So my girlfriend's sister is a huge fan of Bikram yoga (or hot yoga if you don't want to deal with Bikram's copyright issues). She talked us into giving it a try. We found a local hot yoga studio and were going two or three times a week for a week or two before life intervened and prevented me from going for a while. While we were going I was loving it and felt great! Granted it was hard, and hot, but I liked the way it stretched me out and the hot room was getting more and more pleasant as it got colder and colder outside.
However, since I've stopped going I've been feeling like crap. I ache all over. I regularly feel weak, as if I've got mono again. Several of my joints feel as if they have been sprained or damaged. At first I thought it might just be because the yoga had made more sore and I was recovering. But it's lasted for a solid two weeks of rest.
Note, I've been a swimmer, a hiker, a climber and an ultimate frisbee player for most of my life. I've been on a trail crew and hiked all over the White Mountains. I've played through long frisbee tournaments and survived swim team training trips. I'm accustomed to the achings of a sore and battered body. These are not them.
Other folks I've talked to speak as if they are addicted to Bikram, as if they feel physical withdrawal symptoms when they stop doing it. Granted, I've spoken the same way of Ultimate Frisbee - so I'd take it with a grain of salt.
But taking that with the way I feel, I wonder if Bikram Yoga is in fact good for the body as advertised or if it is doing subtle damage. It is a relatively young form of yoga, supposedly, created in the last couple of decades by adding the heat to a specific sequence of ancient yoga positions.
So the question is, what are the known risks of Bikram yoga? Has it ever been known to do more harm than good? Is it at all possible that it's doing me harm, or am I just sore and aching because I've never used these muscles in this way before?
