mchen@heraldsun.com; 419-419-6636
DURHAM — Mani Tyler walked into a Bikram Yoga center in New York nearly two years ago on a whim.
What she experienced there, as she practiced yoga in a 105-degree heated room, changed her health and her mind — and it looks like her life as well.
“Never too late, never too old, never too bad, never too sick to begin again,” Tyler said, summing up the Bikram philosophy.
Tyler, who has spent the past two years familiarizing herself with Bikram and becoming a certified teacher, recently signed the lease on a 4,000-square-foot space in the southeast corner of Golden Belt.
Along with business partner Ralph Newman, a forensic psychiatrist, Tyler hopes to open a Bikram Yoga facility in Golden Belt by April.
About 1,500 square feet of the space would be set aside for yoga classes and be kept at 105 degrees temperature and 40 percent humidity. It would be outfitted with heaters and vents to circulate the air flow and continually pump fresh air inside, and the flooring would also be made of materials that have antibacterial effects.
Tyler said she also hopes to add a retail component that would sell yoga outfits, cosmetics and personal care products.
Bikram Yoga is a style of hatha yoga that is performed in high temperatures. It was formed by Bikram Choudhury, who founded a school for hot yoga training in Los Angeles.
Tyler said the heat helps thin the blood and relax muscles, making it easier to teach the body endurance, strength and flexibility. The basic postures taught in the class won’t include such common postures as downward-facing dog, Tyler said, or any other postures that place unnecessary pressure on small joints.
Each class is 90 minutes long and includes 27 basic postures and two breathing exercises.
Becoming a Bikram Yoga teacher was not what Tyler originally planned for her life. A former sales and marketing agent for Ralph Lauren and then Estée Lauder, Tyler said she had lived in New York for 10 years after attending Harvard University. She lived and worked in Midtown Manhattan, but eventually grew tired of the noise and relentless energy of the city. She had reached a point in her life where she needed to make some changes, but didn’t know how.
It was then that she walked into the Bikram facility in New York, and the experience gave her a new take on life.
“I never thought that I could be happy doing just what I enjoy doing,” Tyler said. “I used to be one of those people — Like, grrr, super competitive.”
After attending Bikram yoga classes, Tyler also signed up to become a teacher and trained to be a Bikram franchisee. For much of 2009, she had put her essentials into a car and driven from Massachusetts to Texas and back, teaching Bikram Yoga up and down the East Coast.
Tyler said she never thought she would be able to open her own business, but has now staked out a home for herself, and her business, in Durham.
“Durham is like what Williamsburg in Brooklyn was like 10 years ago,” she said. “This place is going to be bustling.”
For information, go to www.bikramdurham.com or call (917) 279-2127.
