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In general, yoga is recommended to be done with at least 2 hours without eating. I'm going to implement a 1 or 1.5 hr session of yoga for one of my non-lifting days, and I'm going to go to do the classes fasted for about 13-14 hours and eat within and hour of finishing.

As I do heavy lifting 3 days a week (one of them being the day before yoga), is there any sense in taking BCAAs before/after yoga. THe yogas are not power/ashtanga yoga, but I may have access to hot yoga / bikram yoga classes (done in about 37 C / 100 F temperature room). Or will I do just fine with just having a big meal with plenty of protein after the class?

And plenty of water before and after, of course.

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Are you overweight? If you're fit and athletic in general (since you're lifting i'd guess you pretty much know your body, etc) I'd say you're fine to do yoga on non-lifting days generally. Caveats to follow:

I wouldn't eat anything for at least 2 hours before hand.

If its hot yoga (which i'm pretty sure is always 90 minutes) I would NOT go in fasted for as long as 13-14 hours.

I only know hot yoga, but i wouldn't JUST think of the hot yoga as recovery. What i mean is that hot yoga is intense, even for athletes. You'll adapt quickly but its taxing. Its great, dont get me wrong but it MAY take more out of you then you think initially.

When i did hot yoga at least three times per week i'd go in between lunch and dinner but it was around 3 or 4pm which was at least 3 full hours after i had eaten, and that "lunch" meal wasn't really large. Although it was way before i had ever heard of "IFing" the goal was still leaning out/fat-burn and so i kind of intuitively just felt like going in hungry or at least not-very-full was the way to go.

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I'll mention generally that hot yoga is the shit. you feel pretty amazing afterwards. Few things will get that much sweat out of you in that short a time. I know people love to say, its just water weight, blah blah. Sure, OK. You still feel and look pretty damn good after a session of that stuff. Do it regular for a few weeks and its hard to imagine life without it. That said, few athletic endeavors have become over time so intimidating as a full 90 minute session of hot yoga. Now, though i love it still, i almost never go because 90 minutes is daunting:) In the best possible way – ben61820 May 14 2011 at 12:58
i like hot yoga too, did the Bikram 60 day challenge, but for me a lot of those studios are just like 10 degrees too hot. Once you pack all those bodies in there there's no way it's still just 105 in there. The first time I did hot yoga ever was during a fast but it wasn't an official studio so it was only maybe 90 degrees in there and not very humid. That was ok, but I fully agree with you that I would NOT do it fasted for that many hours in the full on hot yoga heat. – tartare May 14 2011 at 14:03
but after 2 months of going 6 classes/week, a couple of times with back to back classes, I was kind of over it for a long time. We got a free month and went back maybe once during that month. I have some issues with how easily Bikram lends itself to drill instructor teaching style, but obviously that depends on the teacher. – tartare May 14 2011 at 14:15
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 It depends on the teacher only insofar as how much they will disregard the teachings of the ego that is Bikram. Heated yoga is awesome, most Bikram proper studios I've been to are all extremely drill instructor-y. You will place your leg in this position. You will. Don't tell me you're not anatomically prepared or healing in that area. Do it. No water yet. Not yet, I said! Bikram sucks, but heated yoga is supremely awesome. – RicoPags May 14 2011 at 16:26
lol, yeah Rico, I gotta agree with you there. I had a friend who did teacher training with him and said it was like a scary cult. She doesn't teach Bikram any more. But I think the poses are very good and the sequence is good, just like you say, Bikram's crazy ego and the pushiness. And I prefer not quite that hot. – tartare May 14 2011 at 17:49
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