About Bikram Yoga

 

What is Bikram Yoga?

Bikram yoga is a sequence of 26 postures and 2 breathing exercises selected developed by Bikram Choudhury.

These 26 postures (asanas) when done with two breathing exercises (pranayamas) systematically work every part of the body, maintaining the optimum health of your body targeting all five systems:

• Circularity
• Respiratory
• Digestive
• Spinal
• Nervous systems.

Each posture stretches and strengthens specific muscles, ligaments and joints needed to improve health, energy and vitality.

Bikram yoga improves and stimulates the organs, glands and nerves moving freshly oxygenated blood to 100% of the body.

Each component heals your body from inside and out while the active moving meditation and focus on your practice strengthens your mind improving your concentration, thought process and mental clarity.

Why the Heat?

Performing yoga postures in the heat helps to improve flexibility by helps to stretch deeper more safely than in a cold room. A warm body is less prone to injury.

The heat assists the body to flush away waste products and the toxins from glands and organs.

Yoga performed in suitable heat improves the natural irrigation of toxins in the body via the circulatory system.

Sweating helps clean the pores of your skin, so it's great for your complexion!.

The heated room provides a mental challenge which is good for improving willpower, self-control, focus and discipline.

What if I Have Never Done Yoga?

Bikram yoga is accessible to people of all ages, fitness levels  and conditions. Bikram Yoga truly is for anyone, whether you are stiff or limber, strong or weak, a beginner or  a seasonal practitioner.

The series of 26 postures and 2 breathing exercises is actually called, Bikram's Beginners' Series as it was designed specifically in mind for with people who have never done yoga before.

Bikram Yoga is designed as a therapeutic yoga practice to help heal, or recover from, many common ailments and injuries that a common to modern lifestyles.

If you are inflexible, have bad back, joint pain, or lingering sports injuries then Bikram Yoga can help you. Bikram Yoga can also help with stabilisation of blood pressure, cardiovascular issues, symptoms of diabetes and many more.

Performing the same sequence each time offers you a consistent experience, allowing you to move at your own pace as your practice evolves.

 

How Does Bikram Yoga Work?

Bikram Yoga uses a process called the tourniquet effect: stretching, balancing (using gravity), and creating pressure all at the same time to increase or decrease blood supply to different parts of the body. When released, a lock gate effect is created, causing blood to rush through veins and arteries, flushing them out.

Also, pressure is applied to the heart by its relative position to the rest of the body.

The tourniquet effect has many healing benefits, as Bikram says 'inside and out'.

What are Some of the Benefits?

Many people who do Bikram Yoga on a regular basis report that they no longer suffer from conditions that can only be managed by modern medicine.

Here are some of the results you would expect to see if you were practicing Bikram's Hot Yoga for its therapeutic benefits:

• Creates strength, flexibility and balance and keeps the body full of vitality immune to disease.
• Is the natural and proven remedy for both mental and physical reactions to stress.
• Teaches you to breath fully and correctly, teaching you to use 100% of your lung capacity.
• Strengthens the immune system and prevents illnesses and injuries.
• Charges the body with energy, creating a surplus or energy, rather then depleting it.
• Balances your metabolism and helps control your weight and appetite.
• Flushes away waste products and toxins of all the glands and organs in your body.
• Brings nourishment to every cell of your body so that each can perform its function.
• Eliminates back pain and improves bad posture.
• Builds mental strength by holding your mind in a focused meditative state.
• Promotes better sleep and relaxes the body so you feel calm and at peace.