Bodies drip, backs twist and limbs extend in all directions as hands grasp desperately onto wet skin.
"Push back, lean back, fall back, more back, way back - change!" shouts the energetic voice over the microphone.
These people are not in hell; they are practicing hot yoga at the Bikram Yoga College of India's studio in Tenleytown. Bikram is a form of yoga where 26 demanding postures are performed in a room that is over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
Each week, AU students and members of the Tenleytown community flock to the Bikram Yoga studio for an hour and a half of sweating and burning. Students vary in age, strength and flexibility, but all come for the same reason - they love the heat.
"My muscles become more toned because I feel a burn, and I like the way it feels the next day," said Jasmine Elatab, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. "I like being in the hot room because I think it's good for my skin and the next day, I feel cleansed."
Bikram is a basic form of yoga and is suitable for beginners. Students who cannot master all the poses work at their own pace with the help of the instructor. Because the same 26 postures are performed, students can perfect their practice and begin to see results.
To encourage college students to practice, the studio has a $5 class special on weeknights for students with a college ID.
"College students like to work out, and they especially like to sweat," Director Elaine Rosenberg said. "A lot of the students are athletes, especially runners, and hot yoga is a great complement to running because it helps to counteract sports injuries."
The sweat produced in the hot room detoxifies the body and helps to achieve a deeper stretch, Rosenberg said. Other benefits of Bikram yoga include better concentration and memory, deeper sleep, flexibility and stress relief.
Yogiraj Bikram Choudhury, founder of the worldwide Yoga College of India, was inspired to take Bikram yoga around the world after it healed a crippling knee injury after which doctors said he would never walk again, according to bikramyoga.com. During his time of rehabilitation, he created 26 postures that restored his health, now called Bikram Yoga.
"I think it's different than a normal exercise, and there are more benefits," Elatab said. "Once you get into a certain exercise regiment, you stop seeing results, but not with hot yoga."
Rosenberg said the heat also produces a great deal of serotonin, a chemical that relaxes the body. The pain during the postures stimulates hormones that relax the body, so it feels at ease when the stretch is completed, she said.
On her Web site, Rosenberg warns that "Bikram yoga can be habit forming and result in increased energy and uncontrollable smiling."
"It happens to me at least once a week," Rosenberg said. "I get this incredible release of adrenaline, and I feel like running and dancing."
The studio is located at 4908 Wisconsin Ave. N.W. For more information on classes and schedules, visit www.dcbikramyoga.com.
