Hot Stuff 高温瑜伽在发烧

　　A traditional form of exercise is getting hot, both figuratively and literally 发热的传统运动在发热

　　Madonna swears by it. Gwyneth Paltrow can’t live without it. Nicole Kidman is a recent convert. They’re all talking about “Hot Yoga”, a new twist on an old exercise that has beautiful people all over the world rushing to sign up for yoga classes.

　　Yoga itself is very old – a key part of classical Indian philosophy. The word itself means “to unite”, and its aim is to unite the body with the mind and the soul. Yoga first spread to the west in the 1950s. But the newest fad is “Hot” or “Bikram” yoga, named after its “inventor” Bikram Choudhury.

　　Whereas traditional yoga is characterized by slow, peaceful stretching exercises, Bikram yoga involves vigorous stretching in a room heated to 35 degrees. The combination of heat and movement makes people sweat, which is supposed to remove toxins from the body. All this sweat has to go somewhere though and Bikram yoga classes are easy to spot because of people carrying around extra towels.

　　Hot yoga has its critics, who say that it can lead to heat exhaustion and muscle injuries. Choudhury is quick to respond that no one has been injured in his classes, and that the heat actually helps protect the body.

　　Others are angry that Choudhury has copyrighted a sequence of 26 yoga exercises, none of which were invented by him. He insists that anyone teaching these exercises needs to first graduate from his training program, and then pay him royalties. With over 900 schools worldwide, Choudhury and his lawyers have the resources to sue smaller schools out of business. “His whole attitude is what’s most upsetting,” says Lisa Pullman, a yoga instructor in San Francisco. “This idea that you can somehow ‘own’ yoga goes completely against the entire philosophy behind yoga.” Perhaps, but if Pullman catches Choudhury’s attention, his lawyers will be getting in touch.

　　玛多娜对它深信不疑。葛温妮丝•派特萝没它活不下去。妮可•基曼刚刚成为它的信徒。她们都在谈论“高温瑜伽”，一种旧运动的新手法，让世界各地的俊男美女争相加入瑜伽课。

　　瑜伽本身很古老——它是传统印度哲学的关键部分。这个词本身的意思是“统合”，它的目的在于整合身、心、灵。瑜伽在1950年代开始在西方世界传播。但是最新的时尚是“高温”或“比克拉姆”瑜伽，是以它的“发明者”比克拉姆•乔得瑞命名的。

　　传统瑜伽的特点在于慢速平静的伸展运动，而高温瑜伽则是在加温到35度的房间里做强劲的伸展运动。热和运动的结合让人流汗，据说这样会将毒素排出体外。但是这些汗水一定得流到某个地方，高温瑜伽班很容易辨认， 因为大家会带着特别厚的毛巾。

　　有人批评高温瑜伽，说那可能会导致热衰竭和肌肉受伤，乔得瑞很快回应说，他的班上没有人受过伤，而且热其实有助于保护身体。

　　其他人则对乔得瑞拥有一系列26种瑜伽运动的版权感到生气，这些全都不是他发明的。他坚持所有教授这些运动的人必须先从他的训练课程中毕业，然后付他版税。乔得瑞拥有全球900多所学校，他和律师有资源去控告比较小的学校，让它们关门。“他的整个态度是最让人讨厌的。”旧金山的一位瑜伽指导老师莉莎•普曼说，“你可以用某种方法‘拥有’瑜伽的这种想法，本身就完全不符合瑜伽背后的整个哲学。”也许是吧。但如果普曼让乔得瑞注意到了，他的律师很快就会和她联系。