Bikram yoga is hot - That's an understatement. The room is heated to 100 sizzling degrees, to help your body warm up quickly, so you can get deeper into the poses.
Bikram is named after its founder, Bikram Choudhury, and it is a series of 26 postures. They are usually repeated twice and held for a certain amount of time.
Class begins with Standing Postures, and then moves onto Backbends, Forward Bends, and Twists. The poses are accompanied by Kapalabhati Breath or the "breath of fire" which helps to warm up the body even more.
I took a Bikram Yoga class and when I walked in the room, I was NOT pleased to see that the entire front wall was one huge mirror. I'm more into feeling the poses and having the mirror there was too much of a distraction - I found myself sneaking a peak of myself and making negative judgments, which is the opposite of how you should feel in a yoga class.
And because your body warms up so much, you'll tend to go deeper into poses than you normally would, so you've got to be careful not to push yourself past your edge. You sweat like a pig during the class, so bring a towel and make sure to drink a lot of water a few hours before you go to a class, otherwise you can risk getting dizzy from dehydration.
For some people, Bikram is the only way to do yoga, so give it a try if you love the heat. Already a fan? Tell me about it at Stretch and Tell.
Want to see all 26 postures? Then read more
I bet you come out of that class weighing about 5 lbs lighter, right??