No Zen for you!
Like a drill sergeant — only dressed in tiny black shorts that he designed himself — he screams into his headset at a young woman with sweat dripping down her legs, “Pink shorts. Yes, you. Crotch down!”
It’s 104 degrees in the studio and a middle-aged woman is trying heated Bikram yoga for the first time. “If you’re not going to get your knees down, you might as well be eating pizza down the street!” he yells.
Meet the city’s meanest yoga teacher: Otto Cedeño, owner of Bikram Yoga Union Square.
“My friends call me the yoga Nazi,” said Cedeño, 46. “I laugh.”
While many New Yorkers go to a yoga class to reconnect with their inner calm, Cedeño runs his class like a hard-nosed commander.
Break one of his many rules and you’ll find yourself in yoga detention. Among his many pet peeves: No water for about the first third of the 90-minute class; wash off all makeup (it leaves streaks on rented towels); no loose-hanging clothes; and hair must be pulled back.
Cedeño often singles out people in incorrect positions — even bullying students lying on their backs in the purposefully restful Corpse Pose.
“As a beginner, I was scared that he would single me out for not trying,” said Park Slope resident Kim, 26.
The worst part for Erick Romero, 25, is Cedeño’s kickboxer mentality.
“He goes around and kicks people’s feet into alignment,” said Romero. “He doesn’t say anything and just shoves his foot into your heel.”
But Cedeño, who was a Broadway dancer before capitalizing on the popularity of yoga, says he’s not trying to be mean. His practice appeals to “A-type personalities” who respond to a little abuse.
“Football players, basketball players, hockey players,” he listed. “A lot of Broadway performers. People who strive.”
Bikram Yoga Union Square charges $30 for a single class, while most Manhattan yoga classes run from $16 to $23. Renting a mat is also a hefty $5.
To naysayers who question whether he’s even teaching yoga at all, Cedeño is unrepentant.
“I’m not in the business of being nice,” he said.