Sentiments About Bikrams Yoga

June 11, 2014 by Zee Pee 11 Comments

I have yet to try it, but I’ve always wondered what all the fuss is about Bikrams Yoga. Personally, the idea of being in a sweltering hot room full of other sweaty people doing flexibility and strength training exercises doesn’t necessarily appeal to me but I can be swayed by a good argument.

In my quest to find out more about the practice and why people are so obsessed with it, I decided to see what I could find through a social media statistics search via HowSociable and SocialMention.

Unfortunately, HowSociable doesn’t have a lot of options for the non-paying customer, so all I could get from there were a number of seemingly arbitrary scores related to Bikrams and various social media networks.

Here are my findings:

Yeah, they don’t make much sense to me either…

SO, I ventured onto SocialMention which gave me significantly better results (and for free too!)

What I found was:

Bikrams has a 6% strength, 6:1 sentiment, 44% passion and 26% reach. There are an average of 58 minutes between mentions of Bikrams, and from when I checked the last mention was 24 minutes prior. There are 102 unique authors writing about Bikrams and the sentiments are divided into 44 positive, 192 neutral and 8 negative.

This was still a tad confusing so I figured I would analyze a few conversations myself and determine the sentiment reflected in them.

Without further ado, here is my analysis of 10 conversations about Bikrams Yoga (in no particular order at all, I just really enjoy countdowns):

10) Bikram Yoga for Panic Attacks

“I thought Bikram might help me manage stress but I was very nervous about trying it. It involved going to a place I had never been and staying in a room for 90 minutes with people I didn’t know. This is a terrifying prospect for someone with panics like mine. I literally had an entire therapy session dedicated to discussing if I could survive my first Bikram yoga class. I did survive. In fact, I thrived.”
Sentiment grade: +1

9) Can hot yoga benefit your young athlete?

“Hot yoga offers all these benefits for young athletes:

• Reduced risk of injury during sports due to increased flexibility of muscles
• Increase focus, concentration, and attention span
• Positive self-esteem
• More relaxation and better sleep patterns
• Greater sense of peace and contentment
• Better attitude; less anger”

Sentiment grade: +1

8) Bikram Yoga and Back Pain

“Over eighteen months, I saw slow progress.The miracle happened when I started practicing two times a day. It took me 10 days of doubles to be pain-free. PAIN. FREE. As in, no pain. I could sit without a back support. I could roll over at night. I could put my pants on standing up.”
Sentiment grade: +1

7) The Yoga is Innocent

“There have been many classes and moments throughout my years of practice that have brought me to tears of both joy and frustration. There have been days where I have spent the entire 90 minutes of a class hating the class, postures, teacher, heat, etc.”
Sentiment grade: 0

6) IsItBullshit: Hot Yoga (Bikram)

“It’s no BS in the sense that doing yoga in a hot room gives you a heck of a workout. Every once in a while you’ll hear somebody say that hot yoga “sweats out toxins” or something like that, and that’s most BS, yes. But the big idea behind hot yoga is that it’s a strenuous form of exercise that’s easy on your muscles and joints and makes you feel great for having done it. So in that sense, it’s not BS.”
Sentiment grade: 0

5) I am in my fifth week of Bikram Yoga Teacher Training AMA

“Hi Reddit! Like the title says I am a little over half way to becoming a teacher of Bikram Yoga. For those of you who have heard about this process and want to know more, I would love to talk about it. This is the hardest thing I have done in my 22 years, and yet I am still loving every minute of it.”
Sentiment grade: +1

4) Bikram Yoga Kitchener-Waterloo | Beautiful Short Film

“An inspiring story of how Bikram Yoga KW and the Bikram Yoga practice has profoundly changed the lives of some of its’ practitioners.”

 

Sentiment grade: +1

3) Got Bikram Yoga Again! 6 months unlimited!!

Sentiment grade: + 1

2) Yoga 101: Bikram Yoga Versus Hatha Yoga

“Bikram yoga does acknowledge the chakras and subtle energy bodies, and all the “spiritual” aspects of yoga, they’re just not taught in the classes. It’s kept simple and people can learn about it outside of the asana practice.”
Sentiment grade: -1

1) Popular hot yoga myths debunked

“Apart from possible injuries arising from over-stretching, intense sweating also brings about the risk of heat exhaustion and dehydration. Furthermore, those not used to exercising in a hot and humid environment may experience sluggishness, dizziness or nausea during their first initial lessons.”
Sentiment grade: -1

OVERALL SENTIMENT GRADE: 4

Not too bad, hey? Maybe I’ll give it a try…

Have you tried Bikrams Yoga? Thoughts?