I was completely disappointed with my first experience of bikram yoga today at the Rain City studio. The teacher recited from a script and repeated EVERYTHING twice and talked a mile a minute. She did not model any poses and made no adjustments on anyone, including newcomers. When asked after class, she stated that bikram teachers do not have permission to touch and cannot make adjustments. Also, it is a yoga style where the teachers do not move through the asanas with the students.
This raises some red flags for me - as a student, I look for a teacher's ability to teach effectively and for evidence of their knowledge base.
The script was awful and full of grammatical errors.
"Complete relax."
"Touch you knee with your forehead exactly."
"You should look like a Japanese sandwich from the side."
Savasana was torture. "Relax the feet. Relax the feet. Relax the calves. Relax the claves. Relax the knees. Relax the knees. Relax the arms. Relax the arms." All the way up the body to the eyes and forehead. It must have gone on a full 2-3 minutes. Everything repeated twice. Everything repeated twice. Fucking torture. No "OM" and no "Namaste."
There were about 25 people crammed into a 105 degree room of perhaps 700 square feet. We were crammed less than half a foot distance from one another. And I was sandwiched between a 6-foot-tall woman and a tiny female who was clearly experienced in bikram. My neighbors did a poor job of staggering themselves and as a result, we constantly bumped into each other, touching sweaty body parts. The woman next to me dripped on to my mat. Aversion, oh aversion.
Exhale yoga drew from bikram somewhat, but is a million times better.
