FAQ's

All of the postures taught in this class are beginning postures, no prior experience is neccesary. However, Bikram Yoga challenges everyone - beginners, intermediates, and experts.

This is the most common misconception that prevents people from coming to a yoga class. Yoga is not about how flexible you are, it is about stretching your body and spine in all directions. If you simply try the right way, your balance, endurance and flexibility will naturally increase. You will be receiving 100% of the benefits.

The room is heated intentionally to warm muscles, which allows you to work deeper and safer, seeing results faster. Heat takes the trauma out of stretching, heals and helps prevent injuries. It also promotes sweating which helps flush toxins from your body, giving you a wonderful glow from head to toe. The heat combined with the sequence of the postures is what makes Bikram Yoga so special.

Please bring a yoga mat, large towel and a water bottle. It is required that every yoga student stand on a towel over a yoga mat during class. If you use the showers after class, you can bring a second towel. We rent yoga mats for $1 and sell basic towles for $3, if you don't have your own. It is useful to bring a re-usable plastic bag to place your sweaty items in after class.

Please wear clothing that fits close to the skin and dress as lightly as possible. Avoid loose fitting clothes, we need to see your knees.

Bikram's Beginning Hatha Yoga class is 90 minutes in length.

Come as often as you can. A daily practice from the beginning can relax into a regimen of 3 or 4 times per week. You'll find you want to do this practice. It's fun! it works! You will start organizing your schedule to fit it in. In fact, the harder this yoga is for you initially, the more you need to do it and the more you are going to benefit from it. The time and effort you put into Bikram Yoga will be returned to you tenfold.

Practicing Bikram Yoga requires energy, and food is energy for the body. However if you come to class with a full stomach, it could be very uncomfortable. Here are some general guidelines on eating before clas: if you attend afternoon or evening yoga class, leave about 2 to 3 hours of time between your last large meal and your class. If you attend a morning yoga class, it can be very helpful to have some food-calories in your body, so don't skip breakfast completely! Try having some fruit or toast (something that digests easily) an hour or so before class. These are general guidelines only, please talk to your Bikram teacher in the lobby if you have specific questions on this topic.

You should drink plenty of water everyday so you arrive to class ALREAY well-hydrated, this is much better than trying to hydrate immediately before or during class. With Bikram Yoga, you are simultaneously cleansing all the systems of your body from the inside out. It is important to stay hydrated so your elimination systems (bowel, urinary, and skin) can support your efforts.

This is going to vary on a person by person basis. Typically a good formula is take your body weight and divide by 2. This is how many ounces of water you should consume daily. Here's an example: 140 lb/2 = 70 oz. 64 oz is a half gallon. Seem like a lot? Remember our bodies are mostly water. Being fully hydrated helps take pressure off of organs to do their jobs and helps flush the body and keep it running smoothly.

As a new yoga student it takes a little while to understand and appreciate good hydration, that is why it's important to pace yourself and rest whenever you need to during class.

Please let the teacher know if you are pregnant, had surgery, or have any injuries, illnesses, or special conditions. You can still do most yoga postures, with a few modifications that the teacher will show you.

We do not recommend you practice Bikram yoga in your first trimester. If you had a regular practice before you became pregnant then we recommend you come back in your second and third trimester. The teacher will be able to help with modifications for the poses.

Didn't know you had a muscle there? Congratulations, you have utilized 100% of your body. You are on the way to regaining your birthright: using your body in the full range of motion that it was designed for. Muscle soreness is a buildup of lactic acid. What's the best way to get rid of the lactic acid? Stretching. It may seem impossible to imagine that coming back for more will help, but it is THE BEST way to relieve the soreness.

The room is heated so when you return, you will be able to stretch your muscles without the feeling of soreness. It is recommended that you drink lots of water before and after class. Come back to yoga the next day; if you wait too long to come back, then you will be starting all over again.

Bikram yoga is most definitely a cardiovascular workout. One posture in particular doubles your heart rate even though it is only 10 seconds long. In certain postures you stretch out your heart muscles in either direction increasing your heart rate substantially before releasing the posture.

Yes, if you have it to lose. Bikram says you will have a new body with 60 days of daily practice. Each posture combines flexibility, strength and balance to work your whole body from bone to skin. With a regular practice you can lose inches and develop muscle tone, strength and stamina. The postures help to release bound-fat cells and work the endocrine glands to fire up your metabolism. Warm muscles burn fat more effectively. When we stretch, the fat has no room to sit so it redistributes to the blood stream which we then use as energy. For those who wish to lose weight, Bikram recommends coming to classes earlier in the day.

