Some like it hot!

“Oh how I wished I’d found Bikram Yoga 10 years ago! After many years of self-inflicted sporting abuse, I think I have discovered the Holy Grail!
   At the ripe old age of 47 my body can now move and my mind can now focus. I thought I was fit. Not for me the lazy Sunday lie-ins of the yummy but naughty breakfast fry-ups. Nope, vanity and a healthy lifestyle had always been my goal – or so I thought. Good intentions are one thing. So years of running, three marathons, one triathlon and literally hundreds of spin classes and thousands of boring laps at my local pool have left me fitter than average but strangely exhausted and unfulfilled.
   My early 20s saw me pumping iron for hour after hour to achieve a body like Arnie. Bad technique and over training left its toll. Worn discs in my lower back and a torn rotator cuff and a legacy of bulky pecs and thighs meant I have always been on the heavy side for someone relatively short at 5 ft 7. I tried circuit training to reduce the muscle mass, took up boxing to improve speed and agility but all to no avail.
   My middle had started to give away my age! Then I tried Bikram. All my sporting and fitness regimes had been aggressive, crash bang wallop. I had never even considered trying Yoga of any sort, believing it to be too spiritual and not enough of a physical challenge. How wrong could I be ?!”...

Written by Richard Brooks, the article continues to talk about his experience of Bikram Yoga. It is accompanied by an interview on ‘hot Yoga’ with Olga Allon who runs two Bikram Yoga centres in London, and another article entitled Hot Yoga in a cold climate by Peter Spencer, who is a Chartered Health Psychologist and British Wheel of Yoga Diploma holder.