Is Hot Yoga Trauma-Informed?
The short answer is yes.
If we believe yoga is inherently trauma-informed then that includes hot yoga.
When I speak about hot yoga, I am not referring to any yoga in a heated room. I am referring to the 26and2 set sequence that Bikram popularized in the west, and that he learned from his teacher, Bishnu Ghosh (More on that below).
Most people believe trauma-informed yoga is a restorative practice, but it can also be an Ashtanga practice, a vinyasa practice, a hot yoga practice.
A Strong Yoga Class Doesn’t Necessarily Mean It’s Not Trauma-Informed
A trauma-informed environment is a space that offers choices to the students to become aware of, befriend, and see the body as a resource. It is a space that does this without providing more trauma to the students.
Although we use the word trauma a lot that we can become desensitized to it, the truth is that it is not rare to have or to know someone who has trauma. According to the National Center for PTSD, 60% of men and 50% of women experience at least one trauma in their lives. Women are more likely to experience sexual assault and child sexual abuse. Men are more likely to experience accidents, physical assault, combat, or witness death or injury.
Argument #1 Against Practicing Hot Yoga: Bikram Is A Predator
Most critiques of hot yoga are about how teachers hold space and, of course, the lineage. Let’s first address the elephant in the room and speak about the lineage of Bikram Choudhury. He is a charismatic capitalist. He is a sexual predator. He may have been great once. He was popular in Hollywood in the 1970s the way he was popular as a masseuse to Bollywood stars when he was in India. He also abused his students when he had more power to get away with it by creating a culture where he was answerable to no one. This is the antithesis of living your yoga.
Students and teachers struggle with this. I have struggled with it. How can I love a practice that comes from a figure whose actions I don’t agree with?
I always think of what Edwin F. Bryant shares in his commentary on Yoga Sutra 1.15:
As an aside, many Hindu gurus and yogis have been embroiled in scandals that have brought disrepute to the transplantation of yoga and other Indic spiritual systems to the west… If one reads the early hagiographies of many Hindu gurus whose integrity was later found compromised, one is struck by the intensity, devotedness, and accomplishments of their initial practices. Nonetheless, however accomplished a yogi may become, if he or she abandons the practices of yoga under the notion of being enlightened or of having arrived at a point beyond the need of practice, it may be only a matter of time before past samskaras, including those of past sensual indulgences, now unimpeded by practice, begin to surface. The result is scandal and traumatized disciples. There is no flower bed, however, perfected, that can counteract the relentless emergence of weeds if left unattended.
He may have been great but he was no longer living his yoga. His actions do not mean the practice of yoga does not work. We like to throw the baby out with the baby water. Yoga does work but if you do not practice it, it is easy to slide back. It is easy for us to go to what attracts us, to avoid what repels us. Doing the work is not easy and it is not done once. You come up against the same lesson, not because you still haven’t learned it but because this is the nature of living on earth.
Bikram has made it so that he is the face of hot yoga but he is not the originator. He is not the creator. He tried to copyright it, but you do know that he is teaching a sequence that he learned from his teacher Bishnu Ghosh, right? Ghosh was the brother of Yogananda and he provided personalized yoga therapeutic prescriptions to people. Bikram was lucky to be given his opportunity to teach from Ghosh.
As for marketing and branding, many hot yoga studios do not call themselves Bikram hot yoga studios the way that they used to ten years ago. They have separated from him and his brand. They can also choose not to train with Bikram but train with other teachers. They do not follow the Bikram Dialogue that you need to memorize in order to pass your training and receive your certification as a Bikram Hot Yoga teacher.
Now let’s unpack the practice.
Argument #2 Against Practicing Hot Yoga: The Practice Is Torture
Hot yoga students are a little bit obsessive with their practice. Why? Because it works. Hot yoga practice is effective.
Effective for what?
I’m not going to pretend that hot yoga doesn’t attract fitness junkies or people who want to lose weight. For the record, I will say that there is nothing wrong about wanting to lose weight. It’s not superficial to want to feel good about yourself. At the same time, I am critical about anti-fat culture, and I would be cautious about recommending people to try out hot yoga if they only want to lose weight. The heat makes it easier for us to stretch so it can lead to injury or to not working as hard if you were to build your own body heat yourself.
It is effective for increased flexibility, heart health, and lung capacity. The energetic benefits are invaluable, personally. There is no other feeling than coming out of a hot yoga class, sharp and energized yet relaxed and clear.
That’s not to say that the practice is for everyone.
