Student testimonials. This is what some of our students have said about Bikram Hot Yoga. If you have a story you would like to share please email the usual address: info@bikramyogabristol.com

We would like to thanks all our students for their dedication and great pratice

Deb: I started practising Bikram Yoga 7 months ago, at the age of 45. I guessed I was probably halfway through my "innings", and wanted the second half to be as full and rich as possible. For that, I needed to be as healthy and strong as I could be. I also gave up alcohol at the same time.

Bikram has become an essential part of my life. Physically I can see that my body-shape has changed, I am certainly fitter and stronger, and emotionally I feel calmer and more grounded. With 3 children, that is a definite asset!

But the thing I have found most extraordinary, is the constant dialogue I now have with my body. It is as if the yoga has opened internal doors I never knew I had. Simply in the day to day, I am always conscience of how I am holding my spine, and aware of the way my energy levels shift, however small the change. I feel a new connection with my body; that I inhabit it more intensely, and treat it with more care and respect, as you should a loved one!

Yesterday I went to my first advanced class. As Richard has said so often: "Yoga is a journey" and I realised I was still on the nursery slope! But rather than feel intimidated and defeated, it was inspiring. I feel tremendously excited by what lies ahead, of all the things I have to learn, of the break-throughs I will make, however incrementally. But that's OK...I have 45 years, at least!

Barbara: Without previous trekking and altitude experience, a 4 day trek to 14,000 ft in the Atlas mountains in August seemed a bit of a challenge. I was really happy that regular Bikram yoga practice had been the best preparation to just roll with whatever each day had to offer and enjoy every minute of this amazingly beautiful country. I didn't have any physical problems or "I'm going to give up" episodes. Despite the 36C heat (or maybe because of ?!), long days trekking, basic camping and thin air, my stamina, back, legs and breathing all took to it like a duck to water. I'm looking for the next trek.

Bob: I went for a run (jog) from my Cambridge hotel room yesterday evening - 20 mins out and 20 mins back. This was my second run in 15 years and it felt great (the first was our Charity run for the Future on Sunday). Of course, I couldn't (wouldn't) have done it without Bikram Yoga. Thanks.

Chantal: One day, a couple of months ago I noticed a colleague of mine, a man in his 40's, looking really well. He walked more positively, his shape had changed and he seemed a lot more relaxed (we both have very stressful jobs). I told him he was looking good and he replied, 'It's hot Bikram yoga, it's changed my life. I was sceptical at first, due to forever injuring myself in sport I had tried just yoga and did not enjoy it at all. I am the type that needs to get the heart racing and the body sweating to feel I've done something! I'm 51 but fitter than I have ever been before - through massive effort and dedication. I do duathlons, cycle a lot up the steepest hills in Bristol, do some spinning, weights, circuits. I am, however, prone to injury and have had more than my fair share of bad luck - medically speaking.

In the last 8 years, in approximately this order: I tore my anterior cruciate ligament; big op, 3 months in a knee brace. 4 cartilage ops followed - my knee looks like a bomb has hit them, scar tissue, pain on and off all the time. Then as a result of poor rehabilitation I got a back injury from walking badly - my nerve got trapped between 2 vertebrae and I lived with quite severe sciatica down my entire (bad) leg for almost a year. I had the sort of op where you have to sign saying it's ok if you never walk again... Luckily it was a total success - though I had to lie flat on my back for a month. Then I got tennis elbow - I don't even play tennis! Another op to replace/retie the tendon. There were other small ops along the way, but then came the big one. Cancer. Started as a persistent cough - many tests later it turned out to be thyroid cancer. Now, after two throat operations and two doses of radiotherapy, I have no thyroid and on high doses of thyroxine - but, thank goodness, utterly signed off now with the check ups in hospital.

So - on to Bikram. I was very sceptical but also very cautious, worried that, being so stiff in the knee (bits of metal in there too), the back, the elbow I would not last 10 mins in that hot room trying positions I felt I had no hope of success with. But I saw the special 2 week offer in the lovely juice stall in St Nick's market(now firm mates) and signed on. I almost didn't last the 1st session! As I lay down for the 1st time, thought 'this is fine, not hot at all' (ha-ha)... but by the end of the 1st breathing exercise I felt faint. This continued throughout the lesson, mixed with nausea and being uncertain of what I had to do (apart from incapable of doing it..!). BUT the woman leading the class - and all the other teachersafter that - WITHOUT EXCEPTION - were so patient, clear in their instructions, supportive and encouraging - I continued to attend. I went every single day for the 2 weeks and I would recommend to everyone that they do the same. Once or twice a week can't be enough at the beginning. I was on holiday so it was much easier. In every single lesson - once I relaxed into it - I felt an improvement. Every time I could go a little bit further. Just a fraction - but improvement was there. The thing is, the intense heat relaxes your muscles so much that you can attempt postures you know could not do in, say, a gym or at home. Not to start with anyway.

