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Immaturities by Bikram Hot Yoga Teachers
Yoga Chickie runs into a Bikram Yoga Teacher who refuses to let her leave the hot yoga practise room which brought back memories.
“Go back to your mat RIGHT NOW. There is no leaving the room during my class.”
- Scary-Ass Bikram Teacher to Yoga Chickie“Sorry, but I don’t want to die in your class.”
- Yoga Chickie to Scary-Ass Bikram Teacher
I have had a teacher (Loressa) at the local Bellevue Hot Bikram Yoga who in my opinion has been equally juvenile to the point that I skip classes when she is taking. Here are a few examples.
-She does not want you to wipe sweat from your face or body. This in a room where the typical temparature is 110 F. Reasoning being it will come back.
-I do wipe as I do not want to risk eye damage with sweat. Last time, she physically took away my towel and throws it to the other side of the mat. I am just short of asking her, “what is the matter with you?”
-To make matters worse, she has stories to tell on acceptance and patience.
-And after this, I am not much peaceful anymore.
I found this to be rude, it reminds me of some old martial arts movie (36th chamber of shaolin comes to mind) and so against the typical Yoga approach of giving space and presenting a path. But then she has age on her side(22 or so, I would guess) and might learn someday. Someday I might like to handle such incidents with grace.
A fair disclaimer: I love Hot Yoga (See Introduction to Hot Bikram Yoga and Review of Bellevue Hot Bikram Yoga) and go there once a week. There are many great teachers at the Bellevue, WA Bikram Hot Yoga Center. Tracy who takes classes on Wed evenings and Elliot on Thu & Fri evenings. They will just mention the water breaks, but you can have water as you need with no comments, they will verbally show how to go deeper, but back off if you just suggest so and overall exude good energy.
Note: Bellevue Hot Yoga website schedule does not show teachers, so it is a challenge to know when the good teachers have their classes, just ask when you are there and the current teacher will tell you.
But I agree with Yoga Chickie’s emotions, instead of 90 minutes of exercise and being aware of one’s body, one gets to deal with immature people’s idea of what one can and cannot do in ‘their’ Yoga class and the distraction typically stays beyond the class.
Here’s to appreciating good teachers and remembering how rare they are!
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Ha!!! So, I am not the only one!!!!!!
Lauren
Comment by Lauren — July 10, 2006 @ 4:35 pmOh. My. Gawd. You have terribly misunderstood
Comment by Spot — January 8, 2007 @ 10:27 amyourself Yoga Chickie. You are the immature one yoga
CHICKIE????? If you run away and then whine after,
you will run away from everything, which, I suspect
you do anyway when things don’t go your way.
Spot,
Incase you were addressing me (Amit) instead of Yoga Chickie.
My thought is that I do not believe one should typically endure rude behavior or immaturity. Like I said above in the blog entry, instead of resulting in peace, it is distracting and it also encourages such people.
Also, I would rather give my money (I am paying for it) to where it is worth it, something similar to not returning to a doctor or restaurant if you did not like it.
It do believe in giving feedback and fair chance, that is why I did attend her classes during that time for 3 times before stopping completely.
A question, what is your angle?
Amit
Comment by Amit D. Chaudhary — January 8, 2007 @ 11:12 amHi, I know it’s tough when you get your feelings hurt in class and teachers can be mean, but there are good reasons why you are really not supposed to wipe sweat and leave the room during class. You won’t die, I promise. I am the weakest weakling that ever weaked, but I know not to do these things! And I have been reprimanded over these things which pissed me off at the beginning, but now I would NEVER dream of wiping sweat (totally pointless, totally newbie thing to do in class) or LEAVE the ROOM. Buck up. Bikram isn’t for weaklings. Ah, a person’s first introduction to discipline!!!
Comment by Yoga Nazi — February 20, 2007 @ 4:06 pmYoga Nazi,
The reason I still wipe my sweat is the same reason I do not put salt, pepper or chilli in my eyes. Common tells me I would not be more disciplined, if I did that.
However, like I wanted to point it, it is and should be a choice.
Amit
Comment by Amit D. Chaudhary — February 20, 2007 @ 4:54 pmI am fairly new to bikram yoga. So I guess I would be considered a newbie. I am able to do many of the postures and others I am still working on. I have gone about 5 times a week for the past 3 weeks. I am in fairly good shape and I was running about 7 miles 4 times a week prior to start. It isI don’t understand the problem with wiping sweat. I have had several different teachers and although they have asked that you try to stay in the room there hasn’t been a problem with wiping sweat. I go to a diffgo to a different studio then listed above. Perhaps it is just my newness but I have a hard time griping foot, knee, etc with sweat litterally pouring off of me.
Comment by Janet — May 19, 2007 @ 9:30 pmJanet,
Even in this center, she is the only one who snatches the towels and gets physical. The others either remind one time or not at all about most things like water, sweat, etc.
Amit
Comment by Amit D. Chaudhary — May 20, 2007 @ 8:44 amokay not letting you wipe sweat away is a bit odd but not letting you leave the class is normal. shes in charge of your safety and if you go for a wee and the heat was too much and you faint and crack your head, its HER fault.
Comment by Emma — January 29, 2008 @ 12:34 pmhi, too often people involved with yoga start considering themselves authorities on everything health-related. remember, they are not doctors, and they are not physiotherapists and they are not psychologists. there is a benefit to wiping the sweat. it allows you to cool more, as additional sweat can then evaporate off the same surface, taking more heat with it. sweating is a natural body reaction to overheating. trying to suppress the body’s cooling reaction is not only stupid, it is dangerous. second, removing sweat allows you to grip things better, which will help you perform the asthana (posture) better, and also allow you to hold it longer and avoid potentially dangerous slips and falls and muscle strains/pulls.
another thing i noticed is the confusion between “locking out” a joint and hyperextension, which some instructors want you to do. locking out simply means flexing the muscle so hard that the joint stops being able to articulate, it does not mean hyperextending, which can lead to serious injury at worst, and at best, provides no real benefit as there is no muscle strengthening going on.
some of the phraseology used in bikram yoga is also just plain stupid. “pulling is the object of stretching” is meaningless in a yoga context–in plain english, it can only mean that they want you to pull your muscle. stupid.
i do bikram twice daily in the san francisco area. wish i could have words with yoga nazis…i have set a few straight in my life.
Comment by fk — February 21, 2008 @ 9:05 amI am teaching bikram yoga for six years now, about 4,000 people, about 1,500 classes in the hot room as a teacher. We had little towles (cloth) to begin and now after four years we just skipped them and no one complained. The little cloth was once supposed to help the elderly and hanicaped persons to grab their ankles or hold their feet. But as a teacher you will soon notice that this little clothes are merely used by 20-something girls to dab off any invisble stuff from their cheeks and foreheads instead of focussing and concentrating. After yelling for some years and feeling totally ridiculous for telling young girls to stop wiping - although I provided them with this cloth. I just throw these fucking cloths out of my school and so far nobody complained. And if their is an older guy who cannot grab his feet without a little towel I have some in the yoga room. Belive me: wiping sweat is not neccesary, just let go of it. Peace.
Comment by Hans — March 29, 2008 @ 4:23 pm