How to Do Bikram Yoga at Home

How to Do Bikram Yoga at Home

Bikram yoga, a 26-pose practice that is characterized by its setting in a 105 degrees room, is often called "hot yoga" and can easily be practiced at home. By learning the process, several different poses, and how to heat your home efficiently, you can practice Bikram yoga on your own and effectively lose weight, eliminate toxins from your body and improve your circulation.

What You Need

  • Bathroom with a hot shower
  • Humidifier
  • Music
  • Yoga mat
  • Warm clothing
  • Portable DVD player

Step 1: Locate a Spot for Your Yoga

To effectively do Bikram yoga, you will need to find a location in your house that can be isolated to increase the heat and humidity. For most people, this room will be the bathroom (provided it's large enough). Here, with the help of a hot shower, you can bring the temperature of the room up significantly, while increasing humidity as well.

Step 2: Heat the Room

If you are using the bathroom, turn the shower on hot and close the door to allow the room to steam up and heat up. If you have a humidifier, turn that on too so that the room is very humid and hot. If you have specialized heating that can be turned on in just one room, increase the heat of the bathroom or other room you have selected for your Bikram yoga practice. Otherwise, you will have to increase the heat in the entire house, which can be quite costly.

Step 3: Get Ready

Get dressed in a warm, but loose-fitting outfit. Wear long sleeves and socks to increase the heat of your body and promote sweating.

Step 4: Prepare Yourself

Turn on a CD of some relaxing music that you enjoy to soothe you during your workout. If you know your Bikram yoga routine, begin thinking about it now to ready yourself mentally for the workout. If you will be following along with a video, turn on your portable DVD player now and cue the video to the beginning.

Step 5: Practice Bikram Yoga

Peform your routine in one sitting, taking care not to exit the room and let any of the hot air out. Concentrate on holding your poses as long as you can and taking deep breathes of the hot and humid air as you proceed. The hot air often allows people to stretch even farther as it loosens up the muscles. After a few sessions, begin increasing the difficulty of your Bikram yoga routine by holding poses longer and stretching your body further than in previous sessions. 

Step 6: Stretch

Once your workout is completed, take a few minutes to relax on your mat and stretch while breathing in the moist and hot air around you.

Though there is more work in arranging a space to perform Bikram yoga, the payoff can be great, as Bikram yoga is very effective in losing weight. The combination of the muscle toning of Yoga and the ability to sweat heavily while performing Bikram yoga makes this a great low-impact workout for someone looking to drop pounds in an unconventional way.