Did you know that alcohol consumption within the low-risk guidelines recommended by the American Medical Association can still have a negative impact on mental and physical stamina and performance? Many people are now considering the ways that even what is considered “normal” use of alcohol is affecting their health and physical abilities.
After all, does Tom Brady drink during football season? Or any season, for that matter? There’s a reason he’s the G.O.A.T. Let’s explore it. Together.
If you are interested in this type of self-exploration, consider joining us for STOPTOBER, a 30-day self-inquiry where we explore the effects of alcohol use on our mental, emotional and physical performance simply by taking a break from it.
The program:
We know there are a lot of online communities out there offering support. STOPTOBER 2019 is a local group for individuals who practice at Blaze Yoga & Pilates and SteamHouse Hot Yoga & Pilates. Online support is helping millions, but all too often the missing piece is shared experience. This platform will provide an opportunity to join together with others in your hot fitness community behind a common goal.
Have you ever wondered if alcohol was a crutch holding you back?
Have you ever wanted to stop, but didn’t feel you could for social or emotional reasons?
Have you ever wondered if drinking is getting in the way of your self-care or crushing your goals?
According to One Year No Beer 92% of people who took the STOPTOBER challenge reported feeling happier and 73% reported dramatically improved sleep, reduced anxiety, and weight loss.
Join LADC Barb Dugan for a special challenge to explore your relationship with alcohol. In the online group she will offer a daily prompt for the month of October to inspire group discussion and personal motivation in addition to providing access to the latest research and resources for the sober-curious.
To Join:
Sign up for STOPTOBER here. A link will then be provided for you to join the Closed Facebook Group STOPTOBER. Registration ends at 9:30 PM on September 30 (at which point the group status will go from "Closed" to "Secret.”)
Cost: $30
STOPTOBER is not appropriate for anyone who considers themselves an “alcoholic,” or who has been diagnosed with an alcohol use disorder or any other substance use disorder.
At Blaze, we teach only the most effective Hot Yoga & Pilates methods in existence. We’ve carefully chosen our training and offerings to meet our personal mission to help people be their best so that our community members can positively impact the word.
Our yoga system in particular is the most impactful, therapeutic yoga discipline available. That means that every student has a chance to heal and thrive from whatever life has handed them to this point: physically, mentally, and emotionally.
All of our teachers are certified under the standards of the Original Hot Yoga Association. By working OHYA, we ensure that you always have access to the best instruction available in the world. Learn more:
The Original Hot Yoga Association is on a mission to preserve and promote the therapeutic practice of Original Hot Yoga, by creating and upholding standards and resources for studios, teachers, classes, and trainings. OHYA is dedicated to moving the Original Hot Yoga community into the future. Our association of studios and teachers is the largest and most respected resource for authentic Original Hot Yoga Studios around the world. Our board of credentialed instructors, owners, and service professionals vet studios to ensure they are meeting the highest of standards.
Central to OHYA’s mission is the Studio Directory where over a 150 OHYA studios are listed. All studios on the OHYA Studio Directory are owned by either Certified Bikram Yoga Teacher or graduates of OHYA approved trainings with at least 10% of their classes dedicated to 90-minute Original Hot Yoga. Look for the OHYA “Studio Partner” seal when searching for studios to find those that offer the Original Hot Yoga, so yoga enthusiasts can discover the real Original Hot Yoga with highly-trained instructors and traditional, therapeutic, 90-minute 26 & 2 classes.
The OHYA Teacher Directory ensures that our community of highly-trained and experienced teachers have a professional association to protect and promote their certification. To join the OHYA Teacher Directory, all teachers must have graduated from Bikram Yoga Teacher Training or an OHYA-approved Teacher Training and complete a six-month internship before earning their Level 1 seal as an Original Hot Yoga Teacher (OHYT).
To maintain their seals in the OHYA Teacher Directory, teachers commit to a minimum of 30 hours of continuing education taught by OHYA-approved Continuing Education teachers every three years. OHYA offers a listing of Continuing Education for teachers to find all options to fulfill their continuing education requirements. This ensures that all OHYA-certified teachers continue to grow their understanding of the lineage, posture mechanics, and teaching methodologies from the most experienced teachers in the field.
