Overview | Our Instructors
Bikram Yoga Westlake Village is owned by Mahnaz Jahangiri, a practitioner of Bikram Yoga with over 9 years of yoga experience and over 7 years of teaching experiences. Mahnaz was certified through the rigorous Bikram program in 2002, and has been instructing classes ever since, teaching Bikram techniques to hundreds of students. A graduate of Cal State Northridge, Mahnaz has spent more than a decade working in the Los Angeles-based television industry. Her passion for yoga instruction has gone beyond private instruction, having also taught classes for incarcerated youth at several locations in Southern California.
What Is Yoga?
Yoga is a form of exercise whose origins lie thousands of years ago, in ancient India. Originally developed as a preparatory stage of physical purification to render the body fit for the practice of higher meditation, yogaʼs spiritual origins have segued into a highly effective form of physical exercise. Yoga was introduced in the United States well over 100 years ago, in the late 19th century, and is currently practiced by over 16 million people in the U.S. alone.
What is Bikram Yoga?
Bikram (pronounced “bee-kram”) Yoga, also referred to as "hot yoga", is a style of yoga developed by Bikram Choudhury. Bikram Yoga is a unique sequence of 26 postures and two breathing exercises. These 26 postures systematically work every part of the body to give all the internal organs, ligaments, and muscles everything they need to maintain optimum health and maximum function.
What Happens in a Bikram Yoga Class?
Beginning students will attend a class and learn the sequence of 26 postures, performed over the course of a 90 minute session. The first thing youʼll note is that the room is heated. Heat is a crucial element of Bikram yoga, allowing the postures to be assumed with less chance of injury, while the bodyʼs natural perspiration mechanisms
help to efficiently eliminate toxins from the body.
What are the benefits of Bikram Yoga?
The most immediate benefit is an increase in physical strength and flexibility. The stretching of muscles, ligaments, and internal organs provides a wealth of additional benefits, including stress relief, improvement to immune systems, and better body alignment to prevent the need for chiropractic visits! Bikram yoga is also an excellent calorie burning solution, with an average class burning between 500 and 1500 calories. People who are rehabilitating from injuries often turn to Bikram yoga for its therapeutic effects, while people in otherwise good condition use Bikram yoga to retain their fitness at every phase in their lives.
Why Choose Bikram Yoga Westlake Village?
Our instructors have the experience and background to ensure that the experience of Bikram Yoga is always put forth using caring, positive, and safe methods. You will never be forced to perform beyond your comfort level at our facility, with instructors who are there to help you achieve your goals while being sensitive to your individual needs. We are located in a beautiful area of Westlake Village, with plenty of natural light in our newly-built studio. For your convenience, showers and changing rooms are provided, as well as plenty of free parking.
 Mahnaz Jahangiri - Owner
Although I have been practicing Bikram Yoga for 9 years, I never stop learning and evolving in my practice. Since I worked in the television industry for over 10 years, yoga has been my saving grace. The yoga has helped keep me control my stress and maintain a healthy body and healthy mind.
Since I became a teacher seven years ago, I knew I would want to have my own studio some day. I am happy to be back in the community where I grew up. Westlake Village is a calm and health conscious neighborhood where I knew the studio would be a nice complement.
Although running a studio has it’s own challenges, I am most pleased with leaving the corporate world and into a health conscious environment. I am reenergized and excited to continue the promotion of health and awareness and overall happiness that the yoga brings to each and every student who discovers this new way of life.
 Tori Curtis
I've been indirectly involved with Bikram yoga my whole life. My grandmother Emmy took me to my first class when I was about eight years old. I remember it being very hot, taking a sip of warm water, and wanting to run out of the room. Needless to say after that experience I decided Bikram was not for me, but many years later I tried it again and actually ended up liking it. I decided to take the teacher training in the fall of 2007. I was not quite sure that I wanted to become a teacher, but I taught one class and ended up loving it.
I'm passionate about living a healthy life by maintaining a balanced diet and working out regularly. While in college I competed in the heptathlon, which consists of seven events in the sport of track and field. I have also competed in other various sports including basketball, volleyball, gymnastics, and taekwondo. I enjoy hiking, biking, ultimate frisbee, snowboarding, and many other outside activities.
In the spring of 2007 I graduated with a BS in Kinesiology from CSUN. My future plans include going to grad school to become a physical therpist. I hope to use the knowledge I will gain from becoming a therapist and tie it into teaching yoga. I would also like to eventually open my own Bikram Yoga studio and travel the world teaching yoga.
I would recommend Bikram Yoga to anyone who wants to improve their health and overall well being. Personally it has helped me rehab some nagging injuries from my track and field days. The yoga is also a great way to relieve stress and get away from it all. Anybody at any age can practice this yoga. I can only hope that I will still be practicing fifty plus years from now, just like my grandma!
