Hot Yoga is Bad for the Planet

A friend bestowed upon me a 30 day free pass to Bikram Yoga. I didn’t know whether to say “thank you” or “damn you”, because I knew I’d use the pass, as I like working out and I’m too poor to pay for classes, but I also knew I’d hate it.

Bikram Yoga is torture, yet it’s good for you. I always feel great afterwards, but for the ninety minute duration of the class I feel lightheaded, nauseous, and dizzy. The instructors say it’s because I don’t drink enough water throughout the day, and though that may be true, I have to wonder, “Don’t you think it might be the 120 degree heat?”

Aside from the nausea, my strongest observation about Bikram Yoga is the unsustainable material impact. Simply put, it’s bad for the environment. A single class requires the following materials:

• shorts
• tank top
• two towels (one for laying on the floor under my mat, because the floor is so sopping and stinky that I want as little of my mat to touch it as possible, and one for on top, to absorb the sweat.)

After each class, my outfit is soaked (as in dripping), as is the top towel. The bottom towel reeks of old carpet bacteria and the sweat-of-many-strangers. Therefore, all of these items go straight into the washing machine after each and every class. What is that – fifteen gallons of water per ‘small load’ cycle?

Also, the locker rooms are stocked with small plastic sacks – like the kind you get in the produce department – to put your sopping clothes in so that the interior of your gym bag doesn’t get wet.

The impact:

• 15 gallons of water
• 1/4 cup laundry detergent
• 1 yard of plastic

Finally, the studio I’m doing this in has horrendous fluorescent lighting. I have to wonder about the energy being used to light the studio, as well as to keep the heaters running.

All this in the name of detoxing our bodies.