I wanted to take the time to write a post about my new favorite love... bikram yoga. Bikram yoga is NOT like anything you have EVER done before. You might say, "Well, I've done yoga before. It's very calm and relaxing. Pretty easy workout." Oh not so my friends, not so. Bikram yoga is totally different than regular yoga. It is a more fast paced type of yoga, 90 minutes long, with more strength holding poses, less lay and relax, more holding positions until you are shaking. The teacher is continually talking, YELLING, encouraging, humiliating... and it is in a room kept at 105 degrees. And yet, I love it!Here is a chart of the 26 poses.

It is a legitimately hard hard out. Five minutes into class I'm dripping in sweat (mostly because of the heat) and feeling the burn everywhere. It has improved my flexibility tremendously! It has really helped with my leg/knee strength. My knees don't ache after I do this class which is incredible for me. My balance has improved, I feel like my body shape has slightly changed. I have also noticed my posture has improved.
This is Dandayamana-Dhanurasana; one of my favorite poses:

Not only my body but my mind has changed. I know it sounds so dumb, but little things they say in class totally stick with me. For example: In class our teacher was telling us to connect with our breathing, really concentrate and think about it and feel what it is doing to our heart rate (lowering it when you breath slowly). Then she went onto say that we have so many times in our day we connect with our breathing, we just don't recognize it. If we are waiting for someone, anxious, eating dinner, laying in bed, or stuck in traffic. That one really stuck with me. Kid you not - the next day I was driving somewhere and traffic was going slow, I was late, etc. This immediately put me in a panic. Rather than getting angry and freaking out, I stopped, paused, and connected with my breathing. I immediately felt at peace. It seriously sounds so dumb but I love it! Obviously, I still have my anxious panicky moments, but I have noticed on more than one occasion it has helped me.
I had heard of people doing bikram (also known as "hot" yoga) before and it sounded great but it is CRAZY expensive! One year with unlimited classes is $1,100! The only reason I am doing it is because I am a participant in a study. There is a graduate student I know in the kinesiology department doing a study on the effects of bikram yoga on the body. So I had to do a pre-test, 24 sessions in 8 weeks of yoga, then a post test. Because I am doing it as a "subject" I only had to pay $20 for unlimited 8 weeks which is an incredible deal.
The study is over in about a week an a half and I'm pretty sad. I mean it is a huge time commitment; the studio is about 15-20 minutes away, plus on busy sessions you want to get there early (they cap the classes at 75 people because there is no room), it's a 90 minute class, plus you HAVE to shower after because you and your clothes are SOAKED with sweat. So part of me will be relieved to have a little more time, but I am truly going to miss it and the benefits I have thus far received.
Good ol' Bikram. If anyone gets a chance to take a class, DO IT! It's also way cool because in the studio are males and females from ages 12-70 and we're all getting a crazy hard workout. There is even a girl that comes that is amputated at both knees and doesn't have fingers and she rocks it! So rad.
If you're still curious here is my studios website: www.bikramboise.com