After only 16 days: I am doing every single posture, fairly well in some cases, from start to finish (bar one - more later) I am kneeling for longer periods - almost all the postures now. I have not knelt comfortably - following my various knee ops - for years! Really. During the day my knee hurts less, certainly. I am doing all the back exercises - which I have not done since my back op. I was so scared of injuring myself. Still am, a bit. But nothing I was asked to do in class hurt, so I persisted. My back is now slowly starting to feel stronger and every single lesson I push myself (in a pleasure/pain sort of way) a little bit further. The only posture that makes me feel really nauseous as soon as it's mentioned (and I now know this is psychological ) is the Camel... I just cannot do it. But hey - it's only been 16 days. I have years and one needs goals!

Yesterday I nearly cheered out loud (bad form during class...so I did it internally!) because, with legs stretched apart I actually touched my forehead to the floor. If someone had said that I would be doing that this summer I would have laughed it off. Until Bikram that would have been impossible.

Bikram has made me feel a different person. Physically exhausting - yes. Every time. More than the gym, more than my racing. 90 minutes sweating and doing hard stuff - aaagh! But later that day, I feel amazing. It took me about 10 days before I started getting the mental benefits - but that is getting better each time too. Forget the people who say you have to drink 1.5 litres of water a day - you'll be drinking more than that! I feel I sweat that much in a class - brilliant! And unlike that crippling feeling you get the next morning if you compete too hard in sport - I have never, ever felt stiff or aching the next morning. If you have only just started - stick with it! If you haven't started yet - why on earth not?!

Jane: Just wanted to say thanks for opening bikram Bristol. I just realised that I'm almost two years doing Bikram now and I love it as much as I did in the first few months. It's crazy what a big part of my life it is now and how positive it makes me feel about all aspects of my life. Thank you!

Emmy: Thank you so much for the classes so far, I think the studio and the teachers here are amazing!!

Emily: I just wanted to extend the most massive thank you to each and every one of you. I have had a tough few months due to the horrible problems I experienced just before I joined Bikram and coming to classes there has been the thing that has got me through it and I now feel healed thanks in a big part to each of you. Georgina - for helping me feel positive about my body again and make the first steps towards overcoming my scholiosis (I can already see a massive improvement). Carl - for real encouragement and helping me to mend my self-belief. Laura - for helping me to stay focused and 'in the room' not only improving my yoga but also allowing me the time to forget what was going on outside. Margaret - for your enormous warmth and making me want to do well in class for someone else not just myself. Jean - for giving me something to aspire to and putting fun into practice. Rachael - for listening and your fantastic support when I started (I look forward to your classes again now you are back). Magda - for your sunny smile each time I see you. Thank you so much again - I have benefited enormously from each of you and I hope that karma will give you each a lovely reward in return!

Julia: I thought to drop you a quick email to thank you for creating this studio and keeping it running. Bikram has helped me to improve so many things in my life on so many levels. I've been through tough times, and now I feel that I am in control again. It would not be possible without you, your passion, enthusiasm and all your hard work. I am very grateful for it, and all your efforts to keep the studio running, inviting new teachers, running the advanced class, etc are all much-much appreciated. I am pretty sure there are lots of people thinking and feeling the same. I know that it is a lot of work, but definitely worth it! Thanks once again!

Andréa: Ditch the Prozac... Bikram Yoga lifts your spirits like nothing else.

Bob: The 60-year old Bikram Virgin. The first thing that might have stopped me was the logo on the Bikram Yoga Bristol flyer. There was the arresting outline of a human body doing something that, for me, would clearly be impossible; a sylph-like form, doing the vertical splits, one foot pointing straight up at the ceiling, half ballerina, half gymnast, wholly daunting. I was too stiff to do that when I was five. At 60 and a bit, I could barely imagine standing on one leg, let alone the rest of it. Maybe if someone dismembered me with a chainsaw then bolted my limbs to the wall. Not otherwise.

Next came the thought that I would have to expose my time-raddled body, which is also beer, curry and pizza-raddled - to a room full of twenty-somethings who would be doing the whole vertical splits thing just for a warm-up. Speaking of warm, the third problem was the temperature. 42 degrees. I'm so old I think in Fahrenheit so it sounded a little on the chilly side. Then they explained. Oh, right. I didn't manage to overcome those three concerns but in the end I had no choice. Somebody who misunderstood the idea of care in the community trussed me up, gagged me and towed me there.

The first thing I discovered was that nobody in the studio was doing the vertical splits. The second was that at 42 degrees, everybody else is occupying their own private world, nobody has time to laugh and point and the sweat trickling into your eyes means normal vision is temporarily suspended. The next thing was that after spending the first session certain I was about to die, I got to the end, showered, drank quantities of coconut water and could actually imagine coming back to try it again. That's what I did, this time without the threats, and at the end of that session, I was actually enjoying it. Being large, stiff, grey, old and interested in getting even older, there were some things I couldn't do and moments when I lay quietly on the floor enjoying the effort being expended all around me but by the second week I found I was doing more and more of those things. After a month, I was doing almost all of it and felt about ninety-five years younger.