Crossfit is not for everyone, but it works.
When I say “not for everyone”, are you thinking gotcha! Irene, how can you say that hot yoga is trauma-informed if you are now saying it is not for everyone? Isn’t it a cop-out to say that? How can it be truly be inclusive if there is self-selection going on?
When I say not for everyone I mean that some people just don’t like certain styles of classes. It doesn’t mean the class is not trauma-informed or there’s something wrong with it. It just means it’s not their cup of tea. We can agree that we like certain things without then universalizing or moralizing what we like as the best thing. Yes, for us, it is the best thing but it may not be the best thing for someone else.
The main distinction here is whether a student feels welcome in class. Do they feel judged? Do they feel like an outsider?
When you enter a hot yoga class, you have read the class description. You have spoken to someone at the front desk, presumably to get a better understanding of what is in store for you. No one is forcing you to take the class.
In hot yoga classes in the past, particularly led by Bikram teachers, there was no choice for the students. It was a common occurrence for teachers to:
Prevent a student from leaving the class if they were too hot.
Berate students if they moved too fast or too slow.
Give students a nickname and sassily bully them.
Probably countless examples of not being a trauma-informed practice.
The sassy bully culture was how Bikram teachers emulated Bikram’s provocative way with his students, and it is more of an offshoot of fitness culture than it is yoga culture. And these common occurrences are not trauma-informed markers of a safe space. Some students really enjoy it. Other students may feel unsafe or activated. We cannot predict what may trigger someone because triggers are not rational and are not always rooted in reality. At the same time, we can also do our best to minimize triggers from happening. This includes creating a safe space for students constantly throughout the practice.
How the class has been taught in the past is the problem. How teachers were/are still complicit with Bikram in creating a culture of silence is the problem.
The practice itself? It is a powerful physical sequence. I chose to use the example of Crossfit but a close corollary in yogaland would be Ashtanga yoga. Both are set sequences that require deep dedication, and they are both styles of asana that have been criticized for being a part of the problem with mainstream yoga and wellness.
Argument #3 Against Practicing Hot Yoga: The Students Are In A Cult
Hot yoga is hard class. It is a powerful class. A class can be hard without disempowering students.
The students that go are the students that prefer a strong teacher. A strong yoga teacher isn’t one that yells at their students. Many younger teachers teach in this way, and it takes time to learn how to create a strong class for students to gain energy from your energy. Hot yoga students can depend a lot on their teacher and their environment and they like knowing that each class they know what is going to happen. This predictability is actually a key characteristic of a trauma-informed yoga class.
From the outside, it looks like hot yoga is not trauma-informed but a teacher is offering the safeness of predictability and consistency. There are no fancy metaphors or different transitions. It is the same thing every day, and students that love this love this about the practice.
I should also finish my thought. The students that go prefer a strong teacher because they have a strong discipline for the practice. This means that they have that fire to keep going. This doesn’t mean students that don’t are weak. It just means that their discipline shows up in a different way.
A hot yoga teacher can be strong and empower others with their strength as opposed to taking away someone else’s power by dominating a class. A hot yoga teacher can be strong without yelling at a student. I know this because this is who I am as a hot yoga teacher. I know this because I go to a hot yoga studio that is like this.
All this being said, hot yoga can easily become just about fitness for able-bodied folks. It can become a chicken and the egg problem where studios don’t do anything to include new folks in to the practice but expect them to keep up with the regular students. If there are students that can’t keep up to the hot yoga sequence, they usually stick with the class since the class is advertised as suitable for all beginners. The rhythm and tempo of the hot yoga class is integral to the predictability of the sequence so creating another class to break down postures can be a solution for students to work on their fundamentals.
How to Practice Hot Yoga
Find a hot yoga studio that is not affiliated with Bikram. Not every studio is not going to be articulate about social justice but it should be clear in their communication about what their association is with Bikram.
Once you find a studio, find a class and see who is their student. The trendier a studio, the more likely it will attract a certain clientele that may be solely focused on looks and status that can be exhausting. I like a studio where there is a diversity of bodies and skin types and people of all ages!
Practice hot yoga with a teacher. I teach students on a 1-on-1 basis. Contact me here to learn more.
Hot Yoga Journaling Prompt
I’ll end this with a journaling prompt for y’all:
Do you remember taking yoga classes that made you shrink inside of yourself? What was the teacher or the space like?
Now recall a yoga class that challenged you that you loved? What was the difference?
Written By: Irene Lo