Competitive Yoga? Not a Stretch.

By Rita Zeidner
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, January 27, 2008; N02

Once upon a time, people did yoga to relax.

But closer to home, Type A's such as Sonja Wyche, a 31-year-old Reston physician and mom to an 18-month-old, are squeezing an adrenaline rush out of their ohm time. Wyche, who took up yoga less than three years ago, will represent the D.C. area in the 2008 Bishnu Charan Ghosh Cup, the Bikram yoga championship, in Los Angeles on Saturday. (Joining her are the other first- and second-place finishers in the men's and women's divisions of the regional competition.)

In a pose called the standing full bow, Wyche does the splits while standing, pulling her back leg forward with both hands until her foot touches the back of her head. It's moves like that -- ones that require a trifecta of strength, flexibility and balance -- that landed her in second place out of 16 women in a regional contest in November.

In the finals, she will move through a three-minute routine consisting of five gravity- and strength-defying compulsory moves and two optional advanced postures. The tournament is the brainchild of Bikram Choudhury, the India-born guru who turned yoga into a cash cow with his eponymous studio franchise featuring classes in rooms heated to a Mumbai-esque 110 degrees. After sweating through a 90-minute Bikram workout at Bikram Yoga Reston, Wyche chatted about yoga, her family and more.

What is competitive yoga, and who are you competing against?

I'd say it's a way of competing against yourself. It's a way of strengthening yourself, knowing where you are in your practice, ways to get deeper, stronger and go further in your practice.

But a contest has winners and losers. Isn't yoga supposed to be about inner peace?

That's correct. I guess what you can say is the competition gives you a way to see where you are in your practice compared to other people.

How often do you train?

Every day. I have the kind of job that allows me to do that. Usually if I do a 6 a.m. class, I'm done in time to get to work, have a full day at work, pick up my daughter and spend time with my family. Or else I go in to work really early in order to leave in time to practice and spend time with my family. Work, practice and spending time with my family. Those are the three parts. They have to go together.

Do you ever fall when getting out of or going into a pose?

Definitely. And I get right back up. If you don't have a bruise, then you're doing something wrong.

Have you introduced your daughter to yoga?

Yes, with stretches. In her early stages, to relieve gas I would put her in postures where I would bring her knees to her chest.

Did it work?

Yes, I also stretched her legs by crossing one over the other. And now she definitely mimics me and the postures that I do. She's definitely going to be a yogi.

You're in a nephrology practice. The kidneys seem to figure prominently in yoga. But a lot of the claims about yoga, particularly where the kidneys are concerned, frankly sound like hooey.

Really? How so?

Like yoga cleaning out toxins. Is there any science to that?

I wouldn't go so far as to say the yoga cleans out the toxins. But as you practice the yoga, the heat itself and the sweating does clean out the toxins that you have consumed in your body. . . . Also, when you do yoga, you don't want to eat your heavy products. And that is a way of cleansing your system, of cleansing your kidneys. You're not consuming heavy, fatty, poorly nutritious foods.

You ever feel like eating a cheeseburger?

Never.

What do you eat before a competition?

I have coconut water. It's very high in potassium without giving you all the sugar like a lot of the sports drinks. And it's natural. And I have two oranges.

During your competition, were you the only African American?

There was one other.

So few. Is this an issue?

I don't think it's that it's uninviting. But I have my reasons for why. . . . I think it's hair. If you notice many of the black women who practice either have natural hair or very short hair or dreadlocks. They rarely have hair that's relaxed or permed. Because it's a maintenance thing. You sweat, you get wet. And I have to say, it wasn't until I cut all my hair off that I have been truly free.