By XAVIER SMERDON
ALMOST 30 years ago Stanley Higham was forced to quit his job and told that he only had two years to live.
After years of poor health, including a heart condition and breathing problems which meant he needed to sleep sitting upright, the 80-year-old decided to do something drastic.
The Point Cook resident told his doctor he wanted to try bikram yoga but was warned that if he did so his poor health would mean that he would probably die.
He ignored this advice and after a year of training he now spends an hour-and-a-half five days a week doing the intense form of exercise at a studio in Werribee.
Bikram yoga involves people performing stretches and poses in a room that is heated to 40 degrees Celsius and 40 per cent humidity, causing them to sweat a lot.
“For me it’s a new life,” Mr Higham told Star.
“I feel better than I did in 1987. I used to wake up in the middle of the night coughing and I needed to prop myself up with five pillows before I could go back to sleep.
“I can’t tell you really how different I feel. It’s like I’m in a dream.”
Along with his wife Magdalena, who first introduced him to bikram yoga, he also walks seven to eight kilometres every day.
“My doctor said if I did this I would die but I got fed up with sitting down and waiting to die so I came here anyway,” he said.
“I thought I had nothing to lose.”
Mr Higham said he has since gone from getting only two hours of sleep every night to sleeping for eight hours straight. For more information on bikram yoga visit likebikramyoga.com.au
