The Ins and Outs of Bikram Yoga
Bikram Choudhury is a weight lifter and former yoga champion from India. He is a disciple of Bishnu Ghosh the brother of Paramahansa Yogananda who wrote the famed Autobiography of a Yogi. Bikram was born in Calcutta, India. In 1972 he opened his first school in the United States in San Francisco. In the 1990s he started offering nine-week teacher certification courses. We can now find thousands of Bikram Yoga also known as Hot Yoga all over the country. Bikram has a series of 26 copyrighted hatha yoga postures that are copyrighted.
What is Bikram Yoga?
What I find so interesting is that if one were to go into a Bikram Yoga studio any place in the world they would do the same series of 26 postures and 2 breathing exercises that Choudbury invented. This type of Yoga should be done in a hot - about 105 degree- room.
Contraindications include pregnancy and some health conditions. It may help you if you have arthritis or diabetes but please check with your doctor first. I was practicing in a gym environment where the room was warm but not anything close to 105 degrees. I found it more challenging than my other Yoga classes (Kundalini yoga for example) but not as challenging as the Yoga I now practice in a Yoga studio. This, of course, is because of the poses designed for beginners but I know all levels of practitioners who love Bikram Yoga.
Bikram yoga is a system of wellness, restoration and rejuvenation. When a studio is heated (The same reason you stretch before you workout especially if you are coming in from the snow!) I can stretch more deeply and I find the sweat detoxifying. It is said to improve concentration. The class should be 1 ½ hours long.
Each posture stretches and strengthens specific muscles, ligaments and joints needed for the next posture. I find many Yoga classes cardio vascular and certainly some poses or asanas in Bikram Yoga is as well. I will leave a website where you can see all the poses but I will go into a few here.
Utkatasana is called awkward pose in English. Some of the benefits are that this asana improves overall body strength, strengthens and tones leg muscles, relieves menstrual cramping, and improves flexibility.
Trikanasana or triangle pose will pump up your heart rate, helps regulate hormone levels, and increases flexibility of your hip joints.
Tadasana or tree pose helps build up balance, stretches the spine, and is good for circulation.
Sources
Published by jobythebay
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