Real Men Do Yoga: Jacob Stickney

Jacob Stickney is a Bikram yogi who practices regularly at Bikram Yoga Seattle (Fremont). This is his story.


Fruits of Intensity


"1...2...3...4...5...6..." The teacher speaks loudly so everyone in class can hear, counting out the breaths. 


Beginners to experienced, yogis stand near each other on their mats and towels, facing the mirrored wall.


I collapse my shoulders to my sides; legs, feet, and ankles locked together as instructed. It is only the start of the second set of the Pranayama series, the standing deep breathing exercise that sets the tonality for the 26 postures to follow. 


My entire body is already drenched with sweat...not even five minutes into the class. I engage fully in the second set with my inhale and exhale, the closure and expansion of the shoulders executed as fully as possible. 


When the warm-up postures are complete, I take a few sips of water from my Nalgene bottle and maintain a calmness, letting short bursts of air release through my nostrils. As I look around, I notice I'm one of the youngest students in the room. 

Photo courtesy of Jacob Stickney via Darrah Parker Photography.

The room is 105º (40º C) at roughly 40% humidity, men wearing only shorts, women often in clothing that often does not leave much for the imagination. There's an overwhelming amount of sweat in the room. 26 postures, 2 breathing exercises to open and close the class. A 90 minute meditation.


Bikram never gets easy, even for the more experienced practitioners. I am by no means steeped with experience, I have just been fortunate to have excellent instructors thus far and have enthusiastically thrown myself into the fire so to speak. 


Even the instructors who have been practicing and teaching for years get slaughtered by the simple yet vigorously intense curriculum that is the Bikram trademark. And yet we all love it, and the yoga feels wonderful.


Bikram yoga has sparked some controversy as it is a yogic practice rooted in the cultural purity of India but brought to American culture. Some say that Bikram yoga is a cult. I don't know about that, but I do know that the 26-posture series incorporates only a tiny fraction of the number of yoga postures that have been developed over thousands of years.


Bikram Choudhury devised a specific and fairly punctual method for exhaustively working the entire body of muscles, systems, and organs. The order of the postures in the sequence is quite intentional: each posture serves a purpose, and is a reaction to its neighboring postures, so that the intensity of each posture is maximized. The entire series is a specific method used to get specific results.


Bikram yoga is an opportunity to become immersed in the marriage of thriving intensity and cultural expansiveness. It's a practice in which the teachers are always students. Including it into my life and surrendering to its intensity is nothing short of life-changing on various levels. I hope to sustain the practice until my heart tells me otherwise.


Thanks for reading. 
In joy,
Jacob 


You can read more from Jacob on his blog here. Also consider contributing to the Real Men Do Yoga series by submitting a few paragraphs about your practice and why you love yoga. Email aliveinthefire at gmail dot com today!