 Misty Rosas
I took my first Bikram yoga class in October of 2005, after many months of urging from my Hellerwork Therapist, Tom Marshall. I walked into the "HOT" room, and my first reaction was, "Oh Wow!!! Its freakin' HOT in here!!! These people are nuts!!!" However, after the class, I noticed how relaxed my muscles were, and that nothing in my body ached! Nice feeling for a change!, because at that time in my life I was in a lot of pain!!!! :)
The reason I know how beneficial Bikram yoga is, is because I come from a lifetime of training and physical activity. I was a gymnast for 19 years. I was on the U.S. Elite National Gymnastics Team, and an uneven bars Jr. National Champion. Because of my strength and skill as a gymnast, I was given the chance of a lifetime!, an opportunity to play the role of, "Amy the Gorilla" in the movie, "Congo". Since then, I've done several other film jobs that also required heavy costumes (EXTREMELY unforgiving on the body!!!), and various stunt performer roles doubling children in films and T.V. shows.
I have loved all of the jobs; every opportunity I've been given, BUT, they have taken an incredible toll on my body. I've had a lot of arthritic pain, my skeletal system was imbalanced, neck pain, shoulder pain, and an overall tightness in my muscles. How I felt before I discovered Bikram yoga was not good!!! Plain and simple, PAIN!!! Now that I've been practicing Bikram yoga for a little over three years the pain is subsiding!! It is a patient, persistent process. I've gained almost all of my flexibility back. I feel young! I feel great! I feel happy! I feel healthy! No pain! No pain killers! Just Bikram!!! :)
To all of our wonderful students at Bikram Yoga Westlake Village: I admire you! Thank you for inspiring me! Take your Bikram yoga practice one moment at a time, one posture at a time, one day at a time! Practice for your health & for your happiness!
 Vicki Zetterberg
While growing up in Ventura, CA. I discovered the physical, mental and spiritual benefits of movement that I hope have defined my life. I ran track and field at an early age then became a professional dancer as a teenager to then being a personal trainer and pilates instructor whhile raising my two children in Mammoth Lakes. Through all those years I practiced different types of yoga and ran long distance.
After living twenty winters in Mammoth I decided to take a hiatus and went to Southern CA where I discovered Bikram Yoga. Immediately recoginizing the genius of the 26 & 2 the call to share the practice with others was overwhelming so I followed the call and went to the Acapulco training in the Fall of 2008.
I am very honored and privileged to be teaching Bikram Yoga at the Ventura, Santa Barbara and Westlake Village studios.
 Kristie Ans
I have been practicing Bikram Yoga since 2003 and am in love with the series because of the determination, concentration, patience and dedication it continuously demands and teaches. I absolutely love teaching the yoga - Every class is different and I enjoy seeing the students grow and develop. Without a doubt, Bikram yoga will help improve every aspect your life if you stay committed.
I am excited and honored to join the Westlake studio! Thank you to all the students for allowing me to be part of your yoga practice.
 Yelba Osorio
My yoga journey began with Aparna Reddy who, in middle school, showed me dead body pose:"My dad says it's like 8 hours of sleep," she said. We lived in Queens, NYC in a very diverse neighborhood. In college, in a Barnard dorm, Stephanie Gregerman taught me the Bikram series: with a small space heater and a little flimsy mirror from Woolworth's:this was 1989...it wasn't until 1996 I took class with Bikram Choudhury himself, in Beverly Hills...I laughed hysterically -- "He wants us to do what?" The combination of passion, sense of humor, and effectiveness of Bikram Yoga is why I chose this style over many others, in which to acquire my teacher training (Spring 2003). In the last seven years I have traveled to, and taught in -- CA: Claremont, Covina, South Pasadena, Pasadena, Encino, Studio City, Headquarters, Silverlake;FL: South Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, North Miami Beach; MA: Boston's China Town, Back Bay, Waltham, Stoughton, Quincy, North Andover, and Harvard Square. I am very happy to have landed, most recently, in West Lake Village. I write about yoga at www.yelbayogatalk@blogspot.com, I hold an M.F.A in Theatre from Harvard/Moscow Art Theatre in Russia, and live in Van Nuys by Lake Balboa Park. I plan on continuing my studies with a massage therapy license and nursing degree, and of course pursuing my other life-long passion: acting. Once you have experienced life with a yoga practice, life without it seems a little barbaric. Yoga to me means never limiting yourself -- it is the key that unlocks this temporal body and gives it a glimpse of the divine.
 Irit Drori
I took my first Bikram Yoga class in 1998. Julian Goldstein, my instructor, said, jokingly: “We do each posture twice because of Irit, the new student”. I remember thinking to myself: “I shouldn’t have said it was my first class – get me out of here…!”
I started this practice to manage my scoliosis – a recommendation made by an ER Doctor. I stayed with the practice due to multiple benefits: the physical – my spine is much stronger, the emotional and the mental. I enjoy the focus, determination and patience that the practice helped me develop. My background is in Psychology and Counseling. Based on my experience, a regular practice is the best way to maintain a strong and healthy mind.
I finished teachers training in December 2009 and am honored to teach in Westlake Village.
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