Hot Yoga + Açai Bowls
Before I was a Chinese Medicine Practitioner, or a Chinese Medicine student for that matter, I practised yoga (and I still do).
I happily spent a lot of time at the main studio I attended (and still attend), but it was and is fun to go to my favourite teachers’ classes at other studios sometimes. It was through this exploration that I found hot yoga.
Although I did honestly feel like I might faint the first few times and felt a new level of needing to replace fluids after, there was something about the added challenge and being a bit warmer and more bendy that made things more interesting.
The studio I would go to had a place that sold smoothies, açai bowls and avocado toast a few doors down, so often was the case that I’d sweat it out and then enjoy some toast and an açai bowl post-yoga class.
Don’t get me wrong: it was such an enjoyable combo of activities, and I didn’t do it heaps, but in hindsight, I’ve come to realise what a dramatic contrast exercising in a hot room and then eating very cold food was doing to my body, and in particular, my menstrual cycle.
Here’s what I learned about these two practises when I started studying Chinese Medicine:
Chinese Medicine is fundamentally about restoring balance and harmony in the body. Extremes such as exercising in a very hot room or eating ice-cold foods pull us away from balance quite dramatically, making it more difficult to move back to equilibrium. Trying to achieve balance isn’t so easy if we are engaging with the extremes (the sum total of many extremes might technically even out, but it’ll feel like a rollercoaster, rather than a series of gentle adjustments).
Dressing warmly, keeping warm and consuming warm foods and drinks are the ideal in Chinese Medicine. We are warm-blooded after all! But there is a difference between warm and hot. Warmth supports our physiology. Heat, on the other hand, is the extreme that over time will lead to depletion of fluids and dry things out. Think grass that turns yellow after a long, hot summer.
Sweating, while helpful to cool us down, can cause dehydration if excessive. In Chinese Medicine, this means Yin, the cooling, hydrating, nourishing, substantial energy, becomes depleted. If there is already a deficiency of Yin and/or Blood (feeling faint/dizzy and very dehydrated after hot yoga are good signs that this is case), it’ll make things worse.
Cold foods (such as a smoothie or açai bowl) are difficult and cost more energy to digest because they first need to be warmed up to body temperature before digestion and absorption can continue. Over time, Cold foods deplete the digestive system, weakening it and making it less effective at producing energy necessary for all physiological functions (Qi and Blood) and metabolising fluids.
Cold in the body that cannot be metabolised tends to sink to the lower parts of the body (heat rises, cold sinks). In a female body, this typically means the Uterus.
Cold causes contraction and slows movement (think of a river freezing in Winter), and in Chinese Medicine, it is believed that all pain is caused by stagnation of some form.
Depletion of fluids (including Blood) can also create stagnation because there isn’t enough substance to keep things moving. Imagine a river that runs low on water - in some places of the river there isn’t enough force from abundant water supply to push things along and so water and other things become stuck.
If the digestive system is depleted from eating cold foods regularly, less Qi and Blood can be made. If we are engaging in activities that cause excessive sweating, this depletes fluids and dries things out. Less Qi, Blood and fluids means less motive force to keep things moving and if we add in Cold too, some serious stagnation is upon us.
To spell it out, this situation does not bode well for a smooth and peaceful menstrual cycle (amongst other things).
This is because all that Cold and now depleted and slow-moving Blood in the Uterus means menstruation is obstructed to some degree. This might not manifest only as period pain, but also irregular cycles, menstrual clots, no period or extremely heavy periods as the body tries its hardest to clear out the stagnation.
Unfortunately, I was unknowingly creating a perfect storm of pin-balling from one extreme to the other, adding Cold to my body, depleting my Blood and Yin and capacity to make both, in turn perpetuating stagnation. And I’ve got the period pain to prove it!
I don’t say this to suggest that you should NEVER go to a hot yoga class or have a smoothie or açai bowl. I also want to be clear that it wasn’t solely these practices that I think have lead to my period pain and other symptoms, as there were many things I used to do before them that have also contributed to Cold and stagnation.
It’s simply to say that it’s important to try things and experiment to see what works and what doesn’t, but also that when we know better, we can do better (and not to give ourselves a hard time for not knowing better in the first place).
I mostly only do room temperature yoga now and I save açai bowls for hot days only (it’s like an ice-cream!).
If you’re menstrual cycle is asking for help, or you’re a long-time cold food consumer/hot yoga goer, please reach out if you’re in need of some additional support from acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine (I’d love to help!).