Back to the Bike

Photo via Andrew Sheperd.

Biking season has returned! Sort of :)

Hubs and I have been bundling up and biking our way to work the last few days and it feels so  good. It's amazing how great fresh air can be after months of winter weather and having to drive. Even if that air is freezing, it's refreshing to be outside again.

Photo by Josh and Jenny Solar via The Vagabond Bond.

Being on the silver steed makes me think of summertime, spring colors, wearing sandals and shorts, and going for long rides by the lake. I can't wait for those warmer days! Right now it's still pretty chilly and we have to wear earmuffs and gloves, but it's worth it.

Once the seasons change, I definitely want to bike the lakeside pathway down to the city, as well as up to the Chicago Botanic Gardens.

Two photos via Sarah Rhoads. 

Do you bike for fun or to work? Are you enjoying springtime outdoor activities yet? 

Run, Yoga, Run: The Bikram Athlete

Photo illustration via Blow Up Studios and their ad campaign for Pure Yoga. 

Hey yogis. How is your week going? Are you busy shoveling snow?


Perhaps you've had to mix up your workout this week because of inclement weather. Just this morning the Hubs and I helped push a neighbor's car over a pile of snow, and it got me thinking about those muscles we don't usually use in the Bikram room. By engaging in other core-building or stamina-enhancing exercise, we can improve our yoga practice. 


Sometimes we need to mix it up in order to improve not only our physical health, but our mental health, too. The repetitive nature of Bikram yoga (as a result of the dialogue and our familiarity with the 26-posture sequence) makes it tempting to zone out during class -- to disengage, stop listening, and go with what we know.


At those moments, we risk injury.


Often it can be great to mix up your work out routine by adding different styles of yoga or different cardio activities to your schedule.


Do any of you readers do Bikram on the side? Maybe you are into cross training, running, swimming, or biking -- but you find yoga to be a great complement to your other athletic endeavors.


No matter what your first fitness love is, Bikram can help you build the strength and flexibility you need to perform at your best, and live your healthiest life.

Photo illustration via Blow Up Studios.

One reader of the blog recently contacted me about her work as a personal trainer. Jeozette of MVP Personal Fitness Consulting recommends that athletes balance their cardio with Bikram, as the two can inform each other and provide awesome balance. The rest of this post is adapted from Joezette's article here.

You Gotta Have: Total-Body Conditioning 
(not simply strong quads) 

Consistent running can lead to a lot of tightness and strain in the spine, shoulders, hamstrings, and hips. This is why it is so important to condition and stretch those areas to develop more strength and movement to your body.


Try the following cross-training exercise to build arm strength and flexibility.


EXERCISE: Push-up; one of the best exercise for muscles of the chest (pectorals), arms (bicep and triceps) and core development.


Start face down on the floor with your feet together curled slightly so you rise on the ball of your feet. Place you hands close together so your thumbs and index fingers form a triangle on the floor. Keep your stomach contracted.
Inhale as you raise your body up till your arms are straight. Keep your head and neck level with your body and back straight. Exhale out as you lower your body back to the ground.

Photo via mewall82 on Flickr.

You Gotta Be: Pain Free!

Bikram Yoga will put an end to the tightness that leads to pain by opening up your joints and stretching all your ligaments, tendons, and muscles. Remember that running doesn't use ALL your muscles. You need a pose that will utilize your whole body.


Try the following Bikram Yoga pose to help straighten rounded spines and relieve backaches. This pose will also increase circulation to the spine and strengthen the abs, arms, thighs, and hips.It will improve the flexibility of the scapula, deltoids, and traps.


POSE: Bow Pose; Start lying on your stomach, bend your knees and bring your feet down towards your glutes. Reach back with your arms, take hold of each foot from the outside, grasping about two inches below the toes. Keep your feet and knees six inches apart throughout the pose. Take a deep breathe, look up towards the ceiling and lift thighs and upper body off the floor. Kick back lifting legs higher off the floor. The main goal is to balance on your abdomen. Hold pose for 20 seconds while breathing in and out through the nose.

Photo via creativENERGYoga on Flickr.

You Gotta Have: Agility, Coordination, and Balance

Agility, coordination, and balance are also important factors in day-to-day activities, such as standing and walking or (running). Try the following Cross-training exercise to improve these basic functions.


