I get asked a lot how I stay in shape which is the easiest question of all: Bikram yoga. I have been practicing Bikram for nine years now, since my father and sister introduced me to it. At one point, in a very early ad I had posted on Redbook, I said something very dramatic like “yoga saved my life many years ago” and I deleted it after realizing it was being taken the wrong way. People asked, anticipating a horror story. There was none but still, Bikram yoga is the single most important factor in health maintenance for me. It did save me, but from what I will never know because it  did so more in that preventative way – the kind that we always complain is lacking in our health care system.

So here is the whole story, in many more, but less dramatic, words: I wasn’t dying when I took my first class. I wasn’t overweight or depressed or rehabbing from a hip replacement. I was in my very early twenties so I guess you could say I had to be partly screwed up. I had no defined path, only a million options open wide in front of me, and I wavered emotionally like modern weather patterns and had some anxiety. I was in college working to attain a degree that I knew would not ultimately bring home the bacon or even hot dogs unless I got a teaching certificate which I didn’t want. I kept in physical shape by running which was starting to become a bore, not to mention erratic. After you run track & field for 5 years, do a few marathons and collect your injuries, there is no where else to go in the runner’s world but down. I had passionate relationships based on unhealthy patterns and occasionally, road rage.

I had no idea what yoga really was when I went to my first class, let alone about Bikram’s hot twist on it. If my sister and father would have mentioned the room was going to be sealed, 100 degrees, and with a slight odor, I would have declined. I was hoodwinked and therefore, overdressed. I made it through about 4 postures out of the 26 that comprise the series, and then left the room, and hit the shower, all the while thinking that those people in there were crazy and how I would never go back.

The next day, I felt amazing, better in my body and my mind than I had thought possible, and so I went back – to see what I would feel like after doing an entire class. I felt great again, unimaginably so.

More or less, I get the same results every time I do a Bikram class to this day. No chasing the dragon here; the yoga high is a guarantee when you do Bikram. I ran – hard – for 10 years and I never got the runner’s high once!

My personal benefits have been a perfect balance of physical and psychic. After one year of doing the yoga my entire body changed, for the better. My posture was straighter and I was leaner and stronger. Even though I lost  most of my breast mass, I was able to safely buy it back – a small price to pay for the plethora of benefits that flowed to me everyday, and still do. Emotionally, yoga is soothing and nurturing. It is the ninety minutes of the day that I spend doing something by myself for myself. It has calmed me and allowed me to be more accepting of situations and people and even myself. Yoga teaches my mind and my body how to intuitively handle stress. I can’t imagine road rage anymore. I smile just thinking how silly it is.

We are lucky in the states in that there are a lot of yoga options available to us. Most recently renowned teachers from India have been here or sent their influences. America itself invented Power Yoga and a few other yoga-on-steroids varieties. Yet the people have spoken. Bikram yoga is the most popular. Why is that?

Bikram works because it is a synergystic series of ancient hatha yoga breathing exercises and postures. Bikram Choudhury is a man. He did not invent the asanas (postures) or the pranayama (breathing) exercise, rather he sequenced them, added heat, and a strict dialogue that explains each movement in detail. The sequence is logical: a back bend followed by a forward bend, left side then right side, posture/counter-posture, you get the idea. The heat is a two-part bonus: it warms the muscles, allowing them to stretch farther, and you also sweat out toxins and lactic acid. The results are really limitless. I have seen people heal from injuries that were supposed to be fatal by doing the yoga. People with scoliosis grow straight and add an inch to their height. Weight loss can be remarkable. Self confidence is found.

You can do essentially the same Bikram class in any major city of the globe, and in most minor ones as well. There are 24-hour Bikram studios in Japan and one in just about every neighborhood in San Francisco. No matter where or when you take the class, you will hear the same words, and do the same asanas, punctuated by the same pranayama exercises.

Why that is beneficial and never gets boring: Coming Soon!  in Part II of Tabitha Recommends: Bikram Yoga.