Colo. yogi debate heats up; hot yoga founder faces lawsuits

<p>(AP Photo)</p>
<p>Yoga at Sangam, the confluence of the Ganges, and Yamuna rivers, in India.</p>
Photo: Yoga in India
Yoga at Sangam, the confluence of the Ganges, and Yamuna rivers, in India.

yoga instructors in Colorado were adopting the warrior pose over a state agency’s effort to regulate their training of instructors? The New York Times talked to some of those yogis, who could owe thousands of dollars in fees a year to the state if the regulations go into effect and they aren’t happy.

“I get pretty fired up about this new thing with the government,” Annie Prasad Freedom, the founder of Samadhi Center for Yoga and Meditation, told the Times. “How can you have people who know nothing about yoga regulating yoga schools?”

Photo: Bikram Choudhury, hot yoga founder
Bikram Choudhury leads a yoga practice in Los Angeles in this 2013 file photo.

“hot” Bikram Yoga might not burn as many calories as its fans thought — between a third to a half fewer than the 1,000 calories some athletes claimed.

Now, the Associated Press reports that the founder of the hugely popular discipline is in hot water with the law. Bikram Choudhury is accused of sexual assault by six women. His Yoga College of India calls try charges “false.”