EXERCISE: Jump Rope; Holding the jump rope handles, one in each hand, the rope should be resting on the ground directly behind your feet. Your head should be up, eyes looking forward, not down at your feet. Your elbows should be positioned in close to your body. During the jump, your body should be erect. A basic jump is straight up and down and about 1 inch high. The rope gets its momentum with a basic swing of the wrist and forearms. The knees should flex and extend slightly with each jump. As you jump, try to develop a rhythm (the speed at which the rope turns).

Photo via kait.rich on Flickr.

Bottom line? Mix up your work out and balance it out with some hot yoga! You'll be happy you did when the winter storm hits and you don't have to pull any muscles while shoveling snow. 

Have any other advice on how to adapt to Bikram as an athlete? I'd love to hear from you, runners, swimmers, bikers, and tri-athletes! Leave a comment below.

Photo illustration via Blow Up Studios.

Thursday Giveaway: Yoga Leggings & A Zany Print

These Steven Brahms prints in his "Evasion" series are crazy awesome and quite manly.

To continue our week of all things masculine, for today's giveaway Alive in the Fire brings you some awesome White Iguana sport leggings and a clever "Clive Does Yoga" photo print from BAClori on Etsy. 

These White Iguana Apparel leggings are great for yoga, running, biking and more.

To win both, see below for more info! Both guys and girls are encouraged to enter (ladies, these would be a wonderful holiday gift for your man!).

Three "Clive Does Yoga" 5x7 prints from BAClori on Etsy.

Allie Yoko, the owner of White Iguana Apparel, started the sport clothing line based on her passion for living an eco-friendly lifestyle. As said in one of the company's press releases, "What started out as a class project turned into a real-life career calling for graphic design student-turned athletic apparel entrepreneur, Allie Yoko. The 24-year old Chicago resident has taken her eye for design and her passion for an eco-friendly lifestyle and turned it into one of the country’s first bamboo-made line of athletic clothing.

'I loved the idea of bamboo clothing,' says Allie, 'but hated the thought of having it manufactured overseas, so I was determined to find domestic manufacturer.'

Mission accomplished, White Iguana Apparel is not only eco-friendly but it is 100% made in the U.S.A.

Armed with a passion for fashion and a desire to help others find easy ways to make their lives more eco-friendly, Allie was determined to make her dream a reality."

In the company's stylish logo, you can see Allie's creative eye for design.

More from Allie on her products:

Our leggings are designed to keep you comfortable while living your life. They are lightweight and will keep you warm while resisting odor and wicking away moisture. The leggings are full-length and fit closely to your body to keep you feeling warm and dry without itching or chafing. You hardly notice that you have them on but will feel incredibly fresh all day and night since our organic microfiber bamboo leggings are also naturally antimicrobial. They provide excellent breathability and you wont get an ugly red rash that inexpensive competitors' leggings give you. They are the perfect base layer for biking, hiking, snow sports, running, dancing, working out, yoga and wearing under a dress for a night on the town. Our leggings are made from 94% viscose from organic bamboo and 6% spandex, which makes them amazingly soft. This moisture management fabric keeps you dry and comfortable.

On the company's environmentally-friendly approach and holiday plans:

Basically, we are a company that cares about the environment, about being healthy and being active and we wanted to create a product that would help others in doing the same!

For the holidays, we just want our product to be shared with as many people as possible. We have great products and we want everyone to get to experience them. We plan on having sales (going on right now) to make things even more affordable for people holiday shopping!

In the coming year, we hope to get our products in more stores and out to as many customers as possible. We are looking forward to continue growing our brand and sharing it with the world.

Enjoy connecting with Allie and the White Iguana brand by visiting their store for some shopping, connecting on Facebook or Twitter, or reading their stellar blog.

Also, be sure to check out the store's great sale items!

Next in the giveaway is a group of photographs by artsy Etsy seller BAClori featuring Clive the yoga model in a set of three 5x7 photos.

