A middle-aged woman stands on one leg, a vein popping out over her temple. Her hands are clutching the foot that’s raised straight in front of her, and beads of sweat the size of dimes roll off her heel and onto a towel.
“Chest up, chest up. You must touch your head to your knee; pull it harder, harder, harder; your hip should hurt,” says an instructor through a headset microphone. She sounds like a horse race announcer, standing on a raised platform in front of a mirrored wall.
She claps her hands twice to command students to change postures, and the class exhales in unison, sounding like a rocket launching.
The brightly lit room is over 100 degrees, and everyone inside is clad in suits similar to bikinis and swim trunks. They are practicing Bikram yoga, a routine of 26 postures and two breathing exercises created for Americans by Bikram Choudhury, an All-India National Yoga Champion.
“It’s safer to move in the heat. Heat is a natural disinfectant,” said Jill Koontz, co-owner of Bikram Yoga Boston.
The series of difficult poses were designed to work every bodily system, heal any ailments and balance the body and mind, Koontz said. During the six years she has been instructing Bikram yoga, Koontz has seen students go off depression medication, bring high or low blood pressure to normal levels and increase lung capacity to eliminate asthma, she said.
Many athletes turn to this type of yoga after sustaining injuries from years of running. Practicing Bikram yoga allows people to participate in other sports for longer than they could otherwise, Koontz said.
Stephen Boyle, 45, started going to Bikram Yoga Merrymack Valley in North Andover last December to become more flexible and get back into shape after years of competing in decathlons.
“I’m always energized after class,” Boyle, a Cambridge fire lieutenant, said. “There are days when you don’t want to be there, but you have to fight through it.”
Jen Bowers, 32, said she tried Bikram yoga because her body needed a break from her rigid running and spinning routines. She does yoga three times a week and runs on alternate days.
“It’s definitely different than anything I’ve ever done before,” Bowers said. “You’re not allowed to leave, so you get a guaranteed good workout, and I feel overall better health.”
Though beginners might feel frustrated with the heat, tough poses and string of commands, instructors encourage them to stay in the room for a full 90 minutes. But Koontz said she has had students run out, throw up and return feeling perfectly healthy. She asks students if they have any medical problems so she can watch them during class.
“People with low blood pressure are my fainters,” Koontz said. “But I could count on one hand the number of people I’ve had faint.”
Those who have tried other types of yoga before are usually the most resistant to Bikram yoga, said one of Koontz’s instructors, Heather Berlowitz. But people start seeing results and get used to the practice after just a few classes, she said.
“The first time after I did Bikram yoga, I woke up at 4 a.m. that night so thirsty. I felt high,” Belowitz, 35, said. “It was love at first sight.”
Although the postures never change, the practice becomes more challenging with time, said Diane Ducharme, owner of Bikram Yoga for You in West Roxbury. The poses are most difficult when the body can hold them more deeply, she said.
“People either love it or they hate it, but even some that hate it know really there’s something inside that says, “This is going to save my life,’ and they’ll come back,” Ducharme, who is 51 but feels 25, said.
The combination of intense heat and quick postures attract Americans, who are usually too busy to concentrate on anything, but repetition of the routine every day allows them to focus and relax, she said.
Fifteen years ago, Ducharme’s was the only Bikram studio in New England, she said. Massachusetts now has 14 studios, New Hampshire and Vermont have four, Connecticut has eight and Maine has one.
With the rising popularity of yoga, Bikram and his wife, Rajashree Choudhury, recently petitioned to bring yoga to the 2016 Olympics. As the first step, Choudhury founded the United States Yoga Federation in 2003, which hosts an international yoga competition in Los Angeles every year.
The Choudhurys hope that if yoga becomes an Olympic sport, public schools will integrate the practice into their physical education programs, Rajashree Choudhury said at the New England Regional competition in Medford on Oct. 24.
“The only way for kids to like this practice is if they think they can win something,” Choudhury said. “They think it’s boring, that it’s only for adults. But they want self-esteem.”
When Bikram opened his first studio in the U.S. in the 1970s, he attracted mostly celebrities, Choudhury said. Bikram began certifying teachers in 1994 through nine-week intensive training programs at his studio in Los Angeles.
Studios that claim to teach “hot” yoga without certified teachers are harmful because all instructors must speak and teach the same way for students to get the correct benefits, she said.
Bikram has sued people for using his copyrighted system, making Frank Korom, professor of religion at Boston University, skeptical of Bikram’s teachings. Traditional yoga was originally intended to free the body from reincarnation through a mind-body connection. Such Hindu beliefs have been disconnected from yoga worldwide since the 1950s, he said.
“He is part of this trend that is capitalizing on the New Age market,” Korom said. “They’re catering to people who are looking to alternate forms of practice they can’t get in Western culture.”
Mind-body connection, however, is still an important part of Bikram yoga, said Robin Brace, a New England Regional judge and owner of Bikram Yoga New Haven. The competition aspect pushes individuals to achieve their best mental state, she said.
“It’s made a lot of people afraid because people think it’s a religion or a cult, but it’s about balance,” Brace said. “It makes you do everything better.”
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