Judy C' De Baca holds one of the 26 poses done in a Bikram yoga sequence. (Journal photo by Marla Brose)

Lisa Salas, 48, was looking for a challenging workout that would help her lose weight and hold her interest.

Although she worked out at a gym, she wasn’t seeing the results she wanted, so she decided to try the intense and hot Bikram yoga practice.

But not just one or two days a week. Salas instead opted for the 60-day Bikram challenge, which as the name suggests means committing to doing the 90-minute Bikram hot yoga sequence of postures for 60 days in a row.

Three years later and 30 pounds lighter, she says that first challenge engaged her mind and body in ways that continue to motivate her.

And she isn’t alone.

“It was way harder than I expected,” says Salas, of Albuquerque. “It’s so good for your body internally and externally. No other exercise takes care of you on a cellular level so completely. It’s really that good. Somewhere along the way I managed to calm the mind and just let go. This technique has helped me in so many other areas of my life that have nothing to do with yoga.”

Anna Barnett, a medical doctor in Albuquerque, says she doesn’t love the 90 minutes she spends sweating each day at Bikram Yoga of Albuquerque, but she loves the ways she feels the rest of the day.

“Doing (Bikram yoga) 60 days in a row takes a discipline I normally don’t have,” she says. “It’s humbling. It’s not really convenient and you have to make time to do this challenge every day. You see a variation from day to day in your flexibility and your ability or inability to focus or not focus. It kicks my butt every time.”

To stay for a 90-minute class in a heated room — typically at about 105 degrees Fahrenheit and about 50 percent humidity, Salas says she had learn to tune out mental chatter so she could focus on fine-tuning the 26-posture sequence developed and copyrighted by founder Bikram Choudhury.

“It definitely takes someone who is willing to be disciplined,” she says. “The instructor is calling out directions the whole time, so you are listening, breathing, moving and surviving; this is discipline. If you want a workout that you really feel like you’ve worked out when you are done, then this is the one for you.”

Barnett says anyone can do it because students do what they are able to do, no matter what physical condition they may have or be in.

She does note, however, that someone with kidney problems might not be a good candidate for Bikram yoga because of the intense and profuse perspiration.

“It offers enormous health benefits for maintaining and improving flexibility and strength. It’s incredibly detoxifying,” she says.

Healing yourself

Barnett completed the 60-day challenge about five years ago. She now goes to the studio for classes about four or six times a week.

Although she has always been active, she says she especially enjoys the benefits of hot yoga because it is intensely cardiovascular for the first 45 minutes and the postures use body weight for resistance muscle training. “It’s all inclusive,” she says. “Don’t expect to love it, but expect to love how you feel afterward.”

The walls at the Juan Tabo studio of Bikram Yoga of Albuquerque are lined with charts of people who have completed a 60-day challenge.

Jeanette Lewis, owner and Bikram-certified instructor, says Choudhury created his hot yoga program after he used yoga to recover from a crippling weight-lifting accident. Doctors had told him after the incident that he would never walk again.

“We are very specific about sticking to form. If you do it right, you are healing yourself rather than hurting yourself,” Lewis says.

She says the yoga is safe for everyday practice because of the certified teachers who watch each student. They also follow a specific dialogue and sequence of postures, so every class is alike.

Lewis says students should be careful to stay hydrated. Because of the intense sweating and fluid loss during the classes, students should drink about twice as much water as they normally would, taking in fluids before, during and after a class.

Everyone is different, but replacing electrolytes, minerals in the body with an electrical charge, after a Bikram yoga class or any intense prolonged activity, is probably a good idea, she says.

When in her teacher training with two-a-day sessions, Lewis says, she craved Gatorade, even with all its sodium and sugar.

But “you don’t have to drink a Gatorade to replace your electrolytes,” she says. Sports drinks and other beverages like coconut water and foods like bananas, yogurt and soups can help replace the minerals lost sweating.

As for how it compares to other styles of yoga, Lewis says: “Any yoga is better than no yoga.” But, she adds that the combination of the heat and humidity, the pacing of the yoga poses and the practice of the same poses each time make Bikram yoga a different experience.

“If you did anything for 60 days, you would expect to improve physically,” she says. “But if you ran for 60 days in a row, could you do it safely?”

Lewis says she became a Bikram teacher and came to own her two Albuquerque studios (the other is on the West Side) because the hot yoga helped her. She started her practice with a 60-day challenge about five years ago and it increased how patient she was with her child, as well as helped with postpartum blues, painful wrists and aching hips.

Filbert Montes, assistant director at Bikram Yoga of Albuquerque, a certified Bikram instructor and a workers’ compensation attorney who sees many injured people, says hot yoga has rehabilitated people with injuries.

“This is physical therapy,” he says. “This is healing from the inside out. During a 60-day challenge your body is being restructured. I tell my students to do the postures and trust the process.

“It’s a hard practice. Yes, it is work. But in the first week alone your sleep and digestion improve. Make your own list. What do you want to improve?”