Her description of the fun and wacky pictures:

"Clive Does Yoga" is a group of photographs using a relatively posable art model doll that I have dubbed "Clive" as he works his way through a series of basic yoga poses.  I find the series to be quite calming and soothing, mostly because when you look at Clive, you don't assign an instant judgement to a figure who has no expression making it easier to enjoy the poses (even if they are a bit rigid!).  

Lori's description of the shop:

Basement Art Creations is original photography by Lori O'Connor shaped by imagination, inspiration, exhilaration, procrastination, distraction and a pretty good sized slice of insomnia!

A few other prints from the shop.

Lori on what inspires her photography:

I enjoy having to scoot right up to an object and take a closer look.  I admire detail.  I like finding something brilliant from the simple and uncluttered.  I feel I have found my niche taking photos of things that you might not normally look at twice, but when photographed, you may want them hanging on your wall just so you can smile at them!  

On her yoga practice:

Like Clive, I am also quite stiff at times as I stretch to learn new poses... but I enjoy the calm and meditative state you can find when you quiet your mind and body!

I love Lori's unique and witty style and her willingness to turn the mundane into something playful. Pair these photos up with the pair of athletic leggings and you'll be super inspired to practice yoga through the new year!

To enter the giveaway contest, please:

• Check out White Iguana Apparel and BAClori's shops.
• Consider buying a workout shirt for your friend and sending it with a holiday snowman card, or other great sale and holiday items.
• Double your chances of winning by connecting with White Iguana and visiting Lori's other main shop.

Also, please tell your guy friends to enter and be sure to check out our Real Men Do Yoga series and consider submitting your story. Many thanks to Whit Conway, my desk neighbor at work, for putting me in touch with Allie. Namaste!

Congrats to Catherine for winning the lovely duende74 party top and the Lindsay Satchell scorpion print. Will be emailing you shortly to put you in touch with the vendors!

Hardcore Supplements for the Extreme Yogi

Photo by my talented husband from our trip to San Fran last spring.

Are you one of those crazy Bikram yogis who practices five or more times a week? Do you run before class? Do you regularly do doubles?

Are you currently participating in a 30- or 60-day challenge?

I've got some hardcore supplements you should try. They will make you feel strong, hydrated, and pumped, like this:

Yup, that's me, workin' out for my sister who needed photos as part of her personal training certification.

Plus, they taste great, can be added to a variety of smoothie or drink mix recipes, and allow you to fuel your body for optimum performance.

The first is a line made by Hammer Nutrition, which I've mentioned before on Alive in the Fire. I placed an order with Hammer to try their endurolyte pills (electrolyte replenishers) and they sent me a whole package of goodies, including gel, whey mix, chocolate Recoverite drink mix, and some awesome information on all their products and the athletes who use them.

Hydration is a beautiful thing.

Hammer's got quite a variety of flavors available -- everything from your standard chocolate to espresso and apple cinnamon and Montana huckleberry. I believe they mainly target marathon runners and bikers, but their products are great for any endurance athletes. I probably wouldn't use their stuff everyday unless I was at Teacher Training or doing a challenge, but the endurolyte pills and any of the endurance products would make a double class (or triple, or whatever) a lot easier to survive.

Check out their site for more ideas on how to improve your endurance and athletic performance, the deals and programs they have going on right now, or place a quick order. Their customer service is great and you'll be set to go crazy in the heat!

I also highly recommend CeraSport which carries a line of rice-based electrolyte hydration drinks. Their powder mixes are probably my favorite, ranking up there with Ultima Replenisher and emergenC. The pomegranate acai flavor is fantastic! 

These flavors beat all the other ones I've tried so far.

Their shipment also included some detailed info on the science behind hydration. I decided to try the CeraSport with some frozen coconut water icecubes and a chunk of dark chocolate. What a tasty mid-afternoon treat! It felt tropical, too :)

Fancy and tasty. You can't go wrong there!

If you need more advice on where to shop for kick-ass supplements, I'm your girl. Hope all you Fall 2010 teacher trainees are enjoying your last few weeks of madness!


Enjoy your week and namaste.

Critical Mass Chicago: One Less Car

Photo of the Silver Steed by yours truly. What a beauty, eh? This was her first long ride, and boy, was it lovely!

