 Yorktown Heights, NY - Jane Kartsch of Mahopac, a former Bronx high school teacher, has opened a studio to practice a form of Yoga that is HOT.
Bikram Yoga is a series of 26 hatha yoga postures and 2 breathing exercises performed in 90 minutes in a room heated to 104 degrees with 40 percent humidity.
“Most people would faint just at the thought,” says Kartsch,“ but it is very therapeutic and highly addictive.”
Kartsch, 58, a retired Bronx public high school teacher, began doing Bikram Yoga in 2003, after suffering 2 knee injuries, a broken foot and was just weeks away from knee surgery. “My son took me to my first class. I thought he was crazy but went anyway. 90 minutes later I was hooked. Within 3 weeks of sweating and groaning I had 90% range of motion back in my knees, and was sleeping better. Soon I was able to cut back on medications that I was taking.”
“I was 54 at the time and teaching at a large high school in the Bronx. The atmosphere was a little insane. I loved teaching but after 25 years, time takes its toll, mentally, physically and spiritually. I was burned out, stressed out and overweight. I took the opportunity to retire at 55, and signed up for the Bikram Yoga Teacher Training in Los Angeles. Nine grueling weeks later, completing 2 classes a day, memorizing pages and pages of dialogue and instructions, learning anatomy and attending lectures until all hours of the morning, I graduated along with 96 other people who I now call my family. We referred to it as Survivor, L.A.”
“As a life long runner, I was always athletic, running road races and marathons. It wasn’t until I took my first Bikram Yoga class that I realized I found my path. Running was great and I miss it, but yoga is even better. I get complete 100% body work in one class.”
“Bikram (Choudhury) is very involved with how the studio is built and run and only Bikram instructors that are certified by Bikram and his 9-week intensive training are allowed to teach Bikram Yoga. We are trained to teach the proper alignment according to his strict guidelines that he imparted to us in the teacher training. Bikram Yoga is all about the alignment and using yoga as a tool to improve the body, mind and spirit. All of the 8 aspects of yoga are incorporated in one 90 minute session.”
“Opening a Bikram Yoga studio has been quite an experience. Beginning a brand new career at age 57 is also quite an experience, but yoga has taught me that I can do whatever I set my mind to do and that life is full of endless possibilities. I still have a way to go but I am happy about my path at this time in my life. I am grateful that I can do something that I like and still give back to the community. I can create a little peace in a stressful world. And I find myself going almost full circle and am back to where I started. I guess the teacher will always be in me.”
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