bikram yoga

So I've started bikram yoga.

Does anyone else do this and how do you count it in your daily activities? I'm a runner and I'm taking Bikram Yoga mainly for muscle lengthening and mental healing (as cheesy as it sounds).

I'm not really using it as "exercise" or a calorie burner... I don't even know if it burns a lot? I mean, I sweat a ton... but its 90-100 degree in there fr 90 minutes... today was my rest day, so I only did Bikram. I'm thinking of doing it 3 times a week on top of my normal running (30-40 miles a week).

Just curious on other's experience with bikram... thanks~!

I agree that if you've never done hot yoga you shouldn't really comment on how it compares.

I go to the gym regularly and consider myself in good shape and I was surprised at my heart rate during hot yoga so I brought a heart rate monitor. I had heard that hot yoga could be reasonably compared to jogging at 5MPH and after looking at the monitor indeed it was roughly the same amount of calories.

As Andrea said it really depends on how hard you push yourself but I log the calories in as jogging as it works for me.

 

 

 I don't need to personally do everything to be able to give a meaningful assesment of how it compares to what's already established physiological fact vs. marketing BS from people out to take your money.

Original Post by cassadilla:

Melkor I have a feeling you've never done Bikram Yoga. It's very likely that you would burn 600 calories in 90 min.

i agree. melkor is very informed, it seems, with fitness, nutrition, and health - but when it comes to yoga i do not think he is the one to turn to or to trust for advice.

 

for my bikram calorie expenditure, and my power vinyasa sessions for that matter, i use this site:  http://www.everydayhealth.com/Calories-Burned -Yoga.htm

 

edit: um.. *hangs head* so i think melkor may actually be right, as far as bikram for fat loss.  i've been doing some research myself, and it does not indeed aid in fat loss as much as we all think.  it is good to supplement with something such as running and/or ellipticaling/bicycling - but if you're looking to lose some weight, stick with running, etc. as your main workout... damn. 

Melkor, you are everything that is wrong with this once great country.  to put it succinctly, you are willfully ignorant at worst and ill-informed at best.  in either case, why do you feel justified in offering your "thin air" opinion without having ever tried bikram. its nothing like other yoga and that's why i do it.  i felt my other yoga classes were an inefficient use of time b/c there was no cardio benefit.

I've done bikram for years in addition to lifiting weights, playing tennis, basketball and other competitive sports.  I've worn a HR monitor in class on many occasions and spoken with others who have.  My hr consistently averages 75-90% of "max" over the 90 mins (excluding warmup and cool down breathing).  It is as much or more of a cardio workout as anything else i do.  not great as a muscle builder, but excellent for flexibility, detoxing via sweat and peace of mind.   try it for a while before you run your mouth and (inexplicably) influence the sheep.

this is MY experience, everyone is different.  try it (whatever it is) for yourself.  Go HARD and use an objective means of measurement (HR monitor, etc) in addition to how you feel about it.  PLEASE, everyone..stop offering uninformed opinions..on anything..its depressing to non-idiots

Wow, dig up a old thread to attack someone who consistently gives excellent advice on this forum?  And this is your first post?????  You're gonna get slain...

Honestly, read a bit more and then go back and read what Melkor posted in this thread.  I did.  He didn't say anything bad about yoga of any type.  Simply that he did not believe it burned as many calories as the OP was estimating.  And that there were more efficient weight loss/fat burning exercise regimes.

And if you bothered to read some of his other posts, you will read what he states time and time again... that the best exercise is the one you will enjoy and stick with.  But if you ask him about the best way to burn calories and lose fat--- he's not gonna say "yoga" or "pilates". 

Original Post by smarter_than_you:

Melkor, you are everything that is wrong with this once great country.

Heh... which country would that be?

Trolls and ill-informed yoga fanatics are always amusing ;)

 People get awfully defensive when you intrude on their ego matrix with facts, and turn to personal attacks instead of re-evaluating what they've invested their ego and self-worth into to ward of the uncomfortable feeling that they've been had and have wasted years of efforts.

Seriously, why are all the yoga lovers so defensive?

Melkor, how DARE you try and tell people they are wrong about yoga! How dare you try and help them! Helpful people like you are ruining this country!

I wanted to cry seeing how many times people said yoga lengthens and reshapes muscles without ever being corrected...  ugh. You can't make your muscles longer, folks.

