“Hot” “Pilates”
As the Bikram craze settled over the past decade, and other forms of yoga and exercise proliferated, original Bikram studios found a way to stay open in the face of competition by offering an endless, varied string of workouts in the same hot room they’d already invested in. It started as a form of Pilates (minus the reformers) delivered with a similar heat and panache to Bikram classes. As time went by, the temperature gradually dropped and the routines slid into bouts of high intensity cardio with props and loud music. Bikram had warned us against this kind of catabolic cardio for dopamine junkies – “jumping up and down like monkey” – since the Bikram craze coincided with the CrossFit craze. These workouts were never about creating inner peace and harmony, since it puts physical endurance, fun, and community above any other goal. Nothing wrong with these values, especially since the new classes sponsor the dwindling Bikram classes, but it’s hard for anyone with some integrity and the courage of their convictions to reconcile the two. Fully contradicting the classic values of yoga, they miss the point and the essence that make the original Bikram class so powerful: repetition, focus, silence, stillness, faith, determination, self-control, surrendering to an age-old tradition that works on everyone regardless of level or circumstances.