Bikram Yoga

overview | postures

105° + 26 + 40% = Bikram Yoga

Bikram Beginning Yoga Class
Bikram Yoga is a 90-minute series of 26 postures and breathing exercises practiced in a heated room. The sequence was created by Bikram Choudhury to warm and stretch muscles, ligaments and tendons in the order in which they should be stretched to systematically work every part of your body.

It is practiced in a room heated to ideally 105 degrees Fahrenheit with 40% humidity. The heat allows your muscles to warm up quickly and to stretch deeper safely. The heat also increases your heart rate for a better cardiovascular workout and detoxifies your body by letting toxins escape via your sweat.

Bikram Yoga is designed for beginners, and every class is open to first-time students. Once you begin a regular practice you will continue to be challenged and rewarded. It is an exciting and vigorous series, and it gets the best results of any kind of yoga practiced today.

Bikram Choudhury
Bikram Choudhury began his yoga training in India at age four under Bishnu Ghosh. By age 13 he won the India National Yoga Championship, which he held for three years. He was inspired to become a yoga teacher after healing his own crippling knee injury with months of intense yoga therapy. Bikram then began teaching and developing a “one-for-all” approach for yoga.

While in Japan, he pioneered the idea of hot yoga when he realized heat and humidity, which he took for granted in India, was critical for a strong practice. By 1974, when Bikram opened his first Yoga College of India in California, he had perfected Bikram Yoga – a sequence of selected Hatha yoga asanas (postures) designed to be safely practiced by anyone (young or old, healthy or sick) in a heated room.

Bikram’s wife Rajashree Choudhury held the title Yoga Champion of India from 1979 to 1984. Today she teaches yoga and lectures alongside Bikram. She also developed Rajashree’s Pregnancy Yoga. If you are a regular Bikram Yoga practitioner for more than a year, it is a series that can be practiced in Bikram Yoga class during your pregnancy.

Bikram Dialogue
To guide students through the yoga, Bikram wrote an exacting, step-by-step instruction method. Known as The Bikram Dialogue, this instruction leads students into and out of poses in a careful and deliberate manner. Bikram offers nine-week teacher certification courses, and certified instructors now teach with Bikram Yoga studios all over the world. No one should teach Bikram Yoga classes unless he/she is a certified and licensed Bikram Yoga teacher. Bikram also requires that all teachers re-certify every 3 years in order to hold a valid certificate.

At Bikram Yoga Winston-Salem and Bikram Yoga Greensboro every class is led by a certified Bikram teacher. Meet our Bikram-certified teachers. The teacher breaks down each of the 26 postures into easily followed directions, so that even the most inexperienced and inflexible beginner can learn how to do a posture safely. At the same time, these instructions provide more advanced practitioners with the details they need to refine their postures and gain a deeper level of understanding of the yoga and their bodies.

How It Works
The first part of class is standing postures that systematically stretch and work the major muscle groups in your body. The second part of class is floor postures that stretch and strengthen the spine. Practicing the same postures, same sequence, every time, you develop patience and discipline. Learn more about the 26 Bikram postures.

The Heat
Heat maximizes your muscle relaxation and minimizes your risk of injury. It improves blood flow throughout your body – accelerating cardiovascular activity and calorie burning, and speeding up the breakdown of glucose and fatty acids. In addition, sweating is one of the most natural ways to assist your body’s own detoxification, because perspiration eliminates waste from your body.

Tourniquet effect
While stretching, balancing and twisting, blood flow to certain parts of your body is restricted. Upon release out of a pose, blood rushes through the veins and arteries, flushing them out and delivering freshly oxygenated blood to your body. The tourniquet effect also helps cleanse your lymphatic system.

Mind and body
Bikram Yoga is not just a “work-out.” It is a practice which makes your body stronger, more flexible and generally healthier. The aim is to calm your mind, open your heart and accelerate your personal growth. See testimonials from our students.

More
Visit our How to Prepare for Class section to learn what to wear and to bring, how to hydrate properly, and many other helpful tips for getting ready to take Bikram Yoga class.

For more information about Bikram Yoga, visit www.BikramYoga.com.

©2012 Bikram Yoga Winston-Salem & Bikram Yoga Greensboro | sitemap
The only affiliated and certified Bikram Yoga studios in the NC Triad.