You can’t really practice yoga in most parts of the world without bumping into yoga studios where they heat the room to at least 105 degrees F, and sometimes as high as 114 and while also turning up the humidity, a practice that Consumer Reports refers to as a “dangerous fad.” Some of these studios call themselves “Bikram” studios. However, after a Netflix documentary titled Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator came out, many or most of them took “Bikram” out of the name and started simply calling themselves “Hot Yoga.” But, there should be no doubt that all hot yoga can be traced directly back to Bikram himself.

The first documented hot yoga class goes back to the 1970s in Japan, where Bikram Choudhury was visiting. While using the saunas there he had the idea of doing yoga in heated spaces, in order to “simulate the heat of India,” the birth place of yoga. As much as that might seem like a novel idea, there are some serious problems with it: Most importantly, India is a mountainous nation, so not all of India is hot and humid. In the places where it is hot and humid, the yogic tradition has been to practice “before the jungle wakes up.” (i.e. before it gets hot.)

Falsehoods about heat and humidity being tied to the birth of yoga were not the only misinformation spread by Bikram as he promoted his hot yoga practice. He also made bogus claims about the heavy sweating that results from it “detoxifying” the body. In fact, no toxins from your body are released in sweat. Sweat is composed of 99% water and some electrolytes, like sodium, calcium, potassium and magnesium. These electrolytes are actually important for your body, and releasing too many of them can be very damaging. (link, link, link and link)

Even worse: the organs that are harmed by heat stress and dehydration (common in hot yoga) include the liver and kidneys, are the organs that actually detoxify our bodies. In other words, this kind of physical exertion in heated spaces that creates massive amounts of sweat does not detoxify your body but rather makes it harder for your body to “cleanse” itself.

The falsehoods and quackery pushed by Bikram in order to sell his classes isn’t even the worst part. He also built around him a following of people who are attracted to the idea of pushing their bodies to the extreme and who get hooked on the “high” they can get from doing that. When you mix that with the abusive and narcissistic persona of their "guru” you end up with what many call a cult like culture around Bikram/”hot yoga.” That culture is evident in various online forums, like Reddit’s r/yoga subreddit. There, we encounter a relatively steady stream of people who try Bikram/”hot yoga” and who complain about being very dizzy or light headed, or nauseous or of vomiting or even fainting, all signs of dehydration and heat stress, the primary issues associated with this kind of exercise, which can be very serious and dangerous.

The response to people experiencing these problems when doing this style of “yoga” (why we refer to it in quotation marks is explained a bit later) is nearly universal and even more dangerous. They tell them to 1) hydrate more and 2) to “push through it.” We almost never see a proponent of Bikram recommend backing off, taking it easy or listening to their bodies. Some of the more enlightened Bikram followers will occasionally say something like, “well, Bikram isn’t for everyone.”

What you will not hear from a Bikram advocate is a thoughtful message from yogic teaching, that is really all about learning to listen to our bodies by building the body/mind connection. That is because they are too busy telling people to suppress the feelings they are having and to “push through them,” which is 100% counter to yogic teaching. That is one of the reasons we put “yoga” in quotation marks when we talk about Bikram or hot “yoga.” The only thing this kind of exercise has in common with actual yoga are the poses done. But, all kinds of things use yoga poses that are not actually yoga. Physical therapists use yoga poses for strength building and stretching. But, they don’t claim to be teaching yoga. Pilates uses yoga poses, but does not pretend to be yoga. “Hot yoga” uses yoga poses, but does not actually teach yoga. Much of what it teaches is, in fact, untrue and the opposite of yogic training. None of that should be particularly surprising to anyone who examines the life of the man who created it. He is an abusive narcissist and sexual predator who put some of his own worst tendencies into the practice he created and then lied about nearly all of it.

The problems with dehydration and heat stress associated with this kind of exercise are made worse by the fact that the damage done to the body can be cumulative. Each time you expose your body to heat stress, more damage is potentially done. And, while some organs, like your liver, may be able to heal and recover over time, your kidneys cannot. So, the damage done can be long-lasting or even permanent, even if your immediate symptoms disappear within hours or days.

To be clear, however, there can be some great physical benefits to doing hot yoga. A recent study saying so is widely touted by advocates of it as proof that it is good for you. What they fail to recognize is that the physical benefits of hot “yoga” are the same as those of actual yoga, which does not pose the risks associated with Bikram, nor does it come with the toxic culture filled with misinformation that pushes people to do more than they should.

For all of those reasons, we agree with Consumer Reports that Hot “Yoga” is a dangerous fad, and should be avoided, particularly as a long-term practice.

In yogic teaching, samskaras are often described as “impressions on the mind.” They are generally things we believe to be true, but that may or may not be. They are also often unconscious and subtle, even if they might have huge impacts on our experience of daily life. When our samskaras are about our own bodies, they can have profoundly negative effects.

In some ways, you can think of a samskara as a habit. It is much more than that. However, it is a kind of habit. It stems from the idea that each thought we have or behavior we do leaves an “imprint” on our minds. Once an impression is made by that thought or behavior, it becomes easier and more automatic to repeat it later on. The more often it is repeated, the more ingrained it becomes. Think of samskaras as thought and behavior habits, or established neural pathways, scientifically speaking. Think of them as a form of bias or prejudice. Think of them as impressions on your mind, footprints that turn into trails through your consciousness when you walk them regularly. When your conscious mind is not being deliberately focused or directed, it naturally stays on the trails. Those trails through your consciousness, that your mind naturally follows when you are not intentionally directing its focus (which, frankly, most of us rarely do) are samskaras.

