30 days of Bikram Yoga Wimbledon

A Beginner’s Review

Over the last few years I have tried various different styles of yoga and was always keen to try something new. The one I always shied away from was Bikram Yoga but thanks to Bikram Yoga Wimbledon (now called Hot Yoga Wimbledon) I finally gave it a go!

I don’t particularly like heat (anything above 29 degrees) in general and I don’t really like sweating… To be fair that was as much as I knew about Bikram Yoga apart from that it’s supposed to be a bit pretentious and that Andy Murray enjoys it.

After I had my baby boy in January this year and after I stopped breastfeeding in August I realised I only had one month before my teacher training course started and I needed to get back in shape quickly. I don’t mean losing weight necessarily but mainly get my abdominal muscles back and being able to hold some yoga postures.

Having two small kids and a husband who works long hours, means that it’s difficult to attend any sort of classes but I found a great offer from Bikram Yoga Wimbledon (now called Hot Yoga Wimbledon) which was £35 for 30 consecutive days of yoga. During that time you can attend as many classes as you want. In the end I went to 16 classes in those 30 days which I think is not too bad!

The studio is lovely with a nice reception area, little cafe where they serve extremely healthy detox smoothies after the class, spacious male and female changing rooms and lots of showers (important). The studio itself is on the first floor and can take up to 70 people I believe (you’ll be very close to your neighbours of course) but on average I would say there are about 20-30 yoga students.

You have to bring your own mat, one towel for showering (if you want to take a shower and trust me you will!), one towel to cover your mat (because there will be a lot of sweat!) and a bottle of water. You can rent/buy any of this too, if you didn’t bring your own. I got a nice welcome speech from the lady at reception as even though I had done yoga before, Bikram Yoga is of course very different. She told me where to find everything, what to expect and advised me to find a space somewhere where I can see myself in the mirror but not at the front so I can copy more experienced students. This is actually very important as Bikram Yoga teachers don’t demonstrate but they talk you through the poses.

I won’t go through all 16 classes and bore you with the details (obviously the postures are always the same) but I think it’s worth mentioning some key classes which for me were the 1st, 2nd, 6th and 16th class.

Class 1: 

I went into my 1st class with a relatively open mind and said to myself that I didn’t want to judge it too quickly and oh my God I was right about that, because otherwise I wouldn’t have come back! First of all the smell is quite “special” and then of course the heat hits you straight away…. The teachers say that the goal for the first class is just to stay in the room and that is certainly difficult enough! My first impulse was to get out of there as quickly as possible and I felt that I was going to pass out or be sick within minutes… They don’t of course lock the door so you can get out if you really want to but you will get comments from the teacher (yes, it’s all quite strict)!

The poses themselves are not actually that difficult and they were all familiar to me (except for the first breathing exercise) but combined with the heat and the shouting of the teacher (“pull, pull, pull, lock your knees, lock your knees, push, push a bit more…”) it was extremely challenging and I have never sweated so much in my whole life. After the class I was completely wiped out. It was a Saturday morning and I came back home, ignored my husband and children and went straight to bed. The rest of the day I had a terrible headache.

Class 2: 

I was lucky enough to be able to speak to the owner of the studio (Raj) who was teaching when I went back the next day. I told him about the headache and about my painful neck (it’s that first breathing exercise!) and he told me to drink lots of water before the class and after the class. That is obviously a no brainer but I can’t stress enough how important it is to drink BEFORE the class (at least 1 litre). There are actually loos in the heated area of the studio so if you’re really desperate during the class you can go without leaving the heat.

The other thing he said to me was only to do the second set of postures. Basically every posture is done twice – once to establish it and the second time to go deeper. This meant that I looked a bit silly standing around when others were doing the first set of postures, but it also meant that I could really take time to observe how it’s done correctly and I had enough energy for the backbending series which comes towards the end of the class. I felt much better after the second class, still felt a bit tired but didn’t have a headache.

Class 6:

After classes 3, 4 and 5 which were all really hard, hot and frustrating, class number 6 was the first one that I actually really enjoyed and when I could see some improvements. I felt full of energy after the class, much stronger and much more flexible than after months of doing Ashtanga Yoga. I have to point out that this is probably the stage when you can really injure yourself if you’re not careful. The heat makes you seem more flexible and you might stop listening to the teacher too much because you know what’s coming next. The proper alignment and locking the knees (not everyone agrees with that) have a purpose and you should always follow the instructions exactly (you actually get told off if you don’t).

Class 16:

In between classes 6 and 16 there was a bit of up and down of emotions and one class where the teacher forgot to put the fan on halfway through and it was probably more 50 degrees than 40 degrees!! It was actually very interesting to see how people deal with challenges. Two people walked out of the class, half of us (including myself) got really dizzy and just sat around and about 5 students pretended as if this was completely normal but walked out of the class with swollen faces, red like a tomato.

Apart from that class I found Bikram Yoga really addictive. The more you practice the easier it gets and the stronger you feel! The teacher who tought class 16 was great and really calm compared to some others who you can hardly understand because they rattle through the stuff so fast. I felt that I really knew what I was doing, felt challenged but not overwhelmed and I simply felt content and healthy after the class. That’s really what I want to get out of the yoga class!!

I haven’t been back since my 30 day trial because I feel that I have to concentrate on a more varied teaching style during my teacher training programme (that’s why I’m doing Iyengar classes at the moment). The other thing with Bikram Yoga is that it’s quite expensive and you can’t practice it at home. I found the strictness of the teachers quite irritating in the beginning but once you know what you’re doing you can zone out and ignore the shouting. I definitely got a lot out of it – especially strength from the standing postures, better backbends and I feel that it has improved my posture.

I could go on about this for a long time as it was a great experience but I think my experience might be completely different from someone else’s so it’s better to see for yourself. Don’t try it if you have any current injuries (or if you do, make sure the teacher knows about them!), don’t try it if you’re pregnant but otherwise I would say just give it a go! And don’t give up after the first class – if you want to see what it’s really all about then I would say go at least five or six times!

If you enjoyed this post check out 12 Tips for Bikram Yoga Beginners