Bikram or “hot” yoga took root in Los Angeles three decades ago, but the technique has spread far beyond coastal cool. Performed in the heated room, Bikram yoga is becoming more and more popular way of losing weight and gaining strength. However, medical professionals are expressing concerns about the demands of yoga contortions performed in extreme heat.Even though the immediate warmth and simple movements at the start of each class are safer than traditional yoga, there are many issues in this practice and what looks good and not so difficult to do may not be what is best for the body. Heat increases one’s metabolic rate, and by warming you up, it allows you to stretch more. The heat helps people work slowly and safely into the postures and makes injuries infrequent. Warmer tissues will yield more easily, but stretching beyond optimal limits can compromise joint tissue. Ligaments, tough bands of fibrous tissue that connect bones or cartilage at a joint, do not regain their shape once they are stretched out. This, in turn, may lead to loose joints. Once you stretch a muscle beyond 20 or 25 percent of its resting length, you begin to damage a muscle. The extreme range of motion may be counterproductive causing inflammation and pain. So maybe being too flexible causes more problems than not being flexible at all.
Postures that require extreme bending of the knees — squats and sitting backward on folded legs, for example — are the most likely to cause tears in knee cartilage. In Bikram yoga, students practice the “toe stand pose,” a single-legged squat and the “fixed firm pose,” sitting backward with bent knees. All of these may be dangerous for the knee joint, especially when you can’t feel the pain due to the heat in the room, or some other factors. The more you flex the joint under load, the more pressure is exerted on the kneecap.
Another structure under extreme pressure is the hip joint. Consisting of the thigh socket, or ball-and-socket joint, it sits at the top of the leg. Bikram’s “tree pose” requires standing on one leg and drawing the opposite foot to the top of the thigh. The student is asked to rotate the joint of the drawn-up leg outward as far as possible.
The mirrored walls in Bikram studios may encourage students to concentrate on outward form, when more traditional yoga emphasizes an inward focus on breathing and individual limitations, possibly helping to curb injuries. But being in a hot studio filled with hard-core Type A personalities willing to compete who can show a better pose, everyone’s adrenaline and endorphins are pumping. As a result, you’re not feeling any pain. This lack of sensation may mask how far you can go letting you over-stretch the joints and consequently lead to injuries, especially if your flexibility is not supported by muscle strength.
Other things to consider in Bikram yoga is the increased circulation due to extreme heat. This may stress the heart too much. So if you smoke, are overweight or have high blood pressure – Bikram yoga might be dangerous for you. Some practitioners of Bikram report dizziness, nausea, muscle weakness and cramping. Dehydration caused by excessive sweating is the most probable cause. In extreme cases, losing electrolytes through perspiration can cause cardiac arrhythmia.
Devotees of hot yoga may be able to condition their bodies to work out safely in the heat, but whether the practice offered any advantages over other types of exercise remains questionable. Learning where your body is and what your body can do is what yoga is about, not reaching for an ideal or modeling yourself after a picture in a book.
Unfortunately, we are left here with another misinformed, misunderstood perspective on Bikram Yoga. And, where is the balanced counterpoint from anyone with some expertise in Bikram Yoga?
It is too bad that so many medical “experts” are out there offering their opinions of which they know very little. You don’t hear us yogis contradicting medical professionals – because we lack any expertise in that area, (though I know many doctors and other medicos who practice and some who even teach Bikram Yoga).
Every Bikram Yoga teacher studies directly with Bikram himself. Our training is 500 hours over nine weeks intensive with Bikram, followed by at least six months internship with a senior teacher – more than most other forms of yoga anywhere.
To address specifically some of the comments here, we monitor new students and address all of the issues raised here to make sure the practitioner is well-hydrated, does not push themselves too hard, listens to their body and does not over-stretch or over extend himself.
The mirrors allow students to find a deeper focus, allowing them the specific focal point of their own eyes in the mirror. Too often with other forms of yoga, or when one is focusing “inside,” one tends to drift off and lose the presence of being in one’s body and in the moment.
The Bikram Yoga teacher does not practice while teaching, instead watching carefully to see that students are following proper form and not going beyond their personal limits. And, we ensure that students do not overstretch tendons and ligaments but instead focus – through proper form – on stretching muscles, which contrary to the writers assertion, will not damage muscle but instead strengthen and heal the tissue by oxygenating and providing nutrition to all the cells.
There are many, many forms of exercise that are much, much more dangerous than Bikram Yoga, (or any yoga for that matter). It’s rare, though, that you see an article warning against running, weight lifting, aerobics, swimming, tennis, etc., or about the lack of proper training for many of the “professionals” teaching these activities.
Bikram Yoga will strengthen the body, helping restore balance and flexibility; reduce stress and improve mental accuity; lower blood pressure and help restore proper metabolism; and help the student to achieve a more spiritual focus.
Following a direct lineage from Patanjali, who wrote the Yoga Sutras through Paramahansa Yogananda, author of “Autobiography of a Yogi,” Bikram Yoga continues a tradition with more than 5,000 years of proven results.