Well, I did it! Seven days. Seven 90-minute Hot Yoga classes. Lots of stretching, back-bends and meditation oh, and sweat, lots and lots and LOTS of sweat.
For those of you unfamiliar with my challenge – I basically did seven days straight of Hot Yoga at the brand new Hot Yoga studio that opened in Kamloops. You can read more about it here.
I had done Hot Yoga – and specifically Bikram yoga – twice before but I was not a huge fan of it. I didn’t like how “abrupt” it was, I didn’t enjoy doing the same poses over and over again, it was just too rigid and “strict” for me.
Though this new yoga studio is not just a Bikram studio, the owners are Bikram trained so that’s currently the only kind of yoga being taught there. I was lucky enough to do my seven days when they had a new teacher from Vancouver come up to teach Moksha yoga, which is another style of Hot Yoga that is more similar to regular yoga. So, my seven days went like this: two days of Bikram, three days of Moksha and two days of Bikram at the end. It was the perfect way to mix it up.
OK, my thoughts on it.
Bikram
I still don’t exactly enjoy Bikram yoga. I still find it very rigid and “strict”. That being said, I definitely have a newfound appreciation for it after doing it four times in seven days. I could definitely see improvements in my posture. One pose in particular that I saw a lot of improvement in is the camel posture. At the beginning of the seven days I couldn’t reach my heels but by the last few classes I was easily reaching for my heels. Camel went from being a dreaded, very difficult, posture to one of my favourite postures!
Moksha
I loved Moksha Yoga. A lot. If this studio offered it on a regular basis I would purchase a membership in a heartbeat! Moksha yoga is more like styles of yoga that I’ve practiced before – like Vinayasa and Ashtanga yoga. It is definitely a more flowy type of yoga with a few similar poses to Bikram but also a lot of lunges, and a downward dog series. The first Moksha yoga class I did had me sweating more then any other Bikram class I’d ever done. The sweat was dripping off of me and I was very sore the next day!
Also, I don’t know if it was the teacher or the style of yoga (I’m leaning towards style of yoga because I’ve had four different Bikram teachers before and they’ve all taught the same) but Moksha was so much more easy-going than Bikram. If we wanted to do two or three sets of a pose we would. We would also mix up the order of the poses and it wasn’t necessarily the exact same poses in the exact same order each class. Mixing it up like that made the class a lot more enjoyable.
My favourite pose in Moksha yoga was definitely “dancer pose”
I know, my poses are not perfect, but they’ve come a long way from when I first started! Also, please ignore the Japanese takeout and my food belly. We’d just finished stuffing ourselves on sushi!
So, will I buy a membership?
Obviously the only reason they do the seven days for $20 for first-timers is because they want you to like it so much you purchase a membership at the studio. I would love to buy a membership there because I saw some great differences in my body from doing yoga regularly but it’s expensive. Really expensive. Like $14-$16 a pop. I *might* buy a punchcard when I get back from Europe and look into going once a week during marathon training but that’s about all I’ll be able to afford (or have time for anyways!)
When I first did Bikram yoga everyone said that you have to do it more than once to really get a feel for it and it’s so true. Doing seven days of hot yoga was a great experience and I really enjoyed it. I actually found that the 90-minute classes would fly by. One day I was so relaxed in Savasana that I fell asleep.
If you have the opportunity to try Hot Yoga definitely do it, doing yoga in a hot room is totally different from just doing it regularly.
Have you done Hot Yoga before? Did you like it? Why or why not?