OHYA created Approved Teacher Trainings so our studios could identify teachers that met our exacting standards. OHYA-approved Teacher Trainings are for students who want to pursue a career in teaching the Original Hot Yoga. More and more studios are hiring graduates of OHYA Approved trainings in addition to CBYT(Certified Bikram Yoga Teachers).
Visit the Original Yoga Yoga Association to learn more and to find the Original Hot Yoga worldwide. Download the App by searching Original Hot Yoga in your phone’s app store.
In today’s stressed-out culture, too many of us have all of the information, are doing all of the “right” things, and yet we still feel like garbage. Living a healthy life has become just one more task on the endless to-do list. Taking care of yourself shouldn’t have to be so hard.
In the Commit to 90 program we teach you to cut through the noise of the wellness industry and tune into your own body’s unique needs. Our innovative program brings the latest science and most effective techniques to the table to take the pain out of taking care of you.
You’ll finally be able to address your movement and fitness goals, deepen your nutrition education, and make lifestyle changes that turn the life you live into the life you’ve always wanted.
Taking care of their bodies is a skill too many children don’t learn in school.
In today’s fast-paced society, too many kids are over-stimulated mentally and under-stimulated physically. The CDC estimates less than 10% of teens get the recommended 60 minutes per day of exercise.
Studies indicate youth who engage in yoga and mindfulness disciplines show not only improved academic and athletic performance, but increased resilience, grit, decreased emotional lability, and reduced perceived stress. (insert dad and kids pic)
At Blaze, we believe parents set the best example for the next generation. To encourage parents to introduce their children to Yoga & Pilates, we offer several classes during the week where children under 18 can practice for free with a paying adult.
Check out the available classes below and sign your child up today!
If you've gotten this far, you're ready to take charge of your health and your life. You're ready to do what it takes to feel your best so you can be your best and have massive impact on the world around you.
Here’s the plan:
1. Grab your intro month here.
2. Sign up for your first class.
3. Change your life.
To get ready for your first class, follow this simple check list:
Hydrate: You don't need to drink a gallon of water, but it's best if you have more than a cup of coffee before your first class. A good place to start is to take the number of pounds you weigh and divide it by two. Drink that number in ounces of water each day.
Fuel Your Body: Movement, exercise, and yoga requires energy. To be sure you feel your absolute best, fill your body with quality fuel. Eat a light meal 1-3 hours before your first class.
Pack Your Bag: You'll need a few tools for your first class.
• Wear light, athletic clothing and be prepared to sweat
• Bring a yoga mat, large towel, and bottle of water.
• We have showers, so feel free to bring your dop kit and an extra towel so you can get ready and get on with your day.
Our whole goal here is to help people feel good, to feel like they are a part of something so they can bring all their unique gifts to the world, said Sara Curry who owns Blaze Yoga and Pilates in Portsmouth, NH with her amazing partner Jaylon, while leading #justasknora in my first ever active yoga interview! Sara is a mega boss, yogi goddess and overall BA inspirational mama to oh so many of us. She has created an inclusive culture at @blazeyoganh where we all can come together in sweat during Hot Yoga, Hot Vinyasa, and Inferno Hot Pilates classes. I’m beyond grateful to have spent the month of April immersed in this world of sweat, love and respect.
There are many incredible programs going on at @blazeyoganh including the Sober Yogis program that combines therapeutic supports outside of the studio and regular yoga practice to reduce post-acute withdrawal symptoms and enhance sobriety. Sara and I discussed this in detail during our interview so go find that in the stories or look online at their website for more info. They have also created a comprehensive life program in partnership with Erin Holt that encourages students to slowly build healthy habits (from yoga and using food as fuel to mediation and sleep) over a three month period with our Commit to 90 program. They’ve partnered with Erin because of her commitment to fighting back against diet culture and supporting people’s health, healing, and personal growth!
Hot yoga has so many wonderful benefits for your mind, body and life. I have practiced Bikram yoga all over the world and @blazeyoganh will always hold one of the warmest spots in my heart. The way Sara & Jaylon give to this community is immeasurable. This community is lucky to have you and all the teachers at Blaze, thank you for helping us sweat our shit out and leading us with such open hearts. Now pop over and join their sweat collective, it’s a game changer!