Picture this: shards of the setting sun are bouncing around the square. The gathering crowd squints from the glinting light off of the fountain's water, from the reflection of skyscraper windows, from the sliver of a glowing orb they spot in the distance. The sun is setting on Daley Plaza, downtown Chicago, on the last Friday evening in August.

Who are all these people gathered? Passersby stare out their open car windows with confused looks. And why all those bikes?

Those of us who are here know what's about to happen. The ride. A journey around the city where we can take over the streets. We call out around every corner, safe within the ebb and flow of The Mass. The sound of gears clicking and brake handles pumping -- it falls like rain in the place of what would be the indistinguishable, hushed roar of traffic. Instead, the warm night air is filled with the sound of vuvuzuelas hounding the neighborhood, the shouts of riders awakening their onlookers with enthusiastic "Happy Friday!"s and fist pumps.

We all wave as we fly by. We smile at the people who gather to stare, bewildered, in wonderment.

We're the bikers. The Critical Mass.

On Friday night, I participated in Chicago's last summer ride for Critical Mass, a group that organizes large biking events throughout the city. Basically what happens is a huge, well, mass of people gets together at Daley Plaza, starts circling the block until everybody's joined the pack, and then they launch off on an adventure throughout city streets. Generally the mapped plan moves either north or south and then loops back toward The Loop.

Don't get me wrong, it's not a marathon but by no means is it a quick trip. It makes a difference if you've got a decent bike, a helmet (of course!) and comfortable clothes, but I'd say any enthusiastic environmentalist (or outdoorsman) would certainly enjoy this adventure.

Here are some of the best moments

I experienced during the ride:

1. Screaming under any tunnel/ overpass, just to hear the echo.
2. Waving to bikers across the water riding over not one, but TWO other bridges crossing the Chicago River.
3. Getting high-fives from strangers along the sidewalk who were beaming ear-to-ear at our antics. One was from an old lady with gray hair who exclaimed, "What the hell are you doing?" when some riders in front of me left her hangin'. It was hilarious.
4. My friend Shiana yells "Happy Friday!" at some workers at a restaurant. They don't react and sort of grimace and scowl in our direction. "Come on, look a little happier, it's Friday!" she countered. Then they smiled. :)
5. As we rode by the big Harpo Building where The Oprah Show is filmed, another biker exclaimed in a high-pitch voice, "Helloooooo, Ooooooprah! It's Critical Mass! Happy Friday, Ooooprah!" The best. Thanks, crazy guy!
6. Meeting crazy peeps: a guy who I helped hook on a fake plush tail to his belt loop; the little girl on a tandem with her Dad who was wearing a neon sparkly skirt; everyone there who had beautiful tattoos (inspiring me/ making me jealous about the one I'm hoping to get!); the Old Pros who rode with stereos attached to their bikes; The Veteran Man who used a blow whistle to direct bikers, stop traffic, and generally keep order on the ride; and, of course, every Chicago PD officer who helped support our safe integration into the streets.
7. The bike pump that saved my friend Shuling's tire so she could ride on and enjoy the open road. On a completely different note, she writes an awesome blog about social media and documentaries and films, and she's super talented. I recommend you check it out, plus she's going to post about our journey soon, too!
8. The Jamba Juice we enjoyed post-ride. Yum, yum, yum. Yay protein + matcha green tea!
9. Managing not to lose our bikes to gravity on the L ride back. Feeling super bad ass while standing there in our sweat and biker gloves. Also feeling pretty BAMFy while waiting around at the Ogilvy station before we set off for Daley Plaza. That's right, we got kicked out for blocking traffic. So we decided to ride all night, blocking traffic...
10. Experiencing the beauty of The Mass -- surrounded by bikers, warm summer air, the buzz of traffic on the other side of the road, the shouts of strangers staring and honking their horns, the pride of the little green pin I stuck to my shirt and now wear to remember that fantastic night. It was all groovy, baby!

Do you bike? Do you do other activities to complement your yoga practice? Sometimes we need a little break from the heat. Sometimes we need the open road, or the pleasure of company while working out. Sometimes we just need to bike it out, and Critical Mass is there for us. I highly recommend you participate in another ride next month in your city, whether it's Chicago or elsewhere. (Those hills in San Francisco: what?! Astonishing.) Write me about the crazy awesome time you have!