Meet Craig: Hot Yoga Gave Me Back My Youth
“Hot yoga was the one thing that actually gave me a constant feeling of relief without any kind of medication.”
Craig B. | CraigFit.co
On a recent trip to Colorado to visit my family, I was lucky to join my 12-year-old nephew, Bennett, in one of his workouts with Craig Bernstein. Billed as a speed, agility, strength, and performance coach, I’d heard great things about Craig for a while. Craig is known in the Denver community for his physical training style and ability to motivate and connect with each of his clients.
We had a great workout together and an even better conversation afterward.
Craig credits his Original Hot Yoga (Bikram) practice for rejuvenating his ability to stay in shape, stay focused, and overcome physical challenges. Sound familiar?
After my trip out West, I couldn’t resist asking Craig to do a follow-up interview, because even though he practiced in a different part of the country, there is something beautifully universal about Original Hot Yoga, and his testimony is simply spot-on.
Ian: How did you decide to become a personal trainer?
Craig: I've always been geared toward athleticism and played baseball in college. I had some very high-level coaching and unique strength and conditioning coaches along the way that influenced my desire to dive into fitness. But what made me want to help others was when I herniated a disc in my back. Through stretching, strength, and conditioning, I realized there were alternatives besides surgery or medication to help relieve pain and get yourself back into a physically sustainable lifestyle.
Ian: You work with all ages, but primarily with young athletes; what's your unique method to help motivate them?
Craig: I have a passion for working with young kids. I like helping them find things that might drive them in another direction with their mindset or to other sports.
I like to tap into the psychology of any athlete put in front of me and adjust the training and the type of workouts we'll be doing to suit. Since every kid is unique, their training should also vary based on their ability.
Ian: How were you first introduced to Bikram yoga? What prompted taking your first class?
Craig: You know, it was a very confusing time for me. I had injured my back, and even though I had above-normal mobility, I constantly had sciatica going down my right side into my glutes, sometimes into my hamstring, and in the worst cases, into the calf.
The doctors asked me to consider having some of the discs trimmed away or maybe even having my spine fused.
One day, I was venting to a friend, and she said, “if you're going to have surgery anyways, you might as well come to check out my hot yoga class.”
“Everything started to change because of my hot yoga practice. ”
In the back of my mind, I thought, “I've been going to the top acupuncturist, the top massage therapists, the top doctors. What is a hot yoga class going to do that's different than all the mobility that I've been doing in the gym?” So I just basically wrote it off.
Then the next time I saw her, she asked if I had gone, and when I replied no, she said, “if you come with me, I'll pay for your class.” So I gave it a try. I went in expecting nothing more than an interesting experience in the process.
Ian: Do you remember how you felt after that first class?
Craig: I remember feeling like the heat was a lot—even for a guy who was a boxer and trained in some gyms without air conditioning in Houston, Texas.
I thought being in the heat for an hour and a half at that temperature took a lot of resilience.
Ian: Over many years of teaching, we find that nearly 80% of new students give up after their first class. But the people that come back to their second or third class, suddenly, the light bulb starts to go off. Was that what happened to you?
Craig: When the instructor finished that first class and said, “give this a chance—come back in 24 hours.” I immediately thought, “she's out of her mind. I'm not coming back in 24 hours. I'm not even coming back in 48 hours!” But once you go and start to think, “what if this could be a thing that helps me?”—you give it a shot. You discover that the body starts to open up, and it goes to places it wants to go.
Of course, it’s not for everyone, but for most of us, we should be as flexible as we once were at our peak level. Through hot yoga, I’ve gotten back to full expressions of stretching that I hadn’t achieved since I was young. My body did not get warm enough in a regular gym. So that heat that is horrible to deal with and makes you uncomfortable—is probably the most beneficial thing I think about hot yoga. When you’re in that temperature for more than 30 minutes, your body releases heat shock proteins that otherwise would not be released.
Ian: At what point did you start feeling relief for your back?
