Sorry, Bikram, No Hot Yoga for Me
I honestly don’t get the fascination with Bikram (generic term: Hot Yoga). We’ve been having this awful heat wave in LA, and I went to a regular yoga class on Sunday that was just steaming hot. The teacher ended up putting on the air conditioning, and we all breathed a sigh of relief. (And this was an easy, yin-style yoga class.)
My cousin’s boyfriend has been doing Bikram for five years and swears by it; I have another friend who goes regularly. But why on earth would anyone want to work out in a humid 105 degree room?
Bikram Yoga utilizes a series of 26 postures that the founder copyrighted to the dismay of the yoga community. (Besides his flamboyant personality, Bikran is beyond arrogant, I hear.) Now why on earth this special series gets such a “buzz” for being a simple system - when Sivananda was first with its 12 core postures - is beyond me.
(Oh wait, I get it, it’s the skimpy outfits you need to wear due to the heat…well, that’s if you can handle seeing a 57-year-old man teaching in a Speedo. Yikes!)
So what’s so great about the Bikram series? How is it any better than a standard yoga flow? I don’t know about you, but deep squatting on one leg is just not something I do well nor even care to learn to do well. Which brings us to the bigger issue with Bikram: injuries.
I guess the deal is, when the temperature is so hot, we are able to stretch our muscles more. Problem is, we can stretch them beyond their capacity and really screw ourselves up. So be careful.
I’m not saying Bikram is this horrible thing. As I said earlier, I know people who love it. But personally, I will avoid a yoga class where the FAQ on the website actually tells you to take salt and potassium tablets before class if you find yourself getting faint and dizzy.
I certainly wouldn’t mind trying out a class with just the poses, without the excessive heat. That way, I would avoid the heat stroke and the overstretched muscles. But that’s just me.
Also check out:
Dr Sonja Stilp on Yoga: Avoid Feeling This Burn - Hot yoga linked to increasing injuries