As Bikram yoga teachers, so many students tell us this one is their "nemesis!" And we get it. SHTK not only requires you to use a ton of physical strength and stamina to develop your own flexibility, it also calls upon 110% of your will power, integrity and mental fortitude to stick with it, try the right way and not give up. The good news is, by using those aspects of your body and of your character you are building them up, and they (like this posture) will only get better with practice.

Health benefits include:

• Raises heart rate to improve cardiovascular fitness
• Tones legs muscles, especially inner thighs and quadriceps
• Stretches hamstrings, shoulders lower back
• Improves abdominal strength
• Interlocked finger grip strengthens fingers and hands
• Locking the knee strengthens the muscles which support the knee joint
• Promotes self discipline, determination, concentration, patience and faith

How to do:
Standing Head to Knee can be best understood by dividing it into a progression of stages or steps. Keep in mind that while we identify 4 main "steps" in the posture, there are a bazillion mini-steps along the way, and any one of the steps may take you weeks, months or years to master. For example, between grabbing your foot and locking both knees, you may find your maximum expression of the posture somewhere in-between for quite some time. No worries: as long as you try the right way and you don't give up, that's the ultimate destination!

• Step 1: Grab your foot. Shift your weight onto the standing leg and grab the (soon to be) kicking leg foot in front of you with all 10 fingers interlocked. Hold underneath the ball of the foot, about 3 inches below the toes. Don't lose this grip. Your kicking leg knee should be bent, the heel should be directly below the knee, and the thigh should be a bit above parallel to the floor. How high your thigh is will depend on your anatomy. Be sure your head is up so you can focus one point on your standing knee in the mirror, without straining the neck too much. Lock the knee to the best of your ability.*
• Step 2: Kick. From Step 1, inhale and slowly, gently extend the kicking leg heal toward the mirror, keeping your toes turned back toward your face. Keep kicking the heel forward until your both knees are locked and your legs form an upside-down "L" shape. Don't lose your grip. Let your shoulders be pulled forward by the strength of your kick, and you will get a great stretch for your shoulder muscles in this 2nd step. The feeling should not be that your arms are holding up the leg- but rather that the kicking leg is pulling your shoulders forward. Note: You do not need to wait until your standing knee is locked before you begin to kick! In fact, if your standing knee has to bend a bit for you to achieve Step 1, kicking out even a little bit may actually allow you to lock it all the way. And it will definitely take some pressure out of your lower back.
• Step 3: Bend your elbows. Only if both knees are locked and you can balance there comfortably, start to bend your elbows down toward the floor until your elbows touch your calf muscle. Try to get them to go below your calf muscle! This 3rd step stretches the hamstrings, shoulders and lower back a lot. Be sure not to lose your grip, and continuously keep kicking your heel toward the mirror while you bend your elbows down.
• Step 4: Forehead to knee. In the beginners class, we only practice this step during the 2nd set of SHTK. If your elbows are touching your calf with both knees locked, slowly bring your body down, chest down, head down, round your spine to look at your stomach and touch your forehead on your knee. Shifting the focus of your eyes like this is supremely challenging! Be sure to keep kicking the kicking leg forward and locking both knees continuously to create a solid foundation.

*You want me to lock my knee??
Yes. But let's make sure you understand what we mean by that. In Bikram yoga, to "lock the knee" means 3 things: Straight leg (full extension of the knee joint) + thigh muscles (including quads) contracted + body weight even on the foot. Check out our post on the subject for more!

Eyes and abs!
Balancing on one foot is a big challenge for many beginners. Remember that your 2 best friends on your "balance team" are your abs and your eyes. So always keep your abdominal muscles pulled in firmly, and maintain your one point of focus on your standing knee throughout the posture.

Breathe normally
Breathing properly is key. If you’re working on Step 1, simply breath normally with an engaged core. If you are kicking out into Step 2, inhale slowly by the nose while you kick your leg forward. Take another deep inhale when your both knees are locked and exhale as you bend your elbows down for Step 3. Take another deep breath and slowly exhale again as you tuck your chin to your chest for Step 4. This focused breathing keeps you calm and maintains oxygen moving through your body to feed your muscles. It also assists with the stretching and rounding of your spine and ribs.

Enjoy!
Finally, the real secret to mastery of Standing Head to Knee is: attitude. Relish every step of the magical journey, because every step has something to offer your body, mind and soul. And more than anything, this posture demands that you activate and cultivate the connection between those! That's part of what makes it so tough, and that's also what makes it so... yoga.

Since our Founding Memberships went on sale a few days ago, seven people have purchased year-long memberships to a yoga studio they have never seen, because it isn't even built yet. I haven't met most of these people, but I can tell you they have a lot to teach us. They know how to do possibly one of the most important things in human life: They know how to leap.

You know, leaping. Like when you come to a giant, muddy puddle at the foot of your driveway, and the whole world is waiting on the other side- but you're not wearing your rain boots and it's hard to gauge the depth or whether your legs are long enough to make it across. It's tempting to walk around. Or even go back inside and wait for the sun to come out and dry things up! (Heh. Can you tell I'm originally a Californian?) Anyway, those are very practical solutions, and there's nothing wrong with them. Some of us, though... maybe we back up a bit, get something of a running start- and we leap the hell over that puddle and get on with the day.

