can call it that!) and I think I can start stretching mildly again, though not to the contortionist levels I have in the past!

My trail running seems to give me great balance/core already, but you're right, it's great for that too!

What's your favorite position? Mine is camel.

[Ky]

Thanks, I was thinking Mondays would be good too, but I'm not sure how that will work with my work schedule yet. I did a few classes without water, but it seemed that since I was trying to train myself to hydrate properly, that it was a little counter-intuitive to do Bikram without water.

I DID find that morning classes without water were easier than evening classes without, but that may just be because I'm a morning person!

[Pete]

Years back I while living in Houston, I would stay in the sauna increasing up to 1 hour during the winter, in preparation for the July 24 hour races around Houston. Doing 1 hour in the sauna is tough and no one will recommend this. If you try it, try increasing your time slowly until you get to your desired time. Eventually, I stopped this due to heat-induced rashes. I do feel that it helped, plus I got in lots of push ups, sit ups and even more reading.