No matter what your fitness level, you will find Bikram Yoga very challenging. Each posture combines flexibility, strength and balance to work your whole body from your bones to your skin. With persistence, patience, and dedication, you can lose inches and develop muscle tone and strength that might never come from other forms of exercise.

Most people do not experience dramatic weight loss according to a scale because as you are losing fat, your are building muscle mass. What you will see is a general slimming all over: your clothes fit better, your posture is better, your skin will GLOW!

During practice, focus on doing the posture correctly and to the best of your ability. With time, you will find that you're able to go deeper into the postures.

If you are concerned that doing a posture might aggravate an injury or illness, talk to an instructor first. They are there to help you get the most out of your practice in a safe manner.

The heat does the following 6 things:

1. Enhances vasodilatation* so that more blood is delivered to the muscles.
2. Allows oxygen In the blood to detach from the hemoglobin more easily.**
3. Speeds up the breakdown of glucose and fatty acids.
4. Makes muscles more elastic, less susceptible to injury.
5. Elevates your metabolism and burns fat more easily.
6. Increases perspiration and therefore detoxification.

You are changing the construction of your body as you perform these postures. Think of it as a piece of steel. When the steel is hot it becomes soft. When the steel is cool, it is easier to break and does not bend as easily. The heat makes your body more malleable. Warm muscles are more elastic and less susceptible to injury. Warmer temperatures produce a fluid-like stretch that allows greater range of motion. Cold muscles don't absorb shock or impact as well and aren't stretched as well so they get injured more readily.

Additionally, the oxygen and blood exchange rate is more rapid so you are getting more oxygen to your tissues, and your heart is more efficient. It is clearing out the valves of the heart chambers. It helps to flush out the arteries. Sweating is important because it takes the majority of the workload off the kidneys and the liver allowing the skin, which is the largest organ of the body, to excrete toxins. It exfoliates the skin by ridding the dead skin cells, so your skin will become clearer.
The capillaries that weave around the muscles respond to the heat by dilating. This brings more oxygen to the muscles and helps in the removal of waste products such as carbon dioxide and lactic acid.

* When blood passes through warm muscles oxygen releases more easily from the hemoglobin. Blood passing through cold muscles releases less oxygen.

** Warm muscles burn fat more easily than cold ones. Fat is released during stress. The stress of intense exercise causes a deluge of fatty acids into the blood stream. If you exercise with cold muscles, the muscles cannot use the fatty acids, and the fatty acids end up in places where they aren't wanted, such as the lining of the arteries.

NOTE: Muscles aren't the only beneficiaries of heat. Higher temperatures improve the function of the nervous system, meaning that messages are carried more rapidly to and from the brain and spinal cord.

Always follow your doctor's orders and consult with your doctor if you are on any medications or have any known health issues. Pay attention to your body during class, and if necessary, consult your doctor when your symptoms change.

Dizziness or nausea may occur during your class. If this happens, take care of yourself, meaning sit down, or lay down, rest as long as you need to feel better, and do not try to work through this! Usually it will pass in a few minutes. Often these symptoms relate to dehydration, and as you progress in your practice, these occurrences will disappear as your body adapts to the heat and your fitness improves.

Classes are open to everyone regardless of your age or fitness level. The beauty of Bikram yoga is that there is no competition amongst students and there are no judgements made about your performance. Simply, the class is time that you have chosen to devote to yourself.

• Muscles contracted and stretched on a cellular, biochemical level.
• Lipids and proteins reorganized optimally in stretching, allowing for better circulation.
• Nerves stimulated by compression & extension, supplying fresh blood, oxygen and nutrients to the body.
• Wastes pumped out.
• Blood and calcium brought to the bones.
• Bones strengthened with additional weight and stress on them.
• Brain stimulated by improved circulation and by varying blood pressure.
• Improved communication to nervous system.
• Lymph nodes massaged.
• Lymph pumped into body, helping lymphatic system work more efficiently.
• White blood cells sent out to body.
• Organs of immune system boosted (red marrow in bone).
• Thymus, spleen, appendix and intestines compressed and extended.
• Lungs stretched, flushed out by increased blood circulation.
• Toxins flushed out and waste excreted.
• Endocrine glands encouraged to secrete appropriate hormones.
• Communication of hormones among various glands and systems of body perfected.
• Fat eliminated and tissue reorganized into most efficient state.
• Joints greased and range of motion increased.
• Strength built by use of gravity.
• Muscles, joints and energies of the body balanced.

If you are starting yoga for the first time, it is important to know your boundaries. If you were not a runner, yet decided to run a marathon, you would train and build up to it. Look at yoga the same way. While it's important to try and get better, it's equally important to recognize that yoga is a process. You build at the pace that suits you. Don't run the marathon on your first try!