Bikram Yoga St. Johns was a leap for us. When we found out we were going to be parents, my first impulse was to say "Let's wait with the business." We were going to have a baby to consider, after all! I wanted to go back inside and wait till the puddle dried, get an office job and put the kid in daycare. Save money. Play it safe.

It can be that way with the yoga sometimes, too. For many of us it was a huge leap to get to that first class, that's for sure. We had to get over worries about the heat, the fear of being vulnerable and sweaty in a room full of the beautiful people, concern that our bodies were somehow not up to the task- we had to let all that go and just leap ourselves into the hot room. And there are days like that even after practicing for years- coming back after an illness, or maybe just feeling really out of sorts and like we might not make it through two sets of half moon. If we go to class, we risk feeling uncomfortable, imperfect, even having to sit out a posture or three. On those days it feels much safer to stay on the couch and scroll through Facebook and let the hours pass us by.

But. Do you remember how you felt after your very first class? Have you had one of those "iffy" days, and then you go to class anyway? I know I have, and I've never regretted it. It's not always pretty, but in my experience you always feel better when you leap.

It certainly would have been easier for us to put the studio on hold. Sometimes I wonder if it would have been more responsible. But that puddle wasn't going anywhere! And did we want to teach our children to play it safe? That seems less responsible.

I'm not concerned about this community at all. It is being founded as we speak by people who are not afraid to take a chance. These people will build the kind of community that jumps in with all it's got. They will inspire new students to try that scary first class, they will make our studio vibrate with an adventurous spirit. Together with them- with you- we are setting exactly the example we want to set for our daughter.

Together, we will make this the best leap we all ever took!

A recent conversation with my husband, uploading stories onto our Testimonials page, teaching several classes this weekend full of super-motivated students, and  watching my 1-month-old daughter's efforts on her movement mat have all got me thinking about: perseverance, drive, dedication. What great feats we are capable of when we pour in everything we have! Here's one of my favorite poems on the subject.

Even if you've never taken a Bikram yoga class, you can probably imagine a few ways sweating your guts out for 90 minutes a day might change your body. (Weight loss, lower blood pressure, increased stamina, improved digestion, anyone?) After all, Bikram yoga is a hatha yoga practice, meaning a practice of physical postures, called asanas, and breathing techniques, called pranayama. And hatha yoga offers tremendous health benefits for all the systems of your body. But that's not all, folks! By attending to your physical practice, you also cultivate certain qualities of mind which have the power to absolutely transform the way you see the world and the way you live your life:

1. Concentration. This word literally means "the action of bringing to a center." By fully focusing your intention on the specific work at hand- be that locking your knee, keeping your breath steady, or focusing at one point on your forehead in the mirror- for just a few seconds at a time, you are training your mind for ever more demanding feats of "bringing to a center" which are called for in daily life. While all traditions of hatha yoga develop concentration skills, Bikram yoga adds some bonus challenges to your concentration in the form of heat and dripping sweat. Lucky you! With a regular practice, you will find yourself more able to focus on the tasks you tackle outside of the hot room, resulting in more efficient performance in all areas of your life.
2. Faith. Plenty of faith gets practiced in Bikram yoga classes every day: faith that time did not stop and the 90 minutes will eventually end, faith that the room is only 105 degrees and not 2000 degrees which is what it feels like, faith that the teacher is not actually trying to kill you, etc. The most important, though, is faith in yourself, that you are capable of more than you think. The more you remind yourself of that, you become capable of even more.
3. Self-Discipline. Move with the instructions, not before and not after. Wait until "party time" to drink water. Stand absolutely still between the standing postures. Don't. Wipe. The. Sweat. Lie still like a corpse in savasana. Don't. Wipe. The. Sweat. The instructor might remind you, but she's not going to come over and slap your hand if you reach for a sip right after half-moon pose, and she couldn't breathe for you even if she wanted. In the hot room as in the world outside, you are the only one responsible for your actions. Bikram yoga is your opportunity to practice repeatedly choosing the best actions to take.
4. Patience. First class ever? Tight hamstrings? Bad back? Knee surgery? Coming back to yoga after having a baby? Just having an especially rough day? Bikram would say, "Take it easy, honey." And for many of us that can be the most difficult thing! Patience involves faith and self-discipline, too. In Bikram yoga, while the postures never change, you yourself are very different from day to day. Patience is crucial in the hot room to protect you from injuring your body by pushing too hard, too fast- and to keep from judging yourself harshly if your postures are not yet where you think they should be. Cultivate patience with yourself, and you'll find patience for others is quick to follow.
5. Determination. All of the physical, mental and spiritual benefits of Bikram yoga are yours for the taking, but they hinge on this: you've got to stick with it! One class alone might make you feel fantastic right away- it might even work out that kink in your neck or get rid of your hangover from the night before- but lasting results require the determination to keep coming back to class. A few times a week, ideally. Even when it feels hard. Even with a kink in your neck. Even with a hangover! And when you come to class in whatever state you may be, each and every posture asks you not to give up. We even allow plenty of time in each posture, so if you fall out you have a chance to practice your determination and try again. Determination is also essential to practice all the other qualities of mind: you have to stay determined to concentrate, determined to have faith, determined to exercise self-discipline, determined to be patient with yourself. Your determination will be rewarded with successes great and small, and (like the yoga itself!) once you make it a habit it will aid in every challenge you face.

How has Bikram yoga changed your mind? Leave a comment. We love to hear from you!