Craig: I noticed changes after one week—specifically sciatica—I was walking out of my third class when I noticed it. I let out this loud noise that must have sounded like I was frustrated. One of the women at the studio asked, “Hey, is everything okay?” And I answered, “yeah, no, well, no, not really. My back feels better. And that means I have to keep coming to see if this stuff will fix it even more!”
“We can’t control what’s happening back in another part of the room, but we can control what’s happening right in front of us.”
It truly was a mental dilemma. It was very challenging. It's long and drawn out. It’s hot, and it doesn’t always smell great. But hot yoga was the one thing that actually gave me a constant feeling of relief without any kind of medication.
So I kept going.
After a while, I noticed that I started to get tremendous relief in my jaw and neck from my stress. I felt relief from the residual effects of all the physical training I've done over the years. I had relief from the stress and anxiety I was dealing with. I had better sleep cycles—I actually wanted to go to bed. I wanted to eat healthy food. I had such an urge to have coconut water and a healthy salad or right after yoga to put all those nutrients back in.
Everything started to change because of my hot yoga practice.
I hate to use the expression “fountain of youth”, but it does feel like you're getting something back. It felt like my skin tone was getting better. It felt like my digestive system was getting better. It felt like my interactions with people, my clarity of thought, my ability to be in the present moment—it all got better.
Ian: What was one of the hardest things to overcome in your practice?
Craig: Looking at yourself in the mirror for an hour and a half was a big thing for me. It took me a week before I did it without my shirt. It took me three weeks before I stopped wearing the baggy basketball pants. It took me another three months before I started wearing tights. A few months after that, I got a pair of yoga shorts.
Because after a while, you won't care what anyone's wearing, what they smell like, what noises they're making—nothing will take me out of my practice. I always have the mindset that, like, we're doing this together.
Ian: is there anything else that jumps out for you about the benefits of hot yoga for your mindset, or awareness?
Craig: I am more focused. Hot yoga tests that. You may have that person in class making noises or falling over; whatever the distraction, it challenges you to focus more on yourself. It's very similar to life in that way. Sometimes, it feels like people are put in our lives for a good reason. And other times, it seems like there are people there to get in the way. Our job is to use the practice to help stay focused.
We can't control what's happening back in another part of the room, but we can control what's happening right in front of us. We get to deal with what's right in front of us in the mirror. Anytime I feel like I am getting distracted by the outside world, I need to also go to yoga, get myself centered, and not let negative vibrations pull me off my path. Because when I do that, I lose my center and fall over. The mental break happens way before the physical break.
Ian: there are so many versions of yoga, stretching and EXERCISE out there. Why should someone consider Original Hot Yoga, or bikram yoga as it was called when you started, over other options?
Craig: I highly suggest using the Bikram/Original hot yoga above any other stretching system out there because it is a proven system that has been in place for so long. But you have to give it time. You do years of pounding away on your spine; you can at least give it three days to try to release some tension or traction away from the compression.
For me, hot yoga was the ultimate “pre-habilitation.” It helped me get into a healthy lifestyle using my body and not relying on outside influences like pain medication or anti-inflammatories to make myself feel better.
I have not been in a hot yoga class where someone hurt themselves more than they helped themselves.
The key is to eat properly before and after class. Listen to your instructor. Pace yourself. Stay hydrated. Come back and get better.
P.S. Do you love learning about the healing benefits of hot yoga as much as we do? In case you missed them, check out the profound insights fellow Thrive Yogis Diaz and Erika share on how hot yoga helps with chronic pain and emotional healing.
A note from Thrive:
We acknowledge that there is no substitution for surgery when it is essential. The downside is that American psychology too often relies on surgery as the only possible fix. There can be a tricky pattern post-surgery for many people, falling into a downward cycle of continuing pain meds, and continuing to be afraid to move the body in a healthy way, which only makes things worse over time.
Our goal is to provide a holistic option for physical health. We've had a lot of students who have had surgery and amazed their doctors with how quickly they recover (because they've been doing Original Hot Yoga for so many years prior!). There are many opportunities to explore hot yoga and other healing modalities in conjunction with modern medicine—and we are proud to be one of them.
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