Bikram Yoga

Bikram Yoga: What it is?

Bikram Yoga is named after the yoga guru Bikram Choudhury, who is its founder. Bikram yoga is a set of 26 hatha yoga postures, including 2 pranayam exercises, each of which is performed twice in a single 90-minute class. 

Bikram Choudhury, who was born in Calcutta in 1946, was a yoga champion in his youth, along with his wife Rajashree. At age 20, Bikram was involved in a crippling weightlifting accident. Although he was told he would never be able to walk again, with the help of yoga, he claims to have fully recovered within 6 months. Bikram created a 26 posture series, later named Bikram yoga, which restored his health. The 100 - 105 degree(F) heat in which Bikram yoga is practiced is, according to him, meant to mimic the climate of India. Choudhury holds a copyright for the 26 poses which constitute Bikram yoga under the same theory which allows choreographic sequences to be copyrighted.

According to the 60+ year-old Indian-born yoga master, the precise sequence of 26 postures and two breathing exercises must be performed within 90 minutes in a heated (100-degrees-plus) room to allow the body to stretch, detoxify, relieve stress, tone, and heal chronic pain such as arthritis, joint aches, knee injuries, back problems, and more.

Bikram has a history of suing various yoga studios for using his copyrighted yoga techniques. Some of those organizations claimed that yoga cannot be copyrighted. Practicing yoga in a hot environment is a form of so called ‘Hot Yoga’, which is not owned by Bikram. Basically, all Bikram yoga is hot, but not all hot yoga is Bikram.

Bikram yoga instructors do not demonstrate the moves, instead they talk you through the flow as part of a moving meditation. This helps the practitioners to get more involved. No matter where you practice in the world, the trainers follow the same pattern and recite same instructions, as if following a script.

Benefits Of BikramYoga:

There are many benefits of Bikram Yoga. Bikram’s signature series of 26 postures and 2 breathing exercises will help you overcome a wide range of health problems. The postures work every part of your body down to a cellular level flushing toxins out of your system. Some of the benefits have been listed below.

                             1.      Weight loss.

                             2.      Gain flexibility.

                             3.      Maintain blood pressure.

                             4.      Reduce back pain.

                             5.      Skin and beauty.

                             6.      Solve breath issues.

                             7.      Detox our body.

                             8.      Focus

      There are many other benefits of Bikram yoga which we may discuss in detail in our next article.