HOT yoga

Hot yoga, or Bikram yoga, is a derived from hatha yoga and practiced in a heated room of about 40 degrees calcium. This is warm! Especially when you are doing all 26 postures in a routines, performing each posture twice. As a former dancer, and sporadic practitioner of hatha yoga, I still have quite a flexible body especially for a girl lifting weights. I knew the biggest challenge for me was the heat. I am uncomfortable laying in the sun for a long time because that gets so hot and I am no fan of sauna's either. 

The Bikram yoga studio on Rotterdam

The first time when I steppen into the heated room, I found a spot in the back, as was recommended to me. I was there with about 20 other people, some dressed in fancy legging and short tops and the men only with a tight pants. We all faced a large mirror. I have to say; quite confronting! Dressed in an short black pants and a wide pink top I tried to stay calm and not focus on the heat. As more and more people entered the room, the once that were already in relaxed on their back or did flexibility exercises. 

Five minutes doing nothing into the class room I was already sweating. Than the teacher walked into the room. Everybody stood up and followed the instructions that the teacher told via his headset microphone. In this type of yoga, the teacher is not performing the postures, instead he explains what you have to do and everybody follows his instructions. 

The 26 postures of Bikram yoga

The class started with a breathing excursive followed by several standing exercises, stability exercises and ground exercises for a total of 90 minutes. While I did manage to fully perform each posture (not every posture as glamourise as the other) I did feel light headed once or twice, but recovered quite quick. I was sweating my ass off non-stop! Now, it has not been proven that increased transpiration means increased calories burned or that it drains toxics out of your body, but it did feel kind of good! After the class I decided to go for a weekly unlimited card and to try it out more often this week!

After one of the best nights sleep, I went back again two days after and took a morning class at 6.30AM (yes, that is early!). Walking still sleepdrunk into the Bikram classroom, I did feel less uncomfortable with the heat than last time. The postures I performed even felt less difficult. Could it be that you see improvement in such short time-period? I experienced Bikram yoga in the morning as very positive as this gives you an focussed start of the day; starting your day more conscious. 

This afternoon was the third day I walked into the classroom. With the Harbourrun (an Obstacle run in the harbour of Rotterdam) scheduled for tomorrow, I decided not to go to the gym today but instead prepare for it by going to Bikram yoga. Let's see if this prepared me well for the run tomorrow! 

A Bikram classroom