Bikram Yoga Instructor
The word Yoga is deducted from the Sanskrit base “yuj” or “to yoke” which purportedly denotes to the unification of the individual’s soul (Atman) with the universal collective soul (Brahman); both are Hindu ideological terms used as a point of reference to the mind, where Unity only in truth exists.
Yoga is one of six classic Hindu philosophy systems with beginnings dating from more than 4,000 years.
Bikram Choudhury, the world-renowned creator of the Bikram Yoga Position, began his journeying by applying Hatha Yoga in his native India at the age of three, and speedily became a record-breaking; at the age of 11 he was the youngest contestant ever to win the National Yoga Championship.
Bikram extended his athletic training earnestly until, at the age of 17, he was impaired by a weight-lift knee injury; the European specialists analyzing him determined that Bikram would never walk again. Not surprisingly, his yoga experience taught him not to take on that inevitability; coaching with his former teacher, his knee had totally recovered six months later.
Realizing the strenght of the Bikram yoga posture methodology, his teacher asked him to start some yoga schools in India; these were so successful that Bikram opened schools in Japan, and in the years since then has brought his unique curative yoga to the rest of the world.
Bikram yoga is a system of wellness, restoration and rejuvenation suited for all ages and all levels of fitness training, based on the combination of a series of 26 asanas (poses) which make up the heart factors of the Bikram yoga posture, and two yoga breathing exercises, or pranayamas.
The series of positions, performed twice in a session (sessions typically last 90 minutes) was planned to scientifically warm and stretch muscles, ligaments and tendons, and to do so in a specific order. Because people typically use only a portion of their whole lung capacity, the pranayamas will stretch the lungs over time, resulting in better oxygen assimilation and improved blood circulation.
26 Poses in the Bikram Yoga Asanas
Bikram Yoga is practiced with the assistance of instructors in licensed Bikram yoga studios around the world; the typical 90-minute session consists of two challenging sets of the poses, planned by Bikram to systematically stimulate and restore health to every muscle, organ and joint of the body. The order, length and form is important to the broad accomplishment obtained in each session.
Each of the 26 asana is aimed at improving the functional state of a specific body part or region; here are a few examples, the number refers to the specific Bikram yoga pose pose sequence in the overall session:
Number 11 is the Tadasana, or Tree Pose – it improves posture, thighs, and has an impact on back pain.
Number 17 is the Salabhasana, or Locust Pose – it objects the spine, back and chest, and improves spine flexibility.
Number 25 is the Matsyendrasana, or Spine Twisting Pose – it stretches the spine for flexibility and helps reduce back pain.
Hot Bikram or Not?
Bikram’s Yoga is wrongly referred to as Hot Yoga, because the Bikram yoga posture of 26 poses is performed in a heated room; Hot Yoga is a form of Hatha yoga performed in a heated room, but is not taught according to Bikram’s exact philosophy or practice, and the instructors are not always prepared in his methods.
There is some controversy; with the benefits of a heated environment well-documented, the hot yoga-style has got wide popularity. Recently, Bikram chose to forbid anyone who was merely teaching yoga in a heated room to advertise it as Bikram Yoga unless the instructors were certified by his college and exactly followed his standard Bikram yoga posture methodology. The resulting lawsuits were in the end settled when Bikram agreed not to further go after the members of the Hot Yoga collective, and they in turn agreed not to use the Bikram yoga name. The confusion still exists, however, with the common understanding that they are one and the same.