We build grit:The number one reported predictor of high school graduation in kindergarten-aged children is grit. It out-paces money, talent, and intelligence. Grit gives you the motivation try again when you fail and to work harder when you don’t have the skills you need yet for the job at hand.
Achieving your goals and making the money flow take hard work, effort, and hustle. It means sticking with it even when the going gets tough. Practicing Hot Yoga and Pilates steadily builds grit, determination, and will power: giving you the strength you need to make your dreams reality.
It’s super on-trend right now to be busy. Business-y business types are so busy. A single mom working three jobs is busy. Your retired Aunt Cindy is busy.
How are you? Busy.
You’re not actually that busy. Our single mom with three jobs sure is busy. The rest of us? Not so much.
High-intensity interval training classes like our Inferno Hot Pilates classes are the most effective methods known today for improving health and fitness in the human body and seeing results quickly.
Contrary to what the seven billion-dollar diet industry is telling you, approaching a HIIT workout in a calorie deficient can actually undermine the effectiveness of your workout.
Do you want to show up and smash your workout and make the most out of your time in this studio? Click below to learn from Functional Nutritionist Erin Holt how to fuel your body so you can approach your fitness in true beast mode.
I’ve had a lot of questions from students lately about postpartum recovery, breastfeeding, and Hot Yoga. This pose will address a lot of those questions.
When can I return to yoga?
Most physicians recommend you wait at least three weeks postpartum before resuming yoga to allow your pregnancy hormone levels to drop, as they do dramatically at two weeks postpartum, and stabilize. Some want you to wait six weeks until the placental scar is fully healed. With that said, who wants to look at their postpartum body in the mirror with a pad stuffed in their spandex? You may want to wait until your flow is reduced to panty-liner levels.
You’ll also need to take into consideration how you are feeling, sleeping, and recovering. If what you’re doing causes your flow to increase that is a sure sign you are doing too much, so slow down. Personally, I returned to classes five and four weeks postpartum with my two pregnancies, but had been doing some yoga in my living room since three weeks PP to help alleviate the Hunchback of Breastfeeding. As long as you are practicing with mindfulness, yoga is an adaptive practice you can make safe at any time.
Losing ten pounds won’t make you comfortable in your skin.
Just one more diet. Just this last ten pounds. If I just get a tummy tuck. If I could get rid of these wrinkles/cellulite/this mole/this scar/these bat wings/stretch marks/this hair.
Then, I’d feel good. I’d be happy. I will have arrived at my best life.
And it’s all a great big lie.
If you don’t love yourself right now, this very moment as you’re skimming over this article on the screen of your device, you won’t love yourself after the transformation you think you need.
A bout of vertigo can put the brakes on a lot of daily activity. Can you still practice yoga? Will it help? Will it make it worse?
As with most questions in life, the answer is, when in doubt, go to yoga.
I have suffered from motion sickness and periodic bouts of vertigo throughout my life. It wasn’t until my early thirties that an ear exam revealed I have Meniere’s disease, a genetic condition shared by my father and sister, and an explanation for vertigo at such a young age.
When I took my first Bikram Yoga Class, I was 22 years old. I was a landscaper by day and a heavy drinker by night. I paired my Budweisers each day with at least one dozen American Spirits, if not two. My job was hard on my body and my best friend and I relaxed at the end of the day with some well-deserved brews.
After my first class, I felt amazing. The class itself was hard and uncomfortable, but after I felt light and happy. At the time, I didn’t know anything about the “yoga high” or what was happening in my body.
I felt amazing, but had the perfect excuse not to return. I was too young to need this type of yoga. It was hard and I was uncomfortable for several hours out of the day. Yes, it’s only a 90-minute class, but I suffered from severe anxiety. I was uncomfortable from the moment I agreed to go until I was leaving the parking lot.
I have lived my whole life uncomfortable in my own skin.
So I quit. It took me five years to get back on the mat again. At this point in my life, was no longer drinking, but still smoked a pack a day. I started out small, going to class a couple of times a week. The classes were still as hard as I remembered, but I had lost the bloat that comes from drinking a six pack of tall boys a night and that made the classes more tolerable. My lungs burned in class, but not enough to keep me from craving that all-too-welcoming post-yoga smoke.
