Hatha Yoga

Hatha Yoga: What it is?

Hatha yoga is commonly described as the yoga which brings union "of the pairs of opposites”. The word ‘Hatha’ is formed from the words ‘ha’ meaning ‘sun’ and ‘tha’ meaning ‘moon’. This refers to the balance of masculine and feminine aspects (hotness of sun and coolness of moon), within all of us. It is also known as ‘Forceful yoga’ as it involves lot of effort. This yoga mainly focuses on physical and mental strength building exercises and postures. These yoga postures have been primarily described in three texts of Hinduism.

1.   Hatha Yoga Pradipika -  Yogi Swatmarama (15^th century)

2.    Shiva Samhita – unknown author (before 15^th century or late 17^th century)

3.      Gheranda Samhita - Yogi Gheranda (late 17^th century) 

The hatha yoga asanas or postures are mainly designed to open many channels of human body, especially the main channel, i.e. spine, which helps smooth energy flow. Hatha yoga is a great tool for self transformation. It mainly concentrates on proper breathing, which in turn helps to achieve better concentration.

Origins

As per the legend, Hindu god Lord Shiva is considered to be the creator of Hatha yoga. It is said that he gave this knowledge to his wife, goddess Parvati, on a lonely island. But a fish (Matsya) heard it and later became a siddha, known as Matsyendranath. Matsyendranath, later transferred its knowledge about to his disciple Gorakshanath and to a limbless man, Chaurangi. 

What Is Needed?

Firstly, you must be curious to begin with. You must make up your mind to follow this practice regularly and have faith in it. Secondly, having a pair of sweat pants or shorts, and t-shirts is helpful. No special footgear is needed as you need to be barefoot while doing yoga. Other helpful stuff include a face towel and a yoga mat. Most of these things may already be provided if you visit a yoga center.

Benefits of Hatha Yoga

Hatha yoga has many benefits. Some of them have been mentioned below.

1.      Helps you gain more focus and calmness. 2.      Helps keep body in shape. 
3.      Improve breathing. 
4.      Cures back pains, knee pains, neck pains, etc. 
5.      Helps gain flexibility.

The overall long term benefits of hatha yoga are amazing, and it must be exercised by people of any age group. It helps almost everyone.

Hathla Yoga

Do You Know What Exactly Is Hatha Yoga?

From the middle of the 20^th century, hatha yoga has become a very popular fitness practice among the people, who are keen to improve their physical, mental as well as spiritual health. This is a balanced approach to fitness, where the body releases stress, improves its physical condition and consequently increases the relaxation.

Origin

Although, yoga in itself is more than 5,000 years old, but Hatha Yoga is pretty new version of the ancient practices. It could be called a branch of yoga that is popularized by Bikram, while Swami Vivekananda took it to the west in the early 19^th century.

Practice

Practitioner of this branch of yoga spend anywhere from 45 minutes to 90 minutes in a single session. Initially the session begins with meditative breathing that is then followed by a warm up, after which the session grows demanding. Hatha yoga doesn’t give a person much time to relax, but it does make a person absolutely strong from inside. The session always finishes off with meditation that allows its participants to completely cool down.

Benefits

Many scientific studies have proven that a regular practitioner of Hatha yoga gets many mental and physical benefits. People with eating disorders experience an enhanced food consumption behavior when they start practicing this form of yoga. It also relieves its practitioner from depression, anxiety, stress, impulsive anger, irritation, aggression and impatience. Hatha yoga increases the concentration, mindfulness, calmness and peace within a person.

The practitioners have been known to have much better coordination, flexibility and correct posture in comparison to those, who never practice any kind of physical activities or exercise. People with medical anomalies may get well soon, if they practice Hatha yoga regularly. If you would like to receive the benefits of this amazing variant of yoga, it would be advisable to find a good Guru and start the practice under his or her supervision.

Corporate registration for "Bikram Choudhury Yoga, Inc." Number: C2288343

The information displayed here is current as of "JUN 06, 2008" and is updated weekly. It is not a complete or certified record of the Corporation.

