It was with a heavy heart that I emailed my Bikram instructor to let her know that I was going to take a hiatus from her studio.
I was conflicted for a few reasons. I'd been going to that particular studio for almost five years. It's convenient. It's clean. I have friends there, and the instructors are excellent. But ever since the sexual harassment and rape allegations hit the news last year, I have been increasingly torn about supporting the Bikram empire.
Now, I've never been a fan of Bikram himself. I used to look upon him with bemusement, as one might a cute but useless puppy with a rug-piddling problem: "Hey! Great example of a charismatic narcissist who somehow managed to line up some yoga postures in a way that works well for many people."
When I had the opportunity to meet him during the now-infamous San Diego teacher's training and saw him strutting outside the tent, screaming obscenities into his cell phone, the bemusement turned into eye-rolling. ("Oh, okay. This guy's just a dick. Alright, well, I guess I have no reason to take a class from him again.")
I had also heard about his sexual escapades with his students. It seemed a little gross to me, considering the dude is married and the nature of the teacher/student relationship. Then, of course, there are the misogynistic and anti-gay comments. But I assumed that the sex was consensual and that the trainees could laugh off the misogyny. Hey, could the harassment that bad if three hundred and fifty people are paying to hear it?
After reading the Vanity Fair articles, I began to feel rather unsettled. I initially brushed it the feeling off, but I found myself attending class less and less frequently. At first, I told myself I was lazy and that life had gotten too comfortable since the Man-type moved in.
It took this feminist a read in the second Vanity Fair article
to see that I was probably a little foolish to write this guy off as
harmless for as long as I did. "I was like, You can’t teach yoga—you’ll
get raped,” one of the plaintiffs said about her experience in training. “That’s what was in my head."
Wow. How did I miss that one the first time around?
There may be some truth to the lazy phase of my life conclusion I arrived at earlier, but, wouldn't you know it, when I "gave my notice" to my studio, I started feeling settled about yoga again.
I tried a "vinyasa flow" studio near home. It was fine, but not what I was looking for. Then, I went to a hot yoga studio that "defected" from the Bikram logo about four months ago. As I drove over, I found myself feeling something akin to joy. I didn't know what to expect, but I was thrilled to find out. I almost cried when class was over and I lay down in savasana. It was just a wonderful experience.
"Hey, are you new here?" a student asked me as I prepared to get up. "I am visually impaired, so I'm not sure, but welcome! This is a great community."
I can't wait to go back!
This is an interesting time for the Bikram and hot yoga community. On the one hand, I'm excited to be supporting a studio that has made a change for what they believe is the right thing. I hope more studios follow suit. I realize these studios are taking a huge risk--they are likely to lose their Bikram-trained teachers, because instructors can lose their licenses if they teach at non-Bikram studios (according to an instructor at the new studio, anyway). This makes me want to support them in their efforts to break away from The Man :-)
But I also know that the Bikram series works. I didn't attend for four years for no reason!
Only his dialog is copyrighted; the sequence isn't. So, it's possible to attend Bikram-y classes at other studios. I hope the Bikram empire makes a very public effort to distance itself from him. It's about time.
Showing posts with label hot yoga. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hot yoga. Show all posts
Monday, March 3, 2014
Saturday, January 7, 2012
More Questions. Few Answers. On the NYT's "How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body" article and more
I'm sure most of you have already read/been irked by the NYT's critique of yoga, "How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body." It definitely ruffled a few of my feathers, largely because most of the author's "evidence" for the evils of yoga is anecdotal. I've no doubt that there are already many good responses published, such as that of The Reluctant Ashtangi, so I'll leave the rebuttals to others.
(I do feel I must point out that although the author lumps Bikram Yoga in with other yoga series, none of the postures demonized in the article are done in Bikram (I don't think Cobra referred to in the article is the one done in Bikram; the description evokes Upward Dog, often labeled Cobra in non-Bikram classes.).)
What I am more interested in is where the glimmer of truth lies (and I think there's a glimmer of it in all arguments advanced!). Bikram has long touted the safety of his series, claiming that it is a beginners series. Teachers of his yoga are trained to give extensive description of the postures--how to enter and exit, as well as the benefits received from each one. Because you simply stand between each posture instead of moving into a sun salutation or flowing rapidly to another posture, there's less the chance of "getting behind" and injuring yourself in a rush to catch up. I would think that the series is as safe as humanly possible, even for those who don't happen to have much body/self-awareness. Despite the anti-Bikram sentiment that one might interpret in my previous post, I am a Bikramite through and through and recognize the many benefits of this series.
The timing of this anti-yoga article is coincidental, however, considering only two days ago I took a class that left me wondering about the safety factor. I just returned from a trip to Sedona, AZ, where I enjoyed a few days of its rejuvenating, warm red rocks. There is no Bikram studio in Sedona, so after a couple of days, I tried the local "hot yoga" studio to loosen up my hiking-tight hamstrings and shoulders.
I went in with an open mind--pretty easy to do, considering how burned up I've been lately about what I perceive as arrogance on Bikram's part for his insistence on TM-ing, R-ing, and Copyrighting his series. I asked the instructor what type of yoga class she taught and that I was familiar with Bikram. She said her studio offered a style of yoga taught by Bikram's nephew, Sumit, who has apparently made a small name for himself in the hot yoga world. She said it combined Vinyasa with some Bikram poses.
And... that's exactly what it was. The room was lovely--juicy, just uncomfortably warm at first, and it reached a pleasantly toasty temperature midway through the series due to the heater, humidifier, and the many packed bodies who showed up for that weekday morning class. I was initially trained in Ashtanga, and I would characterize most of the class as being "flow" Ashtanga--postures like Warrior series, Triangle, etc were held momentarily as we "flowed" through sun salutations. This was almost randomly interspersed with postures from the Bikram series--all of a sudden, we'd stop, do Half-moon/Awkward/Eagle, go back to flowing, then do the balancing series, go back to flowing, etc.