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“I’d try hot yoga, but I’m not good in the heat.” I’ve heard that at least a hundred times or variations on the theme. “I hate heat.” “I can’t handle heat.” “No, really, I hate the heat.” “I tried it and I couldn’t handle the heat.”
These are not reasons. These are excuses.
The good news is that now that you understand it is an excuse, you can take action. The bad news is that this is just an excuse and not a reason not to go to class.
The human body has a tremendously efficient and responsive thermoregulation system. Except in cases of illness, it does a wonderful job of constantly adjusting to changing external and internal temperature changes.
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We would like to believe that our bones will always be as strong and healthy as they were in our youth. Unfortunately, around the age of 30 we all reach peak bone mass. Our job at that point is to maintain at all costs as much bone as we can. Osteoporosis is not limited to women, but a much more common diagnosis. Bone loss begins for most women in perimenopause, but bone loss numbers jump dramatically during menopause due to dropping levels of estrogen and progesterone.
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Bone density is no joke. The figure on the left shows healthy bone; the figure on the right shows osteoporotic bone. No one wants to enter their golden years on fragile pins. Luckily, there is hope.
In addition to a healthy diet high in calcium and Vitamin D, yoga can be an excellent tool in helping maintain peak bone mass, slow bone loss and prevent fractures. Yoga is a weight bearing activity that creates torque on the bones to help build bone density, much in the same way you build muscle strength, through Wolff’s Law. Bones get stronger and stay strong when they are called upon to do more.
Yoga also helps to improve balance to prevent falls as we age. Improving spinal alignment reduces the risk of wedge fractures in the vertebral bodies that lead to that stereotypical, kyphotic, osteoporosis look. Yoga improves flexibility, lubrication of the joints and range of motion, all of which contribute to preventing the most common hip, wrist and vertebral fractures associated with osteoporosis.
We have seen a troubling trend in class recently: mature, successful, adult women fainting. Powerful, successful women in the prime of their lives falling down on the floor in the middle of a yoga class. Women aged 40-70 years old. Career women. Mothers. Caretakers. Lovers. Brilliant and inspiring powerhouses. Women who regularly take care of 100 different things a day. Experienced and seasoned yogis, blacking out doing a pose they have done at least a hundred times. The common thread underlying these episodes? Food.
By food I mean, not enough.
Women who haven’t eaten in 24 hours. Women who have had less than 200 calories since they woke up. Women who consider egg whites and steamed vegetables enough fuel to last them 8 hours. In each case, the woman who had fainted was shocked when I suggested that starving her body might leave her light-headed during exercise.
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Don’t let surgery limit your practice. Physical therapy is a must to improve range of motion and quality of life going forward. And, what do you know, the handouts and pamphlets with which I was sent home depict exercises straight out of the yoga tradition. Following are notations of how I modified the postures. Please incorporate what benefits your physical situation; don’t feel limited by my experience.
First, you will experience pain so move slowly into the postures. That being said, don’t let your fear of pain limit your achievements. Many times I stopped reaching at the same point I left off during the previous class, or even at a weeks old measure. I went through all sorts of pressure-relieving modifications during the cobra series savasanabecause I assumed it would take months and months AND months to bear weight. It didn’t.
Test your limits every class. I’m not saying it’s okay to pop your stitches, but your body and your abilities change every day. It’s a good idea to check them every day so you don’t get stuck in last week’s temporary inability. For convenience, I’ll refer to a ‘well side’ and ‘surgical side’ to avoid all the rights and lefts.
Bridget Dubravsky is a Certified Yoga Instructor from Maine. She is also the author of Bikram Yoga and Breast Cancer.
September 27, 2013
Hi, I’m Bridget. I’m your yoga teacher and I am seven months cancer free. During a routine mammogram in January they discovered a large area of concern. On that Wednesday doctors performed several wire insertions, core samples and a biopsy. While the procedures were not incredibly painful, I was anxious and didn’t know what to expect or what to feel from one to the next. I practiced breathing slowly in through the nose and slowly out through the nose to head off the rising panic and to give myself a calming focus. I get savasanas now and how comforting it is to be still in the standing series.
