Carol Zinn
I tried Bikram Yoga because my daughter in Ft Worth had taken a class or two and thought it would be something I would like. I began taking one class per week, and she told me I would need to go more often to see results. About this time Mike decided he would go with me. We were both looking for ways to stay healthy, balanced and toned. I knew stretching was good for the muscles, but I had never thought about how it also can affect your spine.
Mike always welcomes a challenge, and after a few classes he decided to do the 60-day challenge and encouraged me to come along. This is where I found out what Bikram could do for me. In taking yoga for 60 days in a row, I saw many changes like toning, weight loss, energy, and being able to reduce thyroid medication. My body is more in balance.
I want to be involved in exercises I can do for the rest of my life, and Bikram is that. I want a "healthy spine" and I would love to be "ageless".
I started yoga almost 2 yrs. ago. At the time I was having a lot of issues with hamstring and calve strains. Also, I was not stretching at all, but doing a fair amount of running, biking and swimming so yoga seemed to be worth trying after talking to Carol.
After my first yoga session I told Carol that this was the most difficult exercise I had ever done. Even more so than running Marathons or doing Triathlons. I really didn't think I could do yoga sessions as well as train for triathlons, but thought it was worth a chance taking.
Mike Zinn
After having been a Yogi for 2 yrs. I haven't had any hamstring or calf issues. In addition I've always had really bad ankles due to many basketball caused ankle sprains as well as one broken ankle.
Yoga has strengthened both my ankles to the point that I've only had one occurrence of a sprain the last 2 yrs.
Currently I do 2 sessions of yoga per week. I am limited to two because triathlon training takes another 12 hrs/Wk. I also have one massage per week. I feel like yoga has changed my eating habits for the better. I've lost about 15-20 lbs. the last year.
Also, yoga has helped to enable me to accomplish much better results at the National & World Triathlon Championships this past year. I've been doing triathlons for the past 6 yrs. and 2008 was my fastest results ever and I attribute a lot of my success to Bikram Yoga.
In summary, I don't think age seems to be matter that much in the yoga sessions and I think at 61 yrs. old I'm one of the older people in the Mockingbird classes. I think the instructors have been fantastic and of course David and Karen's encouragement not only to me but everybody else only makes me want to continue on with yoga in the future.
