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  • Hell-Bent

  • Obsession, Pain and the Search for Something Like Transcendence in Bikram Yoga
  • By: Benjamin Lorr
  • Narrated by: Ben Lorr
  • Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
  • 5.0 out of 5 stars (9 ratings)

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Hell-Bent

By: Benjamin Lorr
Narrated by: Ben Lorr
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Publisher's Summary

Author Benjamin Lorr wandered into a yoga studio - and fell down a rabbit hole. Hell-Bent explores a fascinating, often surreal world at the extremes of American yoga. Benjamin Lorr walked into his first yoga studio on a whim, overweight and curious, and quickly found the yoga reinventing his life. He was studying Bikram Yoga (or "hot yoga") when a run-in with a master and competitive yoga champion led him into an obsessive subculture - a group of yogis for whom eight hours of practice a day in 110-degree heat was just the beginning. So begins a journey.

Populated by athletic prodigies, wide-eyed celebrities, legitimate medical miracles, and predatory hucksters, it's a nation-spanning trip - from the jam-packed studios of New York to the athletic performance labs of the University of Oregon to the stage at the National Yoga Asana Championship, where Lorr competes for glory.

The culmination of two years of research, and featuring hundreds of interviews with yogis, scientists, doctors, and scholars, Hell-Bent is a wild exploration. A look at the science behind a controversial practice, a story of greed, narcissism, and corruption, and a mind-bending tale of personal transformation, it is an audiobook that will not only challenge your conception of yoga, but will change the way you view the fragile, inspirational limits of the human body itself.

©2012 Benjamin Lorr (P)2014 Audible Inc.

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I love yoga and I loved this book

I have a daily Iyengar practise, and was curious to learn about competitive yoga and Bikram, both of which are outside my practise. Ben does a great job of narrating his story, which is well researched, insightful and thoughtfully written. His curious, lively mind comes through in his writing.
As an aside, my hatha teacher training was the opposite of what Bikram inflicted on his students in later years. It's a pity his petulant, inner child ended up dominating. One more guru's fall from grace.

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  • 04-07-2021

Phenomenal

This was brilliant! finishing this audio with my jaw on the floor, not only was it brilliant it's one of the best books I have experienced. I am in this yoga community and this book has given me so much clarity.

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