 

Facts? We don't need no stinkin' facts! This is America!!

Well, ask me how I feel about all the time I wasted following bodybuilding workouts designed for drug-using monsters with 10-15 years of experience as power lifters before they took up the pump-and-pose crap you find the magazines ;)

*All* How do you feel?!?

Up until I was smacked 'round the head with a copy of Starting Strength and some actual exercise physiology books I was awfully defensive of the bro-lore I'd picked up in the gym :)

*on edit* Anyway - I'm a little bemused that I get yelled at for being anti-yoga on the very same day I've recommended yoga as the right choice for the goal in question.

wow, little harsh, people.

i think you have to be honest with yourself when calculating your yoga workout.

i go to yoga 1-2 weekly, and depending on the instructor, the type of class, and my own personal efforts  i can see it being equivalent to either post-workout stretching, or all the way up to intense cardio. i've done hot yoga (moksha, not bikram) and it was a more relaxing type of class than the 'cold' yoga at my school gym. i felt drained afterwards, but much in the same way i'd feel drained after a sauna session. it's called dehydration. I'd say don't over estimate the calories you burn, but also don't underestimate the fluids you've lost. Maybe adjust your diet to get a bit more water in, v8 and OJ are pretty good choices for replacing fluids.

Original Post by amethystgirl:

Original Post by smarter_than_you:

Melkor, you are everything that is wrong with this once great country.

Heh... which country would that be?

 And which planet?

Original Post by clairelaine:

Original Post by amethystgirl:

Original Post by smarter_than_you:

Melkor, you are everything that is wrong with this once great country.

Heh... which country would that be?

 And which planet?

It's like arguing with a dining room table.

I used to do bikram yoga all the time, then one day I went to class after smoking marijuana with some friends (I don't usually smoke but I did that day). In my marijuana/heat induced psychosis I realized the stuff the instructor was saying to "motivate" people was a bunch of crock! Furthermore everyone around me in the room just seemed super creepy and the whole aura of the place changed for me.

I haven't been back since and my body doesn't seem to mind that either.

Original Post by skinnylea:

I used to do bikram yoga all the time, then one day I went to class after smoking marijuana with some friends (I don't usually smoke but I did that day). In my marijuana/heat induced psychosis I realized the stuff the instructor was saying to "motivate" people was a bunch of crock! Furthermore everyone around me in the room just seemed super creepy and the whole aura of the place changed for me.

I haven't been back since and my body doesn't seem to mind that either.

Finally an intelligent post on the topic.

skinnylea, you are ....precious.  you made my day :)

creepiness notwithstanding, my only point is that melkor doesnt know what he's talking about regarding bikram..not any other yoga, but this specific type.  he admits he's never done it, so how can anyone take his opinion regarding its calorie burning potential seriously, nevermind defend it. really??? 

Even if he or anyone else HAD actually done it, unless you've objectively measured calorie expenditure with an HR monitor or some other means, your opinon is just that..an opinion..speculation.  this is not an area in which we have to rely on opinons.  its 2009... a $30 piece of equipment will arm you with facts.  period

i was wrong to cut melkor down, im sure his intention is benevolent, but this type of cavalier spread of misinformation really bothers me.  the bikram calorie question is a small symptom indicative of the much larger problem of a lack of critical thinking..a lack of questioning..intellectual laziness and prideful ignorance. 

I  was coming off of a dose of glenn beck and his disingenuous blather so i was a bit on edge and let melkor have it.  I apologize.

Speak what you know.

 

According to these calorie calculators provide above....

http://www.everydayhealth.com/Calories-Burned -Running.htm

170lb person running 10 min miles (6 mph) for 90 minutes.  "You burned 1157 calories!"

http://www.everydayhealth.com/Calories-Burned -Yoga.htm for

170lb person doing BIKRAM/Hot yoga 90 minutes.  "You burned 1157 calories!"

 

Hmmm...exactly the same.  Backs up my own observed experience.  All of a sudden all these opinions vanish back into the thin air from which they came.

Of course, im the biggest idiot of all for wasting my time trying to edify those who are more interested in feelings and opinions

 

You want someone with a HRM in Bikram class?

715 calories.

*Sigh*

 See what happens when you're operating from emotion instead of trying to objectively examine the evidence? You go jumping off a cliff when you get impossible results that seem to validate your preconceived notions.