They sent me home with ice packs, gauze, bandages and a very misshapen profile. The swelling continued as did the bleeding. I stopped practicing that week. And then I started to talk myself out of teaching that Sunday morning class. You know how it is. Just like with my practice or rather my excuses not to practice: ‘Ok, you can stay home just this once. There’s nothing wrong with taking a break and, of course, oh why not?!? This is the perfect excuse.’
Type 1 Diabetes also known as Juvenile Diabetes or Diabetes Melitus is a genetic condition usually affecting children.
Juvenile Diabetes has nothing to do with an unhealthy lifestyle, eating too much sugar, or lack of exercise. There is genetic abnormality on chromosome six that causes the white blood cells of the body to attack the insulin-producing portion of the pancreas killing the hormone which enables the body to metabolize carbohydrates. Without insulin a person will die because there is no way for the cells to get the nutrients they need for survival.
When I was 10 years old, I lost 30 pounds in one month. I was lethargic and unable to wake up for school. My parents were convinced that I was depressed and did not want to attend school. When I went to the doctor a blood sugar test showed that my blood sugar levels were in the 600s (normal range is 80-120). A blood sugar this high can lead to coma and eventually death. It was determined that I had Juvenile Diabetes.
began a blog to be of assistance in helping you to make educated decisions about exercise during yours.
At the studio, we’ve had several women in low-risk pregnancies have their doctors tell them that they could not practice hot yoga while pregnant, with little information on the classes. Please take the concerns of your physician or midwife seriously. Women with high-risk pregnancies must first obtain a doctor’s note to participate in classes at Blaze Yoga and Pilates.
Many doctors, however, incorrectly assume that practicing in a hot room is akin to being in a sauna or Jacuzzi and that is where their concern develops. Both a sauna and a Jacuzzi are much hotter than a standard hot yoga class. The biggest difference is the inability for the body to cool itself when in a sauna or Jacuzzi. Sweat (evapotranspiration) and moving air (convection) are the cooling mechanisms for a practicing yogi. Neither of these are existent in a Jacuzzi and only one (sweat) in a sauna where the air is heated up to 40 degrees hotter than a Bikram Yoga or Inferno Hot Pilates class.Naturally, many pregnant women have concerns about hot yoga during pregnancy.
One of the primary pillars that makes Blaze Yoga and Pilates is our commitment to a GREEN approach. We believe strongly that all of our actions should contribute to a cleaner and greener studio, region, country, and planet.
With that in mind, we are always working to offer the most effective, green, sustainable environment possible so that we can all thrive, together.
Is the studio clean? I'll start to answer the first question with a question back: have you met my husband, Jaylon? He steam cleans our carpets at home for fun. At the end of a long, hard day, he just wants to hot steam-mop the kitchen floor.
A rare sighting of Jaylon in his natural habitat.
Kyle Maiorana and Erin Holt of the Funk’tional Nutrition podcast this week to talk about what role yoga can play in healing chronic pain and illness.
Both women are registered dietitians who work to help their clients develop personalized plans for health that cover all aspects of their lives. I have a tremendous amount of respect for the work they do and wait anxiously each week for the release of the next episode. Topics cover everything from healthy fats to good sources of animal protein, and from the benefits of CBD oil to understanding diet culture. They also host people in the fields of health and wellness to share their unique areas of expertise.
I had the great pleasure of joining
Many new students have heard horror stories about yoga classes so hot that people were dropping like flies and being carried out of the room. Most of these are embellished or frankly fabricated. Like any tall tale, there’s always a kernel of truth: usually survival stories from teacher training where they try to burn you down metaphorically so you can rise like a phoenix from the ashes. You won’t find that in a general public yoga class.
I sat down this morning and tried to count how many times I’ve seen people pass out in yoga. I couldn’t even fill up one hand. I’ve heard stories of more than that, but in 17 years of practicing and teaching Bikram Yoga, I’ve only seen three people “go down” in a class.
Small Business Saturday is back on Saturday, November 24th. Join us for free classes and special sales the Saturday after Thanksgiving!
We love you all so much and can’t wait for the opportunity to show our gratitude to this amazing yoga community by offering free classes for you and your friends and family and special discounts on yoga and accessories.
