Current location:	Philadelphia
Current mood:	mischievous
Current music:	Modest Mouse - Blame it in the Tetons
Entry tags:	bikram

Bikram Philadelphia - more Bikram Reportage
Did one session at the Bikram Studio in Philadelphia (http://www.bikramphiladelphia.com). Its hip, its urban, its got the coolest mural of a British Army officer riding a horse with a a blue Krishna dude riding next to him, best of all its Bikram and its pleasantly muggy.

I got there late, my bad, I always underestimate my ability to get lost, but I called ahead and all was coolness. The staff was young, in fact as I was walking in and about to climb the three flights stairs, one of the instructors walked in and we both went up the freight elevator. The first thing I noticed was that she was carrying a skateboard (more on the parking situation later), moreover it wasn't the kind of board most people use these days, the long wide boards with wide axles and tiny wheels. She had this totally retro skateboard, the kind we rode in the 70's - small, narrow, and with big polyurethane wheels. In my rush, I forgot to ask her about it, but I'm fascinated. Its like seeing a 20 yo using a rotary dial telephone.

The office part of the studio was on the third floor and it looked like there was another studio on that floor, but class was on the 4th floor. The studio looked like an old dance studio with polished wood floors. It is a large room and could probably fit about 50 people easily. It had the mirror in front but was atypical in that one wall was exposed brick and the back wall had the cool mural in the back. One end had windows with lots of good natural lighting. This is the first time I did Bikram on a hard floor as opposed to a carpeted floor. This means that we turned mats for some of asanas in the standing series, different but a small inconvenience for me. I usually carry my hugger mugger mat (http://www.huggermugger.com/) with me because hotel towels are not always ideal for Bikram. The mat is like a over sized bath mat with rubbery stuff on one side and psuedo-absorbent pile on the other. On a wood floor, the rubbery stuff doesn't grip that well and mat tends to stretch, so positions like triangle require a tad more effort to control, no biggie, but a typical sticky matt would work better on this type of floor.

The instructor was good he kept the transitions fast, I like the way he would do the usual Bikram patter then walk over to students an provide corrections using a softer voice. Nice technique. No headsets or speakers. I don't think there were any first timers in the class I was in and the 3:30 session ended on time. The other yoginis and yogis looked a typical young urban crowd, though it might be different crowd at a later class.

The downside of the studio is parking. It is in the downtown Philly so street parking is non-existent. There are garages on both ends of the street, one on 15th and the other on 16th. I parked on the 16th street garage. Does $16.50 for 2 hours sound like a total ripoff? If you can find another parking lot /garage or another way to get there do it.

The parking situation aside, I liked this studio, it looked like everyone was having fun and they were friendly. Definitely would go back.