I was able to retain my non-judgmental mind for most of the class. The flow-y stuff was initially fun. Then, however, I realized we really weren't holding the postures very long. The energy I was exerting was going not into a posture. It seemed to evaporate as I moved--quickly! as if we were running out of time!--from one posture to the next. The teacher talked a lot, though it was mostly motivational/hippie-spiritual and less about how to get into and out of the postures, or what to do if I got tired. If I hadn't had a lot of Ashtanga experience, I wouldn't have known what I was doing. I would be looking around and struggling to catch up, much less get a sense of what I was supposed to be getting out of the postures! Talk about an injury-inviting experience.
Talk, also, about an eye-opening experience. On one level, it was kinda fun! My hamstrings got stretched as they haven't in years. The part-Vinyasa, part-Bikram series kept my attention. In that sense, though, it was very American--no chance to get bored, as there was always something to occupy the mind; the poses weren't held long all. And, there wasn't much depth to it.
Different strokes for different folks, I suppose. If you are an experienced yogi, I'm sure you'd do fine in the class. For some reason, I feel compelled to make a tenuous connection between the article, my time at the hot yoga studio, and my previous post on Bikram's insistence on going after studio owners who teach too close to his series. The NYT article would seem to bolster Bikram practitioners' justification for the series and why it needs to be kept pure, taught/sold only by trained teachers.
Different strokes for different folks... or is it that some folks, afraid of being slapped with a lawsuit, feel the need to modify classes from Bikram's style so much that they lose much of the benefit and increase risk of injury?
No answers here in my first post of 2012. Is that going to be a theme for this year? No answers, just more questions? :-) Can't wait to get back into the hot (Bikram) room and find out.
(I do feel I must point out that although the author lumps Bikram Yoga in with other yoga series, none of the postures demonized in the article are done in Bikram (I don't think Cobra referred to in the article is the one done in Bikram; the description evokes Upward Dog, often labeled Cobra in non-Bikram classes.).)
What I am more interested in is where the glimmer of truth lies (and I think there's a glimmer of it in all arguments advanced!). Bikram has long touted the safety of his series, claiming that it is a beginners series. Teachers of his yoga are trained to give extensive description of the postures--how to enter and exit, as well as the benefits received from each one. Because you simply stand between each posture instead of moving into a sun salutation or flowing rapidly to another posture, there's less the chance of "getting behind" and injuring yourself in a rush to catch up. I would think that the series is as safe as humanly possible, even for those who don't happen to have much body/self-awareness. Despite the anti-Bikram sentiment that one might interpret in my previous post, I am a Bikramite through and through and recognize the many benefits of this series.
 |
| Chapel Hill, Sedona, at sunset |
I went in with an open mind--pretty easy to do, considering how burned up I've been lately about what I perceive as arrogance on Bikram's part for his insistence on TM-ing, R-ing, and Copyrighting his series. I asked the instructor what type of yoga class she taught and that I was familiar with Bikram. She said her studio offered a style of yoga taught by Bikram's nephew, Sumit, who has apparently made a small name for himself in the hot yoga world. She said it combined Vinyasa with some Bikram poses.
And... that's exactly what it was. The room was lovely--juicy, just uncomfortably warm at first, and it reached a pleasantly toasty temperature midway through the series due to the heater, humidifier, and the many packed bodies who showed up for that weekday morning class. I was initially trained in Ashtanga, and I would characterize most of the class as being "flow" Ashtanga--postures like Warrior series, Triangle, etc were held momentarily as we "flowed" through sun salutations. This was almost randomly interspersed with postures from the Bikram series--all of a sudden, we'd stop, do Half-moon/Awkward/Eagle, go back to flowing, then do the balancing series, go back to flowing, etc.
I was able to retain my non-judgmental mind for most of the class. The flow-y stuff was initially fun. Then, however, I realized we really weren't holding the postures very long. The energy I was exerting was going not into a posture. It seemed to evaporate as I moved--quickly! as if we were running out of time!--from one posture to the next. The teacher talked a lot, though it was mostly motivational/hippie-spiritual and less about how to get into and out of the postures, or what to do if I got tired. If I hadn't had a lot of Ashtanga experience, I wouldn't have known what I was doing. I would be looking around and struggling to catch up, much less get a sense of what I was supposed to be getting out of the postures! Talk about an injury-inviting experience.
Talk, also, about an eye-opening experience. On one level, it was kinda fun! My hamstrings got stretched as they haven't in years. The part-Vinyasa, part-Bikram series kept my attention. In that sense, though, it was very American--no chance to get bored, as there was always something to occupy the mind; the poses weren't held long all. And, there wasn't much depth to it.
Different strokes for different folks, I suppose. If you are an experienced yogi, I'm sure you'd do fine in the class. For some reason, I feel compelled to make a tenuous connection between the article, my time at the hot yoga studio, and my previous post on Bikram's insistence on going after studio owners who teach too close to his series. The NYT article would seem to bolster Bikram practitioners' justification for the series and why it needs to be kept pure, taught/sold only by trained teachers.
Different strokes for different folks... or is it that some folks, afraid of being slapped with a lawsuit, feel the need to modify classes from Bikram's style so much that they lose much of the benefit and increase risk of injury?
No answers here in my first post of 2012. Is that going to be a theme for this year? No answers, just more questions? :-) Can't wait to get back into the hot (Bikram) room and find out.
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