Corporation
BIKRAM CHOUDHURY YOGA, INC.
Number: C2288343	Date Filed: 3/29/2002	Status: active
Jurisdiction: California
Address
1862 S LA CIENEGA BLVD
LOS ANGELES, CA 90035
Agent for Service of Process
BIKRAM CHOUDHURY
1862 S LA CIENEGA BLVD
LOS ANGELES, CA 90035

You may read more about bikram yoga here

Benefits of Bikram Yoga

Bikram yoga is a form of hot yoga which was originated by Bikram Choudhury. Most of the benefits of Bikram yoga are, therefore, same as hot yoga. It aims to increase general health, and students of this style have a belief that a heated room helps drive a deeper stretch while preventing injury. Benefits of Bikram yoga include enhanced flexibility, endless flushing of toxins due to increased perspiration and successful recovery from injury (due to deep stretching). Some of the major benefits of Bikram yoga have been listed below. 

  

1.      Weight Loss: Bikram yoga is quite beneficial for weight loss. It improves your digestion and metabolism. The heated conditions present in Bikram yoga environment, helps to burn fat more easily as it flushes and detoxifies the body. One session helps to lose around 500 to 1000 calories.

2.  Blood Pressure: It is very effective for stabilizing high blood pressure. The blood pressure may show a slight rise after first week of work out, but slowly it will come down to normal pressure in coming weeks. Therefore, Bikram yoga must be continued to keep the blood pressure normal.

3.    Depression: If you are feeling low, Bikram yoga is there to cheer you up. Each yoga session will help you relax and free your mind.

4.    Breathing Problems: Bikram yoga strengthens heart and lungs, and improves the functioning of lungs. This helps you breathe easier and deeper.

5.    Back Pain: Many people have recovered from back pain, stiff neck, headaches and other body aches by doing Bikram yoga on a regular basis. This yoga is so designed that it helps to gain spinal flexibility and a healthy nervous system. The yoga instructor must be made aware that you have back pain issues. The instructor would then introduce some modifications, if necessary.

6.     Diabetes: Recent study has confirmed that performing Bikram yoga postures on a regular basis can decrease blood-sugar levels and keeps diabetic symptoms in check.

7.     Skin and Beauty: It helps our skin and face develop “the Bikram glow”. It is so called because your eyes become brighter and skin becomes shiner and softer. Sweating helps to open pores and clean them. This releases natural lanolin, which is responsible for softening the skin and preserving its elasticity.

Therefore, with vast variety of benefits, Bikram yoga is quite useful for people of all ages. Youngsters look to gain flexibility, toned muscles and good looking skin, whereas elders look for a healthier body and a better control on sugar and blood pressure.

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.

Hot Yoga

Hot Yoga: What it is?

In layman's terms, hot yoga is any form of yoga which is done in hot and humid conditions. Technically speaking, it is usually done at a temperature ranging from 90 degrees to 105 degrees Fahrenheit and a humidity of 40%. 

Hot yoga is generally associated with yoga guru Bikram Choudhury.  The much popular ‘Bikram Yoga’ is also one of the forms of hot yoga. In colder climates, hot yoga often seeks to replicate the heat and humidity of India where yoga originated. It is found that people enjoy hot yoga because it allows them to feel more flexible.

As expected, a vigorous yoga session at high temperature promotes profuse sweating and makes the body very warm. Because of its intensity and potential to cause heat-related illness, hot yoga is not for everyone. A doctor consultation is must before trying hot yoga if you have any health concerns. If you have heart disease, dehydration or heat intolerance issues, or any other kind of heat-related illness (such as heatstroke) in the past, it is probably best not to do hot yoga. 

Hot Yoga Styles:

1. Bikram Yoga: As already mentioned, ‘Bikram Yoga’ is one of the forms of hot yoga. This form of yoga is named after its founder, Bikram Choudhury. It follows a set series of poses devised by Bikram. Suggested Article: Benefits of bikram yoga

2. Moksha Yoga: Moksha yoga is a newly discovered form of yoga. It was founded in 2004, but it has become quite popular in Canada and the United States (where it is known as Modo Yoga). Like Bikram, Moksha yoga also follows a set series of poses.

3. Core PowerYoga: Core Power Yoga is another form of hot yoga. It classes are generally held in a heated room. This style is rapidly getting popular in the U.S.

4. Forest Yoga: Forrest Yoga combines various yoga asanas with Native American spirituality to create as a "yoga sweat lodge" in a heated room.

Other than the above mentioned Yoga styles, there are many others. Each one has some or the other peculiarity. This yoga must be done on yoga mats and sufficient amount of water must be drunk before doing it. It is not advised to pregnant women since it raises core body temperature. This form of yoga is quite effective for weight loss.