YogaFlowJared

Sarah,

I agree with description on a standard Bikram class. I have taken many different types of yoga classes and flows in my travels and I almost always find a traditional “Bikram” class always approaches the class the same way.

After the instructor sees that I have done this before they usually go on in the following ways during my practice.

Breathe through the discomfort.
Push it go you can go further.
I can’t hear your breathing!

Now I am no expert but I go to Yoga for the following reasons.

1. Personal Meditation
2. A way in which to calm my mind
3. Sweat the toxins out
4. And any other added benefits are just gravy.

I can’t stand this approach so it took me awhile to find a network of studios that do not do this and I also developed some standard approach stratagies when going to the studio for the first time.

1. Always tell them its your first time
2. Position yourself in the middle of the room (middle of the pack of practioners
3. Fake that you don’t speak english very well

This keeps’em off your back.

If anyone is interested I have studios around North America that are very good to studios both advanced and beginner … and they approach the practice in the way I think traditional yoga is suppose to be taken. My full time studio is found here http://www.gotyoga.com and they people are amazing!

namaste

Hi. I’ve been doing Bikram yoga for some time and love the yoga. What I don’t like, however, is the fact that, as much as the teachers insist on everyone being mindful and present in the room, they themselves are not. Instead, they’re reciting a script they memorized and, rather than reacting to what’s going on in the room, how people feel, and the energy that may (or may not) be present–and responding accordingly–they simply regurgitate: “This is good for you. Breathe through it. It’ll make you stronger.” What it seems to me they’re actually doing–and this is true of all Bikram teachers and, in fact, results from the nature of Bikram yoga itself–is putting what Bikram taught them to say ahead of what is actually going on with their students at a particular point in time. In addition, they’re instructing people to ignore pain by pushing it off and saying, “It’s only temporary.” Yes, it’s only temporary, but ignoring it means ignoring a part of yourself, a very important part that’s hardwired to tell you something’s wrong. It’s a similar philosophy of “push through the pain” that kept women (and men) in bad and abusive marriages during the glory days of Catholicism. It’s also the same system that masters impose upon slaves when they tell them “Work is good for you. It will set you free.” In other words, when doing Bikram yoga you’re being told to adopt a particular individual’s way of thinking, whether you accept it or not, and whether your body agrees with it or not. You’re also told that everything will be “blissful” in the end. Can someone explain these inconsistencies between simultaneously being told “Be present” while also being told “ignore what your body is telling you or what may be going on in the room?” This seems to put people in a double-bind: they’re damned if they focus (because then they’ll be concentraing on what is happening and may react to it) and they’re damned if they don’t focus (because then they won’t be pushing through the pain). Seems like an approach based on power and the desire to control–the very antithesis of what yoga is about.

The yoga aspect of Bikram yoga is, without doubt, beneficial. The Bikram philosophy, however, has numerous drawbacks and could, in the long wrong, prove harmful from the perspective of actually learning to listen to your body & mind and respond accordingly, rather than respond according to someone who’s telling you not to respond.

On a related note, I might add that this is precisely one of the ways in which people are being taught to accept such things as the increase in gas prices: just breathe through it, it will all be ok. With such a philosophy, how do you determine which things to respond to and which to ignore? If a woman beats her child, should the child just breathe through it? After all, aren’t we taught that the pain will just–in the end–make the child stronger? Won’t the pain associated with a society that increases gas prices at the beginning of summer (the time most people are likely to need gas for family vacations), just be a new pain to endure–so that we can endure further pain later on? And isn’t it places such as Bikram yoga where we learn such endurance–where we learn to permit what was once considered bad or harmful in the interest, as Nietzsche said, of ensuring that what does’t kill us make us stronger?

If Bikram yoga simultaneously strengthens our bodies while weakening our ability to think for ourselves and listen (and respond) to our bodies & minds, what have we accomplished?

Yours,

Sarah

Placing the towel across your mat (BEWARE: contentious idea – that really works 😉 )
We started to position the towel across the mat in a ‘T’ or a ‘t’ formation. When students arrive they place their towel across the mat and just before they get to the 2 min Savasana the towel is picked up and placed lengthwise on the mat.

What this means is that any sweat that drips from you is collected by the towel. All Warrior poses where you straddle the mat still have you positioned over your towel. Now 99% of your sweat drips onto your own towel. YOU get to take it home and take responsibility for your sweat. The studio stays cleaner and smells more fresh.

The studio owners and teachers still have to work to keep the studio smelling clean and fresh. The biggest determinant I have found in keeping a fresh hygienic studio (once dripping sweat onto carpet is no longer happening) is to have the studio well ventilated and aired after every single class. Every night when we left the space, the doors would be left wide open. And yes, you can use incense and essential oils, but not to mask the smells and hoodwink people into believing the space is clean.

Some people get really turned off by the smells in the studio.

Very interesting. I practiced once in an ‘unofficial’ Bikram class where they had hardwood floors. Their solution was to turn sideways for the separate leg postures so that you were stepping the length of the mat. Stepping off the mat was a sure way to end up somewhere else.

I agree completely about fresh air. For me incense and oils are just additional smells with which to contend.

Take Care,
Lee

My studio is also hardwood floors (bamboo) and this eliminates the stink until people start sweating and stinking. The only draw back is that the hardwood floor does not cushion my feet as well as carpet but the idea of someone sweating on the carpet is kinda gross.

Also I have to say that most classes that I go to that have all vegetarians stink less and this is a proven fact for my wife and I. So for the sake of your yogi neighbors go Vegetarian!

Most times after class it takes me about two hours before I really feel the need to eat anything at all! I typically just want to drink as much water as possible … really crave the coconut water also.