Bikram Yoga -- I Learned My Body's True Limits

by Julie
(Chicago, IL)

I have always been a fan of yoga, so when I heard about bikram yoga, I was very intrigued. Bikram yoga takes place in a room set at 110 degrees!

If you think that is intense, each class is 90 minutes long. As you could imagine, this makes the poses significantly more difficult, because you are doing them in such intense heat and you need to focus more on breathing and being aware of your body and it's limits.

You go through 36 different poses within the hour and a half time frame, doing each pose three times, to push your body a little more each time.

The workout begins with a couple different breathing exercises to warm your body up and get you focusing on breathing properly.

You then move on to do a series of poses standing up (which for me is the most difficult part of the class.)

Then you move to ground poses (which are great because you lie in shavasana after each pose to let your body get the full workout, but its a great breather.)

Then you go into cool down stretching, and final shavasana (the best part).

For those not familiar with yoga, shavasana is when you lie flat on your back, eyes closed, palms up, and you focus on deep breathing.

You are able to take breaks when necessary, but are not allowed to leave the room for the entire 90 minutes. This is to prevent your body from going into shock.

They lessen the temperature toward the end of class and have you take as much time as you need in the final shavasana, so your body can cool down properly.

I thought this was great, because it forced me to push myself, and learn my body's true limits while trusting myself and those around me.

This is not the only benefit. You sweat out all your toxins, and stretch and tone parts of the parts of the body you never even think of using.

There has been some negative criticism of bikram, because it takes longer to notice an injury when your body is so heated. I have never had this problem, but have always been very flexible.

Just be sure not to push yourself too far. I also have asthma, and have never had any problems with that in class. If anything, it may help me to focus on breathing better outside of class.