Competitive Yoga? Not a Stretch.

Once upon a time, people did yoga to relax.

But closer to home, Type A's such as Sonja Wyche, a 31-year-old Reston physician and mom to an 18-month-old, are squeezing an adrenaline rush out of their ohm time. Wyche, who took up yoga less than three years ago, will represent the D.C. area in the 2008 Bishnu Charan Ghosh Cup, the Bikram yoga championship, in Los Angeles on Saturday. (Joining her are the other first- and second-place finishers in the men's and women's divisions of the regional competition.)

In a pose called the standing full bow, Wyche does the splits while standing, pulling her back leg forward with both hands until her foot touches the back of her head. It's moves like that -- ones that require a trifecta of strength, flexibility and balance -- that landed her in second place out of 16 women in a regional contest in November.

In the finals, she will move through a three-minute routine consisting of five gravity- and strength-defying compulsory moves and two optional advanced postures. The tournament is the brainchild of Bikram Choudhury, the India-born guru who turned yoga into a cash cow with his eponymous studio franchise featuring classes in rooms heated to a Mumbai-esque 110 degrees. After sweating through a 90-minute Bikram workout at Bikram Yoga Reston, Wyche chatted about yoga, her family and more.

What is competitive yoga, and who are you competing against?

I'd say it's a way of competing against yourself. It's a way of strengthening yourself, knowing where you are in your practice, ways to get deeper, stronger and go further in your practice.

But a contest has winners and losers. Isn't yoga supposed to be about inner peace?

That's correct. I guess what you can say is the competition gives you a way to see where you are in your practice compared to other people.

How often do you train?

Every day. I have the kind of job that allows me to do that. Usually if I do a 6 a.m. class, I'm done in time to get to work, have a full day at work, pick up my daughter and spend time with my family. Or else I go in to work really early in order to leave in time to practice and spend time with my family. Work, practice and spending time with my family. Those are the three parts. They have to go together.

Do you ever fall when getting out of or going into a pose?

Definitely. And I get right back up. If you don't have a bruise, then you're doing something wrong.