Non Madame Stukin! I agree, hatha yoga is not practiced to collapse and end up in an ambulance. BIKRAM YOGA is proposed as any other excercise, with an instructor advising to continuously listen to your own body first.
Let's say someone is running on a treadmill and collapses. Was this "the point" of the gym? Having it's practitioners
over doing it to the point of exhaustion? Who's fault again?

BIKRAM YOGA is not for everyone! I've been practicing for 6 years and I've seen people (3) fainting me too... Want to know who is the yogi collapsing on his mat next to you? It's not the newcomers, it's a regular Bikram yogi that was flirting with the limits of their body capacity... What you need is HUMILITY and COURAGE to be able to honestly try at your own pace 26 postures of Hatha yoga (out of the 98 existing others)-including sitting down when needed- under the same climate conditions of hot and humid India. I agree with you if you are trying to warn people about these requirements. We, as Bikram Yoga Certified instructors, are taught during certification to educate the students to always listen to their bodies first and then, guide them in trying to execute the postures.
We should celebrate anyone practicing yoga...any type of yoga! NAMASTE dear!

Dera Madam,
I have been practicing Bikram Yoga for 5 years and as a professionnal athlete it is the best for releasing all the stress on my body, focus my mind and relax. Bikram yoga taught me how to breath again! I think that there is something big that you didn`t get. If you would have focus on yourself instead on focusing on the heat, you would have taste the huge benefit after the session. Also the proudness you feel after going trough such warm and demanding possitions. You would have feel the extreme release of your muscle... and of your frustrated brain.
As a horseriding teacher, i had chances to say worse things than fainting. Of course i saw rider fainting because of the heat but i also saw people hurt themselves very bad.
Yoga is something you practice listening what your body tells you. Every Bikram Yoga teacher say it first thing when they start their session, if you feel bad, lay down on your mat. Listen to your body. Leave your ego out the door... something you probably forgot to do.
I saw Bikram yoga helping professionnal athlete to reach their goal, people with health problems getting way better, fat people getting in shaped, depress people getting happier in their mind and drug addict recovering with this Yoga. I love it and i really think that if everybody would perfor Bikram at their pace the world would be a better place.
Namaste! Valerie.
ps (next time you judge something, try to get the point of it at least!!!)

I was working at Bikram's Studio on that day
The 'grey haired lady' was fasting.. you CANNOT fast if you want to make it through a Bikram class.. especially if the man himself is teaching.
Bikram told her several times to lay down, she did not.
She didnt pass out, just collasped for a second. She didnt want an ambulance to come, the front desk called for one just in case.

Yoga Journal needs to stop bashing Bikram...ajust accept the fact that Bikram Yoga is the premiere yoga style.

Hi Mike,

Thanks for commenting and providing your eye witness account.

I had no intention of bashing Bikram or his system of yoga. I was just commenting on an article I read in the Los Angeles Times and asking some questions.

I appreciate your post and hope you continue to check back to see what else we have to say about yoga in Los Angeles.

Stacie

Hi Stacie,

I understand that it may be crazy to do a yoga work out in 100 degree heat. But i've been doing bikram yoga for 3 months and it has changed my life for the positive. Sure I feel like fainting here and there but I listen to my body, when I'm feeling tired or weak, i sit down. Before the class, the bikram trainers ask everyone-- "is anyone going through any pains, problems or issues". They tell us "our bodies are different every day, and to challenge ourselves but when we feel weak or too tired, take it easy".
As for the old lady, I feel bad for her, but the truth is that she is responsible for herself and needs to listen to her body or if she is feeling light headed sit down or lay in Savasana. She is older and naturally her body is not to the optimum to do a "juice fast and bikram". Also, I was juice fasting and I made sure to tell my teacher, "i'm juice fasting, I'm sitting down here and there to take it easy". In the end, we are responsible for our own bodies and we must speak up to tell any trainer whether it's bikram to boxing, that my body is not to its optimum today.

Bikram is not for everyone, it takes a tenacious person who has the hardcore will to change their life, mind and body. Out of all the yoga, I've attended, bikram really makes you face your ego and challenges you mentally. I use to be depressed and anxiety ridden, within 3 months its changed my life and body. I can now face myself and problems since I have to look at myself in the mirror and do my "active meditation'. I use to read testimonies of people doing Bikram and thought they were in a cult. But until I opened up my mind and body to Bikram yoga---it's really the best yoga out there for me!

Namaste and best wishes on your yoga journey Stacie.

The posts on this blog sound like cult members. wow. I do Bikram but I also do Ashtanga and Iyengar and like the comibination of all three forms of hatha yoga. People in this post act as if only their yoga is the best one and the one that counts. You will never find Mr. Iyengar or students of Iyengar yoga or other yoga saying any of these things.... As a matter of fact, once a week we have an open class in my Ashtanga studio where he teaches general hatha yoga (more iyengar based) so that students can try some other forms and movements.

I lived in India (for work) for two years and in not only in all the classes I took did we do sun salutations but in some yoga classes we only did sun saluations. There are no sun salutations in Bikram, do does that mean all the people in India are not doing real yoga?