Save your spot in the free classes below!
• 25% off retail does not include food or CBD
• Intro Month for the price of a drop in! $20 for 30 days unlimited
• Special! 5-class card for $79 one day only!
• Special! 50-class card for $739 one day only!
• Special! Annual Unlimited for $1,099 just $91.58/month!
• Autopay Ten Card for $150 automatically renews every ten classes or six months
It’s a question we get at the studio often. As with most yoga-related questions,there’s no one-size-fits-all answer.
First and foremost, if you have something contagious, please stay home and keep it to yourself. We once had a student undergoing treatment for a persistent MRSA infection practicing at the studio for four months without telling us.
Lucky for all who were practicing at that time, our sweat contains powerful antiseptic peptides in dermcidin. The best feature of dermcidin is that it attacks the microbes’ cell walls, not something to which a microbe can develop resistance.
We are thrilled to welcome you to the studio and to our wonderful community. Here, I’m going to share some tips to help you get the most out of your time with us.
We offer the most effective hot yoga and Pilates techniques available in the world from the best trained teachers who can help you meet your goals and heal your body. Whatever your goal, whatever your challenge, whatever your limitation, we are confident we can help.
We are on a mission to help people take control of their health and wellness so they can feel great and have a positive impact on the world.
You may have heard some crazy stories about hot yoga and Pilates. We’ve made this short video to help you thrive through your first class:
In 2011, the BYP community lost a very special member when Donna Carberry passed away after a hard-fought battle with cancer. Donna was loved by all who knew her. She loved life, her family, hiking, nature, running, music, and yoga. In her own words, Donna was “in love with love.” Her bright smile lit up every class she attended.
Throughout her fight, Donna continued to practice yoga with us. She’d enter the studio with a huge smile every day and always shared her gratitude for each day and each class, despite the effects of chemo or when the cancer degraded her bones.
Hydration is key to having a great class and good hydration is more than just pounding water. Here are some quick tips to help you stay on top of your game.
At Blaze Yoga and Pilates, there are eight central pillars that serve as the foundation for all that we do.
With the support of these core values, we are able to uphold our mission as a yoga studio to support our community members to take charge of their health, to heal their wounds, and amplify their lives so they can maximize their impact on the world.
By practicing our eight pillars, we are able to achieve our vision that our studio is able to create a robust and impactful community that ushers positivity and change into the world.
Our powerful Commit to 90 Whole Life Challenge is back and better than ever!
We’re so stoked to team up with Functional Nutritionist Erin Holt to bring you our new and improved Commit to 90 Whole Life Challenge.
Commit to 90 is a 90-day challenge that rewards you for taking care of yourself. Instead of blasting out classes every day for a month like we’ve always done in our September 30-day Challenge, we’ll focus on building a regular, steady practice. CT90 is designed to help you make informed decisions around nutrition, learn to fuel your body, heal your relationship with food, build community connections, and make time for activities that enhance your life.
As a culture, we have become very familiar with the suffering and loss associated with substance use disorders. We are also quick to notice the psycho-biological symptoms associated with them. What we may not be as familiar with, and completely unprepared for, however, is the discomfort associated with Post Acute Withdrawal Syndrome or PAWS. PAWS refers to abstinence-based biological changes that occur once an individual has made a decision for change and entered recovery. It is the abstinence-based biological symptoms of PAWS that makes early recovery so uncomfortable and hard to understand, and therefore extremely difficult to maintain.
Yoga is all about getting to know you. Your body. Your mind. Your Self. Much of our daily lives revolve around ignoring the way we feel so we can get through the day and get our work done. We ignore our aching hips on the two hour commute as much as we avoid movements that remind us of what it feels like to live in this body.
When we first start to move every part of our bodies in yoga, the sensations are unfamiliar and we can frequently categorize the uncomfortable sensation of stretching or moving a joint through full range of motion as pain.
Backbending when you haven’t done it in twenty years hurts. Clearing mineral deposits from your elbows hurts. Tensing up when you are trying to stretch hurts. Bringing back full range of motion to a hip that only sits in a chair or a couch hurts.
Ask yourself, is this pain or the sensation of stretching? As a general rule, pain means stop and discomfort means go.
