Bikram Yoga Capital Area to be region's first, opening in East Lansing

Ann Chrapkiewicz still remembers how she felts after her first Bikram Yoga class in 2003. 

 

"My whole body seemed to be functioning in a different way," she says. "I felt so good so quickly that I couldn't stay away."  

 

Chrapkiewicz immediately began practicing six days a week, and a year later attended Bikram Yoga Teacher Training in Los Angeles. After teaching at Bikram Yoga studios throughout the state, she's now opening her own business, Bikram Yoga Capital Area (BYCA) right in East Lansing's Brookfield Plaza. 

 

The 3,600 square foot studio is now under construction, transforming from a former grocery store space to a studio for yoga practiced at 105-degree heat and 40 percent humidity. The renovations include flooring, lighting, a new sound system, mirrors, new showers and changing rooms. 

 

Chrapkiewicz, who moved to the area five years ago to begin work on a doctoral degree in anthropology at MSU, says the nearest Bikram Yoga studio is 60 miles away. 

 

Bikram Yoga students all around the state of Michigan have been asking for a studio here for nearly as many years," says Chrapkiewicz. "So, after a long wait, the capital region and MSU will have access to this yoga."

 

BYCA will open in mid-June offering more than Bikram's Beginning Yoga class 30 classes each week. The studio will begin with a staff of five teachers with the support of four out-of-town instructors teaching occasional classes.