I’ve actually tried Bikram Yoga at several places both in the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California.

If you’ve never tried Bikram, I think you should! It’s challenging, hot (105 degress + hot!), and will kick your butt every time no matter how often you go. The cons are that you do come out stinky, sweaty (perhaps even nauseous) and it may become a bit boring to some since the 26 poses that you do never change. Want a little more good news instead? 90 minutes seem to go by waaaay quicker than P90X’s Yoga.

For me, I enjoy it every time because pain is good. I first heard about Bikram from a friend’s Facebook status early in 2009 and was intrigued enough to search for one to go to. The verdict? I absolutely loved it! Do I say that enough?

Let me be clear, though. I don’t enjoy being in a super hot room nor do I enjoy actual pain, but what I do enjoy is how I feel afterward — renewed, toned, accomplished, and lighter!

I’ve been bugging my boyfriend to give it a try for almost a year, but he chooses to do his own thing — currently Muscle & Fitness magazine workouts (which are actually mags that I got for free…hehe). Whatever works for the individual is terrific so I won’t be a pest for now.

The following are the locations that I have done Bikram Yoga at as well as my personal non-comprehensive review of each:

**Note:  I won’t be addressing showers because I never use them at the studios.

• Bikram Yoga San Jose:  This is the first studio that I visited. I did their intro rate – 10 days for $20 bucks. I think they even had a better deal prior to that too, but I missed out on it. I think people complain about the carpet, but I didn’t really have too much of a problem with it. The teachers were pretty attentive and nice and the facility was quite clean. Plus, there’s plenty of parking so you don’t have to stress out.
• Bikram Yoga Fremont: This is the second studio that I tried. Decent studio, good teachers. My only complaint would be parking and location. It’s practically in the middle of nowhere next to a stereo shop so it’s really easy to miss. People tend to park in the red zones, but I didn’t like taking that risk so most of the time if I didn’t get there early enough to snag a spot, I’d end up parking across the street.
• Bikram Yoga Silverlake:  Very dim lighting and the smell was just too overbearing for me. I think it’s because they don’t have windows. Plus, the layout is not very mirror friendly with the random poles in the room. It did get an average of 4 stars on Yelp, but that rating definitely didn’t come from me.
• Bikram Pasadena:  Good teachers and clean studio. Parking is very easy. Once in awhile they have a friendly big dog that comes in and hangs out. I love dogs so that’s a positive impression for me.
• Bikram Yoga Downtown L.A.:  This studio tends to be pretty packed at night and the teachers are hit or miss, in my opinion. Some of them are good and others are just weird — as if they’re high on weed — They tend to speak nonsense that really disturbs my focus. However, this is where I discovered Kombucha — expensive, yet so addicting even though they don’t exactly taste good initially.
• Bikram Yoga La Canada: I like their assortment of yoga clothes (expensive of course) and their teachers are pretty good too — they seem to have a lot of faithful people who come by and chit chat with them. Parking can be crazy during the lunch hours so come early.
• Bikram Yoga South Pasadena:  I went here twice and the first time I felt really sick half way. It’s a nice studio, but for some reason I don’t like the bright little windows that they have on one side of the wall. It gives me a headache whenever I face it. They have plenty of parking on the streets as well as in the back of the building. I also got two class days for $15 since I was new to the studio.

I can’t say that I have a favorite studio, but I can say that I would probably stay away from Silverlake and maybe even Downtown L.A. The rest of the studios are decent overall.

Unfortunately Bikram Yoga, like many other types of paid workout sessions, is not cheap, but if you have some money lying around at least do the intro rates for new students so you can say that you’ve tried it.

I’m also going to be checking out Bikram Yoga Santa Clara very soon because of an awesome deal I found! A month for $40 bucks! I saved $110 bucks!

Excited yet? No? Yes? Regardless, I am and I sure hope that this simple review nudges you to check it out. Toodles!

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Related posts:

1. I Love Power Yoga More Than I Love Bikram :)
2. Yoga Is Amazing
3. Kombucha
4. Working Out Twice A Day
5. Vita Coco Coconut Water Review