Feel the burn - 'hot box' yoga
Lucie Wood|Metro13 April 2012

Apparently horses sweat, men perspire and women glow, but it is definitely sweat that is running into my eyes - I can hardly see.

The combination of blood surging to my head and the intense heat blurs the room into a swathe of contorted limbs. The next moment I have straightened up, grabbed a bottle of water and am running for the door.

Moments like this are not unusual at your first session of Bikram Yoga, according to instructor Michèle Pernetta. 'The first time you do it will be hell, but you get used to it. Before you know it, you're addicted,' she says.

A wall of heat

Bikram seems insane on paper and even more so when you see people doing it. The heat, which hits you like a wall as you enter the room, is a constant 108°F (42°C).

The temperature supposedly enables muscles to stretch further than they can in cooler climes, while protecting against injury and allowing toxins to literally pour out of your body.

Bikram (or 'hot box') Yoga is the fastest growing yoga style in the West. In London there are three Bikram Yoga centres, in Kilburn, Queen's Park and the City.

The style was founded by Bikram Choudhury, a former world champion weight lifter whose knees were crushed in an accident. Yoga helped to heal his injury and he developed a system of 26 classical yoga postures that work the entire body and internal organs.

Each posture is performed twice - the first time for strength and stamina and the second for flexibility.

Pernetta, a martial arts fanatic, brought it to the UK from Beverley Hills in 2000 after four years of training with Bikram in Los Angeles.

Bikram claims that his yoga will cure any knee or back injury and the Internet is littered with case studies of people with slipped discs or knee problems, who have made leaps to full health from the sessions. 'The hot room protects the muscles and joints,' says Pernetta. 'I have never seen one injury during Bikram in all the years I've been teaching.'

According to Choudhury: 'If you practise yoga one-andahalf hours a day you will need only four hours sleep a night, because you have built up energy. Isn't that marvellous?'

Good for men

But can yoga ever be a calorieburning workout? We may not believe that Geri Halliwell lost all that weight through yoga, but could Bikram be different?

'The increased heart rate from the heat means that you are exercising cardiovascularly as well as stretching,' says the slim and toned Pernetta. 'You will lose weight.'

The emphasis on the workout rather than the spiritual side of yoga has attracted men, so - refreshingly - both sexes are equally represented in the class.

Pernetta likes this mix. 'What Bikram has done is demystify yoga and make it accessible for everyone,' she says. 'There is no chanting or incense, just people moving their bodies.'

Stateside celebrity devotees include Shirley MacLaine, Barbra Streisand and Jerry Seinfield, while in the UK Alexander McQueen is a fan.

It was easier to acquire my toxins, but I decided that in my exhausted euphoria after Bikram, losing them wasn't that bad after all.

Bikram Yoga City, 6/8 Vestry Street, London N1.

Tel: 020 7336 6330. For Bikram classes visit www.bikramyoga.co.uk

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