Bikram Yoga Burlington Heats Up Vermont

It’s January 31st in downtown Burlington and Kelly Lyons is wearing a sports bra and bike shorts, standing in a puddle of her own sweat. The air around her is clocking in at an absurd 105 degrees Fahrenheit, and it keeps getting hotter. The 40% humidity in the room is palpable to the 30-odd students around her as Kelly twists and contorts her body into 26 different postures, each designed to speed up the heart rate, heat the muscles, and relax the mind. No, it’s not a freaky, almost-February heat wave in New England; Kelly is standing in Bikram Yoga Burlington, her hot yoga studio.
Since its creation in the 1970s, Bikram yoga has been sweeping the nation, purifying toxins and heating the muscles of hundreds of thousands of followers. The founding guru, Bikram Choundhury, believes that by intensely heating and humidifying the room where this yoga is practiced will warm up the muscles of participants more quickly, preventing injury in the long run, as well as expanding lung capacity and blood circulation. Bikram Yoga boasts an absurd following and many of practitioners of the healing practice claim that continued practice of the exercise have improved their overall health, healed ailments, and even cured diseases, such as lupus, arthritis, and low back pain.
Kelly Lyons, the founder of Birkam Yoga Burlington, is not denying or accepting these claims, but she does believe Bikram can change your life. Lyons started the studio in 1997 and it has been expanding the lungs and minds of Burlingtonites ever since. “I was working as a chef at the time I started practicing this form of yoga, and I just fell in love with it. My teacher moved to Rhode Island, so there was no one left to teach the class. I decided to open a studio in Burlington because of its population size and it’s been great ever since.” Any Google search of ‘Bikram Yoga’ will bring up thousands of hits, most of which contain words like ‘healing’, ‘miracle-worker’, and ‘pain-free’. Lyons acknowledges that this practice is different for everyone, but it definitely alleviated pain she was suffering with as a result of a biking accident.
“I had a bike accident where I hit a tree. At the time I started practicing Bikram, I was working as a chef. I’m right-handed, so the right side of my spine would go out all the time, causing me a lot of pain. When I started Bikram yoga, it really alleviated that problem for me. It brought this great sense of foundation and base that went hand in hand with everything else I wanted to do. I’m almost 42, I’ve been doing this yoga since I was in my 20s, and since then, I’ve maintained my weight within 5 lbs of my weight.”
Kelly also says, “I love Bikram because it brings mental and physical health together. The longer you practice the more you’ll see your body lengthen and flexibility increase. I thought it was great for people with injuries, because the hot yoga increases flexibility and warms the muscles up right away. You’re really working within all the systems in your body.” However, while the health benefits may come with time, the nausea and dizziness felt by many beginning students is available right away. The intense heat of the room combined with the close proximity of other practicing students can be overwhelming for any beginner. Lyons takes enormous care to make sure all of her 10 teachers are properly trained and certified, in both the Bikram method and proper safety protocol.
As for expansion, Lyons doesn’t see that as foreseeable in the near future. Although Bikram Yoga Burlington has a cult-like following, and has expanded from the starting point of 12 classes to the studio’s current 31, Lyons wants to make sure that this heated practice remains accessible for everyone, and that includes keeping the costs relatively low. “I wanted to create an environment that felt really inclusive for people. We opened with the studio years ago; people weren’t as familiar with yoga as they are now. It doesn’t matter where you came from, what you believe, or what you do. In my studio, you’ll see a dreadlocked, UVM student laying down their mat right next to a business man taking off his tie, and that’s exactly the way I wanted it to be.”
As for her business philosophy, Lyons becomes insightful when she replies, “My real belief is that you don’t have to be super active to do yoga. Yoga is a healing art; it’s not a performing art. It’s not about how far you bend to the right; it’s about strength and stretching, and that’s really what makes people coming back for more.”
Amanda Mahony