Some like it hot: my adventures in Bikram

Even though I have been practising yoga for years now, before today, I had never given a Bikram class a go.

I have done lots of hot yoga over the past couple of years (these are normal vinyasa or hatha classes that are done in a room that is heated to around 35°C) but not an actual Bikram class.

For those not familiar with it, a Bikram yoga class is a 90 minute session made up of a specific series of 26 poses (or asana) and breathing exercises (or pranayama) taught in a room that is heated to around 40°C with 40% humidity. Sound intense? Cos it is!

Source: www.ballnroll.com

I had heard a lot about Bikram since it got popular a few years back and had heard various things about it from fellow yogis (some who were major Bikram enthusiasts and others who had done it a couple of times but weren't really taken by it). And to be honest, I never thought it would be my cup of tea. 

It is taught in accordance with a strict system and there are a lot of "guidelines" that are meant to be followed - like when you should drink water, when you can lie down, when you can wipe your sweat away (and trust me, there is a LOT of sweat - and the guideline is that you shouldn't wipe it off at all during class). My first reaction to hearing these was that it sounded too rigid - like some kind of cruel yoga dictatorship - and I was not interested in partaking in it at all. I didn't want someone tell me what my body needed at any given point in my yoga - surely I was the best judge of that!

But it is a new year and I figured I couldn't really judge it if I had never tried it - so I enlisted one of my lovely work buddies and headed to a class at Bikram Yoga Darlinghurst. 
The teacher and the other students all seemed pretty relaxed and not too showy at all so that put me at ease straight away. Also, the "guidelines" that I had heard so much about were more like suggestions and teacher would give you gentle reminders - but certainly didn't do any dictating. 

As newbies, we got ourselves set up in the back row. Unfortunately though, because the class was quite full, the only places we could find were right in front of the vents where all that lovely hot air was coming from. But even with the hot air blasting on me, I figured that I should be able to survive the class. I mean I had done yoga in heated rooms before and, even though they were no where near as hot as this one was, a Bikram class doesn't involve the same fast flowing between poses like my usual hot vinyasa classes. Also, I was from tropical Queensland.  I could totally handle a bit of heat and humidity for 90 minutes - I used to breathe it in for about 9 months of the year! 

Source: www.yoganonymous.com

Well, I was wrong. By about the 8th pose, I was starting to feel a bit woozy. After a few more, I knew I was going to throw up if I tried to stay standing any longer. So a took a bit of a breather on the ground for a little bit until the nausea past. (Apparently my ego would much rather deal with having to lie down in the middle of class than to throw up on myself - so I learnt that about myself today!) Once I recovered, I was able to get back to the class but still felt a little bit weak. Thankfully, though, all the standing poses are done in the first half of the class, so the second half was much, much easier to get through.

After the class, I felt pretty fuzzy and light-headed and that feeling stayed with me for quite a few hours. Also, even though I had tried to drink plenty of water before the class, sipped water during the class and guzzled water when I was done, I still felt dehydrated and a bit headachy. Given how popular Bikram is though, my guess is that these side-effects start to get less and less with the more classes that you do. 

And hopefully I will get to find out if I can get used to it too - the introductory offer for new students was a 10 day pass for $17 - so I can do as many classes as I like for the next 10 days. Bargain! While I don't think I will be going daily or anything crazy like that, I am such a sucker for a good value so I will definitely try to get along to a few more classes before my pass runs out. 

I doubt that I will keep doing Bikram as part of my regular yoga practice in the long term, but who knows? Maybe I will become a Bikram addict in spite of myself!