{ 28 comments… read them below or add one }
Congratulations on seeing it through. You say you did Bikram yoga twice and were not a fan. Anything difficult takes time to learn to do well and it is in doing difficult things well that you learn to love them. The standard “challenge” from “hot yoga” ALL offshoots of Bikram Choudhurry’s yoga, is 30 days. The reason is that it takes that long to get really solid in the practice at which point you can begin to really grow in your postures. It’s nice you got a taste of change in your body, imagine what will happen when you can do all the postures correctly? The repetition of postures in traditional Indian yoga is a form of meditation and is intended to force your mind, over time, to focus on the minutiae of the postures and to sink deeper and deeper into them. It’s not intended to entertain you (that’s what the mirrors are for). I am Bikram trained, and, I know other forms of yoga as well and teach a balance of well mixed and blended classes in my studio, which is called a hot yoga studio, not a Bikram studio. There is no such thing as “regular” yoga. There are yogic lines that came down from master gurus in India and they are pure Indian yoga. If someone sells you a class to “regular” or “hatha” yoga, just walk away smiling. “Hatha” means body yoga so any physical yoga practice is hatha yoga, Bikram is, Ashtanga is, Iyengar and Vinyasa are all from true lineages and don’t change the postures to facilitate our messed up western bodies. If you find your way back I wish you joy and blossoming in your yoga journey…
Hi Annie – thanks for your comment and your interesting perspective on Bikram yoga! I definitely have a deeper appreciation for Bikram yoga now, however, I still prefer Moksha!
I tried Hot Yoga once and I really liked it – I found the heat really relaxing. Also, it was in the middle of winter in Ottawa so I REALLY enjoyed being so warm when it was SO cold outside. hahaha.
Way to go on finishing the challenge! I sort of miss my exercise tv yoga… did I just say that?!?!
I haven’t tried Hot Yoga, but I’m doing Sampoorna Yoga regularly, meaning I go to class once a week and try to practice at home on a daily basis. It makes me feel relaxed and really balanced, physically as spiritually.
Have a wonderful trip to Europe!!!
I’m so proud of you for making it through all 7 days of the challenge especially when you are so busy with last minute plans for Europe!
I’ve never actually tried bikram but I do hot yoga and love love it. I actually started it a couple of years ago to try to calm myself down…but of course all the real calming yogas I hated and intense hot yoga I love. It’s still yoga though and there is definitely a lot of focus on your breath. My favorite favorite concept of yoga that they say at my studio all the time is the idea of “breathing through a difficult moment.” In yoga, a difficult moment could be dancers pose (you are AWESOME at it…I struggle with all those that resemble a spiral in figure skating, I swear the spiral was why I had to quick figure skating and switch to hockey- I have no flexibility!), but in life a difficult moment could be anything- 21 screaming kindergarteners, 42 of their parents, wedding planning…okay so maybe I have a long way to go in carrying it out of the studio, but I’m working on it
I’m still going back and forth about whether I am going to try to do 31 times in 31 days, or go for a 5 days per week challenge by myself, but either way I’ll be doing a lot of yoga in May. I’m glad you tried it out first to show me it’s somewhat possible- at least 7 days of it!
man — i get bored easily with yoga. i took a class with a family friend who taught it. she definitely worked on me to make sure i was doing positions correctly and it was done in a much more intimate environment… usually there would be 5 of us. But alas that did not last long.
Way to go!
Bikram classes will ALWAYS be the same. That’s the way Bikram wants it, and if you want to use his name, you do it his way. It’s a beautiful series of asanas, though.
Moksha means liberation or freedom. So there is more leeway in how the teachers teach their classes.
See you Sunday! Is your foot ok to run?
H =)
Hot Yoga is definitely on my to-do list. Right now I’m just doing exercises and stretches my massage therapist gave me and it kills like a biotch but I think hot yoga would really help with the stretching. There’s a place that’s just opened quite close to me – I may very well give it a go
PS – way to go!!
Never done the hot yoga. Very curious about it. Hopefully some day I will actually take the plunge and at least try it! Kudos to you for keeping up with it for seven days.
Good for you for sticking with it!! Thats such a great accomplishment.
I’ve never done yoga of any kind. I’m not really bendy and I probably wouldn’t pay to go take a class. I might one day check it out on on-demand or something but thats about it.
No I haven’t done hot yoga before … I have actually never done any type of yoga! I would like to try it though
So cool that you did this challenge and shared it with us! Thanks for the tips!!!
I have not tried hot yoga… there is a yoga studio in Minneapolis that offers a week of free classes so I should really take advantage of it and check it out. I know i can’t afford to actually join a studio though. Esp on my budget! But I would like to try a different type of yoga. The class my gym offers is kind of ‘meh’ although I do really like it when they do it on the roof of the club in the summer.
