Men's Health
Sweat Shop

You don't know what a burn is until you've done this workout.

by Christopher McDougall

Welcome to Bikram's torture chamber," says Joel Pier, a gentle, gray-haired yoga instructor. He's so peace-and-love looking with his bead necklace and owlish little glasses, that everybody smiles.

For about a second.

Then he clicks the door shut, sealing all 30 of us inside a third-floor walkup above a Philadelphia shoe store, with the furnace cranked to 110 degrees. We're told to stand arm's-length apart, lace our fingers under our chins, and huff and puff like fat guys moving furniture. After 90 seconds, the men are shucking their sweat-soaked shirts, and the women are stripping down to Jogbras. The sneaking desire I'd felt for the two women next to me, with their cute dancers' bodies and Pacific-Island tatoos, has now become a last-canteen-in-the-lifeboat resentment of the air they're using and the body heat they're throwing off.

Keep in mind, all we've done so far is breathe.

ASSUMING THE POSITION
This is what can happen during a session of Bikram yoga, otherwise known, for obvious reasons, as "hot yoga." Bikram yoga has been booming in the past few years. According to one estimate, some three million people worldwide are now sweatin' and stretchin', and paying an average of $10 to $12 a class for the privelege.

From the cool, incense-scented loung outside, things in the studio look pretty tame, especially compared with the Ashtanga, or "power," yoga taught in health clubs. Where Ashtanga can twist you into endless varieties of headstands, lotuses, and backbends, Bikram has only 26 postures, several no more complicated than the head-to-knees you did in football practice. You don't even hold them long--just about 10 to 20 seconds.

What kicks your ass, however, is the heat.

"Anyone chilly?" asks Pier, who's one of the some 650 instructors certified in the United States to teach the Bikram method. "We're barely over 100 degrees," he taunts. "The earlier class hit 126."

The only answer he gets is the sound of sweat plopping onto our plastic mats. We're all too focused to respond, because after a few warmup positions, we're in the midst of a real killer: arms straight out, up on the toes, then dropping into a squat with arms and thighs parallel to the floor, while still balancing on the balls of our feet. It's brutal--little grunts and gasps are erupting all around the room as people fight for balance. "Lift up your heels," Pier suggests, "until your legs are jittering like sewing machines."

There are reasons--besides the sadistic-- for conducting the class in a sauna. Fpr starters, you'll lose weight. It's estimated that a person can burn as many as 600 calories during a 90-minute class. You'd have to hit the treadmill for an hour and 15 minutes to melt that much flab.

Superheating the body will soften the collagen around the joints, too. "Collagen is a lot like plastic, and its rigidity eases when you warm it," says Marc Darrow, M.D., director of the Los Angeles-based Joint Rehabilitation & Sports Medical Center. "Some athletes ride an exercise bike before stretching, which heats the muscles and softens collagen, but there's no reason you can't do the same thing by adjusting the thermostat," says Dr. Darrow, who includes Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Johnnie Morton among his patients.

Heat also helps "feed" the muscles by increasing the circulation of oxygen-laden red blood cells, says Lewis Maharam, M.D., president of the Greater New York Regional Chapter of the American College of Sports Medicine.  It's like working a bellows--as you pump more oxygen into your muscles, they're able to burn more fuel. And the best way to let that rich, oxygenated blood into the inner recesses of your muscle tissue, Dr. Maharam adds, is to stre-e-e-etch. "Heat speeds up your metabolism," he explains, "and the yoga postures will certainly assist by improving your circulation and elasticity."

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