bikram yoga

Hi ninerbuff,
You folks are really making me work for it.
Just because the students are not jumping around does not mean the heart is not pumping faster. I would argue there is much happening aerobically with the heart as with running.

We're holding strenuous poses in 100+ degrees of heat. The breaks between postures can seem painfully short.

Let's take one example. Utkatasana, Awkward Pose. It comes in 3 parts, each about 20-30 seconds long. The whole time your arms oustretched in front of you and students are instructed to continuously stretch them forward to counterbalance the other movements in this posture. With the feet hip width distance they first sit down in a squat and then arch the upper body back. The abdominals must be contracted the whole time to get into and out of this posture safely. Second part they rise up on their toes and then sit into another full squat (thighs parallel to the floor) while staying on the balls of the feet. Hold 20 seconds. The spine is straight (there's a tendency to lean forward), arms stretched outwards. Third part they bring their knees together and in a slow count of ten slide all the way down with a straight spine until their hips hover a half inch from their heels. To get the thighs parallel they must pitch their knees forward a bit (squeeze the knees!) and lean the upper body back, core strength is crucial to stay balanced here. On the second set they are asked to bounce with big, "juicy" bounces a few times, freeze at the upswing and come up slowly. We do 2 sets of all the postures.

Again I don't have the advantage of a fitness certification or degree of physiology and I'm growing weary of this argument but I'm glad this was brought up. If anyone's paying attention I would gladly go back to my books to find more solid evidence of the efficacy of this class for cardio and strength (as well as meditation and overall health). Suffice it to say that this is not your average hatha yoga class and I would encourage you to try a few to see for yourselves.

This class will kick your *kitten* in the very best way.
Namaste!!!

This is always one of the more difficult discussions when it comes to fitness. Trying to separate fact from assumption, trying to define common meanings for words, and trying to work through the defensiveness that can arise when the presenting of facts is perceived as denigrating the activity as a whole.

Just the facts:

increased heart rate does not always equal either cardiovascular (aerobic) training or increased caloric burn; neither does increased sweating; neither does muscle fatigue.

an activity or class can "kick *kitten*" without achieving significant calorie burn or cardiovascular training.

Cardiovascular training/high calorie burn are not the only criteria for determining the overall effectiveness/benefit/enjoyment of a fitness activity. Saying an activity does not have a high cardiovascular training component is NOT a perjorative statement.

"Fitness", "well-being" are terms that mean different things to different people. The physical effects of a particular exercise or program mean different things to different people. Our ability to function physically is affected by our cardiovascular fitness level, muscular strength and endurance, and flexibility. A person's individual physical and psychological makeup has a significant influence on the types of physical activity they will enjoy and find rewarding. The efficacy of a program is ultimately determined by the person doing it.

Every activity evokes a set of physiological responses. Again, there is no moral value associated with this. It just is.
People need to match the specific effects of the activity to their needs.

Yoga, for the most part, has a modest cardiovascular component (I am referring to typical yogic poses, not some hybrid); the strength and flexibility training adaptations are also unique as well. The physiologic responses that occur during yoga are not the same as those that occur during running or during traditional weight lifting. Doesn't mean yoga is better or worse, just different.

The physiology is the physiology. The only problem I see is that if a proponent of a particular type of exercise (whatever type that is--yoga, pilates, HIIT, super slow, marathon training, you name it) overpromises what that particular activity will achieve and tries to make all exercise activities equivalent.

If anyone has other types of physical exercise they think I or anyone should try please let me know. Just speaking as a physical exercise, I like Bikram because it is an intense physical 90 minutes for me and I tend to keep my weight down more effectively with it than with other yoga classes or gym classes I've had. Boxing was intense for me too but injury risk was high. Same with running. I had to quit both for those reasons. I had a short career as a swing dancer and again injury or the risk was too high to be comfortable. So where to go from here? Maybe this should be a new post. Sorry to hijack this one, carro585!

No problem at all! Just checked in for the first time since my last post. Even if the calorie burn is not as high as I may have thought (it's been very interesting to read the debate), I can already tell that Bikram can majorly improve overall strength and flexibility - and who doesn't want that?

I'm trying bikram (hot) yoga for the first time this afternoon. A calculator on everydayhealth.com says I'll burn 885 calories in 90 minutes...is this for real? Anybody know of any other good ways to calculate calories burned, since MFP doesn't have a category for this?

I'm kind of intimidated by the thought of doing yoga for 90 minutes in a heated room, but everybody I know who has tried it says it's awesome. Any tips for first-timers?

Wow I didn't realise you burn so many cals, I have wanted to try for a while too, think I will asap now... I have also been slightly intimidated. Hope it goes well for you!

I used a HRM when I was practising Bikram, and I was burning between 400 & 600 calories a session. Many factors influenced that number though, including the heat of the room and my energy levels on the day. Obviously each person would be different, depending on fitness level, weight etc.....

(I'm 169cm, and was around 90kg back then, to give you an idea if you may be similar!)

Enjoy! (You may feel you wanna die sometimes, but it gets better, and easier, so stick it out) And you'll feel amazing at the end

Am I the only one who is NOT thrilled about bikram yoga? I love regular yoga (ashtanga, sometimes hatha, or Jillian Michael's cardio-yoga-hybrid), so I was intrigued when I heard about this particular version. So I talked to two trainers to get more information, and what they told me made me decide to stick with my previous yoga courses after all.

Unfortunately, I can't supply any scientific sources supporting what I'm about to pass on. They didn't give me any and I don't have time to search right now. But what they said did make sense...

First, Bikram yoga does NOT burn any more calories than regular yoga. A lot of people feel like it's more strenuous because they sweat like crazy, and usually sweating like crazy is associated with very vigorous exercise. The extreme heat just increases the strain of the practice on your body, and the risk of becoming dehydrated is very high if you're not very careful about drinking enough.

Secondly, the risk of injury is higher in bikram than other forms of yoga because the extreme heat coaxes you into deeper and more extreme positions than you would otherwise be able to do. It's an artificial, external heating of your body, instead of heating through exercise. The latter makes blood flow to your muscles and opens up tiny blood vessels. The first just makes you feel really hot and you attempt intense stretches actually being in the right condition for it.

I guess if you are very careful to re-hydrate and if you don't go too crazy with your stretches, and if the heat makes you feel GOOD, then there's no reason why you shouldn't go ahead with it... If it's an exercise you enjoy and that makes you come back to the gym.

Unless you're pregnant. In that case you should absolutely stay away from bikram yoga, because the risk of injury is EVEN higher then, and the heat may damage the fetus.