Bend it like Bikram
Stretch yourself: Anne Leonard, owner of the Bikram yoga studio, demonstrates a posture
We're all familiar with the scene at a traditional yoga class: the fragrance of burning incense, gently teasing the body into specific, often contorted, positions and holding the stretch and leaving after 90 minutes knowing that sleep will come easy tonight.
Not so Bikram yoga.
Pushing yourself to your limits in sweltering rooms where the heat is set to a steady 41°C and 40pc humidity is the basis for this controversial yoga that has swept the US, Canada, Australia, Britain, Europe -- and now Ireland, it seems.
In addition to the Bikram yoga studio in Dublin's Portobello, where students aged from 14 to 77 attend 18 classes per week, two more centres are about to open -- one in Stoneybatter and the other in Belfast.
I'm late by about 10 minutes when I arrive and I peer through the steamed-up glass doors and think: "Oh no, am I an hour and 10 minutes late?" But alas, I wasn't.
Scantily-clad bodies
Lined up on mats facing a long, mirrored wall are the scantily clad bodies of women and men pouring sweat. My brain searches for excuses to bail out, but I can't think of anything convincing. And so, I enter.
On opening the door, I'm met by that distinctively pungent aroma of sweat. Bikram yoga, it's very clear, is not for the faint-hearted. And this is only his beginners' series.
Leading the class is director of the centre, Anne Leonard (36) who is passionate about this style of yoga, which she describes as "hatha yoga in the heat".
Fast-talking and bendy-bodied, she takes no prisoners. "It's very little to do with age, it's mind over matter," she says.
Grabbing a purple mat, two towels and a two-litre bottle of water for me, she squeezes me between another novice and a man secreting rivers of sweat.
I'm struggling in the heat from the beginning, but decide to see this as an unusual sauna experience in which I assume 26 asanas as best I can.
People usually take up Bikram yoga for bodily-associated reasons, Anne says, but keep coming back because it regulates and calms the mind. She describes it as a 90-minute open-eye meditation. I'm not sure about that. It feels more like bootcamp to me!
We move on to the warm-up series for stress relief
"Push yourself beyond your flexibility," Anne tells the class. "The series is scientifically devised to bring fresh, oxygenated blood to all parts of the body. It's a work-out for every muscle, joint, tendon and ligament and is all about optimum regulation of the organs."
This is brought about mainly by the tourniquet effect. The Eagle pose is a perfect example of this, with our arms are twisted around each other like a rope, as are our legs.
"The blood supply is cut off, creating pressure. We hold this posture for 20 seconds of stillness and when released, the blood catapults through the veins and arteries, flushing them out."
Deepest postures
After 50 minutes, we move on to the floor series. This is where the real work, deep inside the body, begins. The most important postures are included in this series.
These are the Camel -- the deepest of backward bends that stimulates the central nervous system -- and the Rabbit -- the tightest of forward bends that strengthens the immune system. These were my favourite postures.
An essential part of the class is taking 20 seconds of absolute stillness between postures. Within the first 10 seconds, it is believed that every cell of the body exchanges stale carbon dioxide for fresh oxygen.
Verdict: Bikram yoga is the kind of thing you'll love or hate. The emphasis on "pushing" wasn't my kind of thing, but it clearly is plenty of other people's.
And I have to admit after a much-needed shower, I felt inordinately cleansed and my eyes were clear and sparkling.
Bikram Yoga costs from €18 for a drop-in class to €1,435 for annual membership. There is also an introductory offer of €25 for 10 days. Call 01 657 0061 or www.bikramyoga.ie
Bikram Yoga: How does it work?
The Facts
Bikram Yoga is a style of hot yoga in which a series of 26 ancient yogic poses and two breathing exercises are practiced in a room heated to around 41°C.
This heat is said to emulate the conditions in which yoga has been practiced in its birthplace, India. At the age of 13, Bikram Choudhury was India's youngest ever national Yoga champion. At 17, he was severely crippled when his knees were crushed in a weight-lifting accident.
Using the series of postures he now teaches, he restored his health. In 1974, he founded the Yoga College of India in Beverly Hills and is the self-proclaimed "yoga guru to the stars".
The evidence
In the early 1970s, with medical experts at Tokyo University, Bikram conducted a three-year research project that provided scientific evidence that hatha yoga asanas are an aid in preventing degenerative diseases, regenerating tissue and healing chronic ailments.
In 1972, he went to the US where his first student was President Nixon who was suffering from phlebitis (inflamation of a vein in the leg). Within a week of using Bikram's sequence, he was back walking.
- Niamh Hooper
