There comes a day in every yogi's life (I am not calling myself a devout yogi by any means) when one has to give Bikram yoga a whirl. There are two reactions: love it or hate it. No middle ground.
It makes sense why people call it the torture chamber. It really is a butt-kicking. But BYT Bloor does their best to make the 90 minute torture as pleasant as it could be. The studio is beautiful. I really enjoy the dimly lit, dark floored practice room - it tricks you into thinking it can't be that hot (hint: it can). The studio is accented with hints of red, not sure if they were aware it further contributes to the torture idea. Change rooms have enough cubby holes, but I've never been to a class where it wasn't jam packed, so I still could appreciate some more room. The 4 showers are uneventful, with just a soap dispenser in each.
The staff are okay in person. I'm not sure if I really connected with any of the teachers. I think it's easy for the students to disengage from the teacher when you're just one amongst more than 50 people in a dim room, going through the same poses, bearing the intense heat. One thing I did appreciate from BYT was they called me a few days after my first class to ask how I enjoyed everything - I don't know why I thought that made me happy. Unfortunately, I guess that was the end of the personal touches.
I personally enjoyed coming here (I haven't tried any other Bikram studios, just other hot yoga) but I think I've found other ones more to my liking.