I started Bikram Yoga in mid August ’10. It was suggested by my partner that we give it a try. We did.
Several reasons – nil exercise (does walking count?), almost 5 years of office work, 6 months of some discontent ending in a VERY reluctantly accepted prescription for anti-depressants, a long standing back injury that required the occasional trip to an osteopath (6 sessions @ £40, twice a year), rapidly encroaching middle age (I’ve got 2 years to go before I’m half way to the sovereign’s telegram), a midriff like a soggy piece of bread, the surprise of being 79Kg (73Kg please), long-term smoker – I could go on, but I’m sure you get the general idea…
The gym held NO appeal whatsoever. A bit too butch and testosterone fuelled. Running? Naaa, not even for the bus…Tai Chi? Yes, but unfortunately the back injury got in the way…Yoga? Thought this was all leotards and lying about a bit…
Bikram Yoga? Never heard of it…
In just under 2 months the transformation was nothing short of remarkable and that was with ONLY 2 sessions a week. The improvement in my ‘chronic’ sciatica is far beyond anything I could have ever have wished for, or imagined. I still have some numbness in my foot and don’t expect this to completely disappear, but the ever-present nagging discomfort, the tightness and wonkiness has almost completely dissipated.
My diet, not that it was particularly awful in the first place, has nevertheless improved. I seem to ‘want’ less chocolate, bread etc. and eat much more fruit and veg. My energy levels have shot up. My lungs, which even after 30 years of smoking, feel re-inflated and so much more powerful and capable. My one-pack midriff is deflating and some definition (which was just but a distant memory) has been seen creeping around recently. An upside-down ‘V’ is beginning to form. I think I last saw this when I was in my mid-20′s.
To my absolute delight and surprise other certain parts have been re-invigorated and now feel like they were 10 years ago. If I’m allowed to allude further I am considering entering into the next Trojan Games over 40′s Pelvic Powerlifting contest. See http://www.trojangames.co.uk/video_highlights.shtml for more insight. Please bear in mind that the clips are NSFW, but hopefully amuse rather than offend. If any other reasons were needed I can also attest to the last paragraph on page 40 in Bikram’s Beginning Yoga Class – bbbbbbbbb…bonus 
If you’re after an easy ride, being patronised and pampered you’re in for a nasty shock if my experience at the Richmond Studio (www.bikramrichmond.co..uk)is anything to go by. The staff there expect, and give, 100%. They do not ask for, or expect, anything less. To some this may, at first, appear to be a little brutal (I certainly did) , but they sincerely live, breathe, believe and trust in what they are doing. I started to ‘get’ this after around 3 sessions and began to appreciate why this was so. It makes me smile remembering my flailings, my thoughts and attitude during my first class – the heat, the sweating, the thirst, the shortness of breath, the shaking and aching muscles, the increasing urge to escape from the absolute torment which, sadly, resulted in my walking out for the last third of my first class. Oops! Mind won. Subsequent classes have been, in no particular order – cruel, frustrating, endured, hugely challenging, mind-jumbling and exhausting. They have also been the complete antithesis – sometimes all within the one class.
If you’re looking for a change and a challenge I cannot rate, or recommend starting this journey, highly enough. If re-birth is possible in this life this is the closest I have ever come to it, so far. Yes, for me, it feels THAT life-changing. I have NEVER been gripped by ANY form of ‘exercise’ before. Fitness has always been a result of playing sports or working, not working out. My time practicing Tai Chi was a wonderful counterbalance to my previous expectations as to what exercise could be and I could never deride this practice as it was very beneficial, but, I have never experienced anything so comprehensive – physically, psychologically and emotionally. It’s a little like falling in love…except without those little nagging fears.
Give it a try for a month – twice a week = 8 sessions. If you’d don’t like it, or feel it’s not for you then sobeit. It doesn’t matter. I could, and would, out-sulk the best of them if it was expected to have to lift weights, or go on the running/cycling machine 2- 3 times a week. I’d baulk at the idea of having to drink whiskey as I find it not to my taste, but Bikram? Try and keep me away…Hooked
(December 2010)