Said more simply, samskaras run your life, unless you intentionally focus your mind in another direction and intentionally change them.

At least, that is my simplified, westernized explanation of what they are.

Samskaras and Our Bodies

Because we live in a society where bodies are generally treated as shameful, we take in a fairly constant stream of mental impressions, foot prints on our psyche, that tell us our bodies are bad, wrong and shameful; that they must be covered up. Add to that the fact that the bodies we tend to see (because most everyone is covering up all the time) are those presented to us in film and other media, that have often been made-up (with makeup), photoshopped and pre-screened to present “perfect” bodies that do not represent how any of us look, and it is easy to see that we are continually fed a misleading message that suggests “I’m too fat,” “I’m not tan enough,” “My legs are too short,” “My [blank] is not big enough,” or, maybe it’s too big, or too thin or… fill in the rest…it’s a never ending list.

So severe is the samskara of body shame in our culture that we needed to be very careful of the image we used for this post, out of fear that simply showing human bodies would get us banned from this blogging platform. That fact alone proves the well-trod path of body shame present in the collective psyche of modern society.

It Hasn’t Always Been This Way

When the British colonized India, their soldiers wrote about the “strange natives” that would “sit, stand and lay about in strange postures”… “without clothing.” They were describing the practice of nagna or naked yoga, which was often coed and practiced very publicly in India before the British colonization.

Back then, bodies were blessed and divine, seen as the vessels that carried our consciousness through our lives. The practice of nagna yoga celebrated that and true to yogic tradition did so by experiencing and celebrating the body as it actually is, instead of some made-up fantasy of what it “should” be. Bodies did not need to have a certain shape, color or texture to be beautiful and divine. They just naturally were.

It’s hard to fully honor our divine bodies while hiding them or covering them up, or by trying to enhance them with clothing or makeup that makes them look different.

Nagna Yoga Today

A small number of yogic sects still practice nagna yoga in India. Most of them are exclusive to male yogis, and are often associated with a commitment to a lifelong spiritual path that includes celibacy. In the West, however, naked yoga classes are becoming all the rage for men and women, sometimes in coed classes, but are also often segregated by gender. A simple Google search will yield countless stories of people taking their first naked yoga class, which isn’t really surprising. What is surprising to some people, however, is how similar the experiences are and the profound impact they can have for those willing to take the risk of trying it.

This writer said it like this:

I found the actual act of yoga while naked to be pretty freeing. I hate fiddling with my shorts, and having to adjust myself, and I hate fixing my shirt when it gets soaked in sweat. When I first started yoga in college, the studio I attended let men take off their shirts. I’ve always missed those days. But now, being naked, there was nothing else to focus on except the pose itself.

This one wrote:

I've never felt quite so in tune with how my body was working. It really was freeing.

In most of them, there is a theme of fuller body awareness; a sense of freedom and liberation. For some, their first naked yoga experience brings a life changing shift in how they feel in their body, as this writer described was the case for her. That’s because doing yoga naked in a room full of other naked people helps them to let go of body shame in a way that is healthy and constructive and fun. It is a way of stepping way outside of the well-trod paths that their samskaras have left in their minds while creating new, healthier ones.

In a typical naked yoga class, there is a diversity of body sizes, shapes and colors. All are honored equally. All are seen as divine. Many students who practice naked yoga report feeling a significantly greater appreciation for more body types, and, particularly their own.

There is something profoundly beautiful about being in your most pure and vulnerable state and being accepted and honored by those around you. That is the experience of naked yoga. It is a way of intentionally creating a new set of ideas and thoughts about our own bodies that is profoundly simple yet very powerful.

If the thought of doing naked yoga with a group of other people makes you feel a little anxious or nervous, it might be because of negative samskaras that would be helpful to think of changing.

Finding a Naked Yoga Class

When searching for naked yoga classes, don’t be turned away by the number of videos you may find featuring very fit and firm naked men and women performing in what can only be described as soft porn. That’s not really how most naked yoga classes look or work. Most instructors in most classes go out of their way to ensure the environment is safe, supportive and not sexualized. Most naked yoga classes are like any other yoga class, with the exception of the clothing. Any nervousness about nakedness or sexuality disappears quickly once the yoga starts and the body and breath begin to be challenged. That being said, there are classes that incorporate tantric yoga techniques and partner yoga to intentionally build sexual energy.

Know your comfort level with this and search for a class that fits with your comfort level. Don’t be afraid to ask the instructor before hand.

There has been a LOT going on at the Farm this fall. After our most abundant harvest ever we are getting ready to settle in for the winter. We have added a new and more substantial greenhouse over our chicken coop and right outside our new indoor yoga studio. Our new yoga studio is, in and of itself, a pretty amazing addition to the farm. In addition to the Chicken greenhouse on the west side of the room, the south side has a giant window that overlooks our wood-fired pizza oven & hot tub as well as our chicken play yard. We are still working to get the space decorated. We are going with a tropical plant theme. However, we could not resist bringing in some of our giant kale trees from our front yard kale forest. We think they look beautiful. We know they taste great!

If you want to know more about the yoga going on at the farm, check out https://utsahayoga.com.