Bikram / Hot Yoga

Bikram yoga studio is living proof of the many life-changing benefits of Bikram If you ever meet a Bikram devotee you won’t have to press them hard for details. Bikram fans around the globe rave about the almost addictive effect of the practice – once you start, you just can’t stop. Part of Bikram’s appeal lies – intriguingly – in its difficulty. Bikram classes run for 90 minutes in a room heated to 40°C with 40 per cent humidity and cover a set series of the same 26 postures and two breathing exercises. The challenge of making your way through tough poses in hot, humid conditions can either leave you cold (so to speak), or leave you feeling awesome – pumped full of endorphins and an all-encompassing sense of achievement.
While it may sound daunting, Bikram can be done by beginners and advanced alike. Each pose can be adapted to the individual’s abilities, while the heat helps enable a deep stretch without risk of injury. “You’re never too old or unwell to start Bikram,”
Students rave about the benefits Bikram has brought them, and the teacher says that it feels like he’s paying it forward. “I was given those benefits with my body and life, now I’m in a position where I can help others achieve the same thing,” he says. “I had a man in his 50s come up to me the other day and tell me he’d just touched his toes. He hadn’t done that since he was 16 and he’d only been with us for three weeks!” Brad admits that everyone comes to yoga for a different reason.
“Often people will come in with sore back, hip or knee and they want to get better movement. Some people come in expecting something different with a pre-conceived notion that yoga is easy and relaxing and they actually find a very different experience.
The thing I love about yoga is that we all have such different backgrounds, but we all leave that at the door. We’re all the same on our mat – it doesn’t matter our age, how much money we have, how many children we have, what we do, what our material possessions are. We just get down to our real self when we come into the room. It’s just you, your yoga mat, a towel and some water. We’re all equal in the room, we’re all here to help ourselves and help each other.
Bikram yoga was named by Indian yogi/ entrepreneur Bikram Choudhury, who developed and copyrighted a particular series of 26 Hatha yoga postures and two breathing exercises to be done for 90 minutes in a hot room. The theory is that heat helps students achieve optimum flexibility. “People coming to the class can expect a challenging class, a workout, done in the heat, so they should be prepared to stretch, sweat and focus for 90 minutes,” says Tiviluk, who heats his studio to 38 C. “Because it’s challenging, it attracts Type A personalities, (but) everyone is free to take it at their own pace.” In May, in response to demand, Tiviluk added 6 a.m. classes, bringing the total of weekly classes to 23. “The idea was to bring a very downtown, New York-style studio into this region,” says Tiviluk, 42, who has practised yoga for 26 years. He was teaching elementary school in Vancouver when he discovered Bikram, and was “hooked from the very first class.” He immediately realized he would rather teach Bikram than academics, and after completing the nine-week teacher training program he began working toward his dream of opening his own studio. Originally from Toronto, Tiviluk felt there was a “huge untapped market for this type of yoga” in southwestern Ontario. He was attracted to Waterloo Region for its proximity to family, friends and big-city life an hour down the 401. In addition to a large, bright practice space, the studio offers a juice bar, shower facilities, a massage room and a lounge area. Tiviluk engaged a feng shui consultant to achieve just the right arrangement of every element in his studio and make it an appealing space. Bikram classes helped Joel Knight, 26, break through a months-long plateau in his weight-loss program. The fourth-year psychology student saw himself as overstressed, out of shape and stalled since late 2007 in his effort to drop pounds. “I could barely touch my toes before. Now I can put my head on my knees and all sorts of places,” he says. Knight attended class every day for a week and lost seven pounds. Within the first month he lost 10. His mood has improved along with his flexibility. He finds Bikram yoga challenging, but insists, “if you push through that, it’s totally worth it. You feel so great after the class. I have so much more energy now.” Bikram’s benefits accrue even to those already in excellent shape. Irene Divaris, 46, a Pilates instructor and personal trainer, found Bikram yoga pushed her to new levels of fitness. Though she wasn’t trying to lose weight, she dropped 10 pounds and 2.7 per cent of her body fat. Divaris says she’s “totally addicted” and has gone to class every day since the day after the studio opened.