Bits of me that formerly resembled Michelangelo's David (in terms of rigidity rather than beauty) now bend. More important, I have discovered what they mean when they say this is open-eyed meditation. In the early classes, I was my own worst enemy. I would think restlessly ahead. How many more? How far have we got? Why do I do this? Can I remember where I live? Then something changed, a simple and basic realisation. I learnt to relax and give myself up to the words I could hear, the teacher's 90-minute monologue which is the sound track to each class. It propels you through like an automatic pilot. The powerful familiarity of those repeated, carefully-chosen words is the drumbeat, the engine and the mantra that gets you to the far end but only if you surrender to it.

Nobody pushes you. You do what you can but you soon start to push yourself because that makes you feel so good. I couldn't imagine doing it. Now I can't imagine not doing it. There's an unexpected comradeship in the changing room and around the desk. These are the people who share a secret about feeling good again.

Me? I can stand on one leg for a long time now. I can even bend over and do a whole bunch of other stuff at the same time. One day I'll be able to bend so far down I can touch my forehead on the floor, but that takes time so it might not be until I'm seventy.

Ali: After nearly a year of regular Bikram practice I could write reams on how much I have benefited - especially as I came to it having had two ACL reconstructions on my knees in recent years and couldn't even sit on my heels. However the essence of it is - it does do exactly what Bikram says it will do. I feel a happier, healthier, more sparkly version of myself than when I started. The flexibility, focus and fearlessness you develop through regular practice stands you in fantastic stead for the rest of your life as you realise that you are capable of whatever you chose to do.

Zara: Discovering Bikram Yoga has been fantastic. I was a Ballet dancer, then had a back injury, then 4 children and then a knee injury. I found a few things to keep active with the last few years like cycling and 5 rhythms and Qi Gong etc., but never found a yoga that really did it for me. Bikram definitely does. The last two years I didn't find I could do anything because of the knee injury and a baby and so was desperate to build strength again and get mobility back in my knee. The experience with Bikram has been amazing. I LOVE heat so that is a big plus and my knee has very quickly been improving. I would say that from 50% mobility without pain before I started, after 10 classes it was up-to 90%. What I didn't expect was for my old back injury to start opening up and releasing too. That is fabulous and the rest of me has been feeling great and strengthening, from skin to bone.

Rebecca: I started Bikram yoga in September with the goal of losing weight, but the benefits I've discovered far surpass my initial goal. I have learned to value strength, stamina and confidence over physical appearance, and am amazed with the effect my practice has had on calming and focusing my mind. Toning up and losing a bit of weight are just a bonus! Every class is a challenge and a joy and I always leave feeling proud of myself.

Barbara: I started Bikram yoga about three and a half months ago. In the last month I've started noticing my Bikram practice is making a big difference to my swimming (I've been swimming a mile twice a week for a few years) I swim the distance much faster, I need fewer strokes to do a length, I'm doing more lengths freestyle because my lungs fill up easier and get less tired, I don't feel I need a little break half way through my mile.

Larry: My first Bikram Yoga class last November was preceded by five months of horrible pain from a burst lumbar disc, it was sciatica gone stark raving mad. I got in a panic when I began to lose sensation in my right leg and foot. An MRI scan showed me what had happened but I didn't relish relying on painkillers and epidurals. When I serendipitously saw the advert for hot yoga I somehow knew that this was the answer, as it has proved to be. The round trip to Bristol from my home in Dorset is 150 miles, so I can only attend about twice a week. I love the heat and discipline and the loving and friendly atmosphere created by Georgina and Carl. The passionate commitment from all the other people in the class is encouraging, and my initial fear that it would be competitive has been dispelled. Every time I come I feel optimistic and enthusiastic - because I now have a way forward which does not put me in a passive victim stance at the mercy of medicine or surgery.

11/29/2011
Hard work but am feeling the benefits today!

11/25/2011
I adore the heat!

11/21/2011
Amazing experience. You feel great after!

11/18/2011
The class was AMAZING and I feel 100% better. The facilities were great (aside from there only being one female toilet) and I can't wait for the next class! Thanks!

11/18/2011
Harder than I thought it would be but still very enjoyable and I could feel the benefits of the session after.

02/04/2012
many many many thanks :)

01/29/2012
First session was hard work - felt dizzy, sick with the heat but once you overcome the heat it gets better.

01/28/2012
Great workout

01/24/2012
i enjoyed the class today, looking forward to my next class in 2 days time.

01/22/2012
I LOVE Bikram Yoga!

01/21/2012
Fantastic! Would highly reccommend!

01/10/2012
Brilliant, I hope you have more deals from them on

01/06/2012
Fab teachers and intense amazing classes even for beginners in any shape or condition....after 2 weeks I can see and feel the difference and am stronger, happier and have more energy! I will continue with this studio for Sure!! Thanks!!

12/19/2011
Its hard work, but definitely worth it! Had a session last night and I still feel good.

12/15/2011
Great class and instructor, lovely bright and clean changing facilities and entrance area. Carpeted studio means the smell could be fresher though!

12/12/2011
this was fantastic deal. Yoga in a hot room is fantastic for physical and mental health. More deals like this would be fantastic! thanx... it's going to help me thro the winter!!