I’d be a little nervous about doing hot yoga because I’m fairly sensitive to heat. Add exercise to it and there’s a good possibility that I’d end up sick.
I really enjoy Bikram yoga. I feel that by doing the same poses over and over, you know what to expect and can really focus on the pose, exploring it deeper than other forms of practice. That said, each person has to find their own niche. And if other forms of yoga are your preference, then there’s nothing wrong with that. I bought a punch card to a local Bikram studio, but haven’t been in months. I’ll get back to it soon … it’s a great accessory to running.
Yes, everyone has a style of yoga they are drawn to. I have practiced yoga for 20 years and never heard of Moshka so I did some research this morning. Here are my concerns:
there are only about 15 studios in the world
it was started by westerners
there is no teacher training process beyond practicing in a “certified” studio
some of the images I saw of postures being done, inversions for example, are extremely dangerous in a hot yoga room because one could slip and severely injures oneself.
also, there were images of teachers doing adjustments or helping students deeper into postures that could be very dangerous without years of training as a teacher and practitioner and that, frankly, the student only benefits from by gaining depth on their own rather than being pushed or pulled into a posture by someone else. the muscular process of deepening the posture on your own, along with the mental, emotional processes, ARE the yoga. the yoga isn’t about how deep you can go, it’s about HOW you go deep.
Moshka is a sanskrit word that means to release or let go. A wonderful concept in yoga and in life, but it is not a traditional yoga practice. the benefits of a traditional practice are that these practices of Indian yoga are many thousands of years old and have been perfected over time. we westerners always seem to believe we have a better idea…
“doing yoga in a hot room is totally different from just doing it regularly.” <–for some unknown reason, my brain read that as “doing yoga in a BATHROOM is totally different from just doing it regularly,” and I was like, “why are they doing yoga in the bathroom??” Something’s wrong with me I think, lol!
I’ve never had the opportunity to try hot yoga. I’d love to though! And thanks for your review…it’s nice to get your perspective!
Congratulations on finishing and sticking with it! I love yoga.. I haven’t been in a couple weeks and that makes me sad : (
I’ve never done Bikram before but I did hot yoga once and it was justtt what I needed at the time, I left feeling amazing. At school though they don’t offer hot yoga, but our gym is basically 90 degrees so technically…
Congrats on finishing the challenge! The only yoga I’ve ever done was a “desk yoga” class at work ~ basically it was teaching us different ways to stretch during the workday so we wouldn’t have back problems. I can’t imagine ever being flexible enough again to do those poses – getting off the couch is a workout for me these days
Yoga is something I want to get more involved in. The only types I’ve done are TV-yoga. I’ve done Namaste Yoga and then Jillian Michael’s Power Yoga (which I know isn’t really yoga, lol, but it works me out!). I would love to find a yoga studio and join because I feel like it would be good for me and something I would love. Since I have a gym at my apartment, I can’t stomach a hefty gym fee when I have one (albeit small and no classes) at my disposal!
Congrats on finishing the challenge! Inspiring!
I love camel and dancer pose, probably my two faves.
Are you planning on blogging while in Europe?
YES! I will be blogging at least once if not twice a week
Great job with all the yoga!!
you rocked it girlie!!! 
i’m So excited for your europe trip!!
i fail at yoga. i am so not flexible.. i tried doing it once.. it was a fail. i am however going to try out a Zumba class next Thursday. I am excited about that!
I have some friends who are BIG fans of hot yoga but I’m not sure if it’s for me. I hear it’s very difficult physically and some friends bodies have had a bad reaction to it. I think I’d like to try it down the road but not now. Random question, what kind of nikon do you have? I’m in the market
I have a Nikon D60! It’s great and I love it, makes my photos look a million times better even if I only have it set on auto. I’ve heard great things about the Canon Rebel’s as well, though!
10.5 hours of hot yoga! Good for you, I did that two years ago and it was absolutely amazing. Takes time for your body to get used to it, but the benefits from it are unreal. I am a big bikram fan… stick me in a hot room for 90 minutes any day.
Best,
Hannah Katy