Cheap Yoga…That Will Make You Hot
The first yoga class I ever went to was at Yoga 101 in Palo Alto. It was a Bikram Yoga class that had a starting rate of 10 classes for $10. Not knowing what Bikram was, I went to the class with sweatpants. Big mistake, the yoga studio was heated to 105°F and packed with Stanford’s heavy breathing football team. By the end of the 90 minute class I had sweat more than I had ever done in my life – this after years of cross country running in college.
Bikram Yoga (Bikram Parmar), also known as Hot Yoga, is a style of yoga developed by Bikram Choudhury and a Los Angeles, California based company. The room is heated, with 50% humidity and the classes include 26 poses with 2 breathing exercises. Because of the heat, you’re muscles are able to expand further, allowing you to go into a much deeper pose. The teachers of the classes I’ve been to explain Bikram Yoga as a way to cleanse and detoxify your body on a cellular level, which is good, because all the women in the locker room after a night class laughed hard together about their drinking stories.
Bikram Choudhury, the self-proclaimed "Yogi to the Stars", lives in Beverly Hills and teaches at the Yoga College of India in Los Angeles and in Calcutta, India, as well as other locations around the world, including San Francisco, London, Paris and Tokyo. Being a “Yogi to the Stars” doesn't mean anything except that this kind of yoga will make you skinny – or at least make you look skinny for a while and that they can charge a lot of money for that service alone. It’s true, I feel like I’ve sweat off 50 pounds last night – water weight, or course, but still I’m sure it’s great before the Oscars. Classes usually range from $10 to $15 each for a drop in session. About $250 for 25 classes or $155 for a month unlimited.
What I love about Bikram and San Francisco most of all though, is that there are about 15 different places to do Bikram yoga in the Bay Area and they all have the same introductory offer: 30 days for $30. So, if you’re like me, you can go to Funk Door Yoga at either their downtown SF, downtown Berkeley, Haight-Asbury, or Midtown SF locations for 30 days then go to Fluid Yoga in the Sunset for 30 days, and then onto Mission Yoga on 20th and Mission for another 30 days. You can do this all over the bay, and from what I’ve seen, no on really cares.
Like any workout class, it’s always better to find a place with good looking people – they just make me feel better and more energized to be around. Also, since the class makes you sweat a lot – try to avoid places where stinky people who don’t bathe much go. Fluid Yoga has a lot of surfers, as it’s close to the beach, which I highly recommend. Downtown is usually the baby boomer crowd. Mission is all across the board, but probably the most fun as you can hear the ranchero music coming up from Mission Street. Midday classes are the hottest times to attend and you might feel like fainting. I’ve always gone before or after work, so it’s cooler outside and the heaters are either just getting started or just shutting off for the day.
I like to spread out the time between my 30 day sessions by a few months. Since Bikram Yoga is always the same 26 poses, it gets to be a pretty boring workout after 30 days. It is really intense and great for your body though, so it’s a great program to go through at least once a year – especially if you want to look like a super hot babe in a bikini.
