The methods and benefits of yoga
26 POSTURES
90 MINUTES
40 °C
26 POSTURES
Bikram Choudoury*, the master yogi who created the series, has precisely selected these 26 Hatha yoga postures to ensure a complete maintenance of the body.
The postures follow each other in a dynamic way and are framed by 2 breathing exercises.
Each posture prepares the body for the next one, allowing you to move forward in the series in complete serenity.
* See box below.
90 MINUTES
The good idea is to know how to measure your efforts in order to last. 90 minutes is a long time!
Each posture is done twice. The first set "prepares" the body, the second "repairs" and reinforces the benefits of the pose.
The series consists of one hour of standing postures and 30 minutes of floor postures.
Above all, RES-PI-REZ! Fluid, continuous breathing will help you have a good class.
Be honest in the correctness of alignment and humble in the intensity you put into your practice.
Proper breathing and alignment will guarantee the benefits of yoga.
40 °C
The yoga room is heated to 40°C to facilitate a deeper stretching of the muscles and joints, thus limiting the risk of injury; the sweating (sometimes intense!) caused by the heat also allows a deep detoxification of the body.
The heat helps to develop one's capacity of concentration, improves the cardiac work and the blood circulation.
Regular practice of Bikram Yoga keeps the body in excellent health, improves posture and spinal alignment, strengthens and loosens muscles and joints, and reduces stress and increases energy levels (see "Benefits").
A Bikram Yoga class requires each participant to make a real effort for 90 minutes, but the sensations felt after the class make you want to do it again!
THE BENEFITS
The majority of Bikram Yoga participants come for a complete physical activity, which allows them to stay healthy, keep (or regain) their figure and evacuate the stress of daily life.
THE BENEFITS
The majority of Bikram Yoga participants come for a complete physical activity, which allows them to stay healthy, keep (or regain) their figure and evacuate the stress of daily life.
THE BENEFITS OF A REGULAR AND ASSIDUOUS PRACTICE ARE INDEED NUMEROUS, NOTABLY:
- Learning to breathe fully and consciously
- Tone and strengthen all the muscles of the body
- Lose weight, refine and reshape the figure
- Strengthen ligaments, joints and thus prevent injuries, especially for athletes
- Realign and strengthen the spine, alleviate back pain
- Detoxify the body in depth
- Reduce stress and tension
- Stimulate all the systems of the body (muscular, squelchy, digestive, immune, nervous, cardiovascular, respiratory, hormonal, lymphatic), to find a true harmony between the body, the mind and the spirit.
- Improve concentration, determination, patience, endurance, humility, confidence and self-esteem.
- To regain a high level of energy, a good quality of sleep and to regulate the appetite.
- Regain a beautiful skin quality, firmer, softer, more radiant, thanks to the natural exfoliation due to sweating.
- And much more!
Yoga Bikram is for everybody
Bikram Choudhury
Yoga for athletes
An unprecedented success
Yoga Bikram is for everybody
Bikram Yoga is becoming more and more popular with top athletes, who have incorporated it into their training; the deep strengthening of muscles, joints, tendons and ligaments helps prevent injuries and/or come back from injury more quickly. The concentration
in the effort required by the practice also helps to develop the endurance and the mental of the champions. Very often, especially for dancers, Bikram Yoga acts as a career extender.
Many top athletes have recently declared that Bikram Yoga has greatly improved their performance: Tennismen Serena Williams and Andy Murray, or the footballer David Beckham, the Welsh XV victorious in the 6 Nations Tournament in 2012, to name but a few and the list goes on!
Dancers, footballers, rugby players, tennis players, surfers... Bikram Yoga is for you!
BIKRAM CHOUDHURY
Born in Calcutta in 1946, Bikram Choudhury started learning Hatha Yoga ("Physical") at the age of 4 with his Guru Bishnu Ghosh, one of the most renowned bodybuilders in the country at the time, and younger brother of Paramahansa Yogananda, the great Yogi master of the 20th century (author of
"Autobiography of a Yogi", a reference book on Yoga). Bishnu Ghosh was the first to scientifically document the ability of yoga to heal the body and keep it healthy.
Yoga for athletes
One goal: to spread the practice of Yoga to as many people as possible.
Under the very demanding eye of his Guru, Bikram practiced Yoga during all his childhood, between 4 and 6 hours per day within the Ghosh's College of Physical Education, in Calcutta. At the age of 13, he became the youngest winner of the National Yoga Championships, and remained undefeated for the next 3 years.
After becoming a high level weightlifter, he seriously injured his knee at the age of 17. According to the doctors, he was lost for walking and any physical activity. Not accepting this diagnosis, and strengthened by the experience he had acquired during his childhood, Bikram decided to return to his Guru in Calcutta, convinced that he would be able to heal himself thanks to yoga and its discipline. After 6 months, he regained the full use of his knee.
A goal: to spread the practice of yoga to as many people as possible.
Bikram then decided to devote his life to Yoga, and to share it with as many people as possible, especially in the West. It was at this time that he developed, with the help of scientists from the University of Tokyo, his dynamic series of 26 postures and 2 breathing exercises.
Having become a celebrity in India and Japan, Bikram was invited to the United States in 1973 by President Nixon, whom he had personally treated. Having quickly developed a very influential clientele of artists and athletes all passionate about the method, Bikram founded his first "public" studio in 1980 in San Francisco, before founding Bikram's College of India in Los Angeles some time later.
AN UNPRECEDENTED SUCCESS
Since then, the success of Bikram Yoga has never waned; today there are more than 700 Bikram Yoga studios in the world (400 of which are in the United States alone!), 8,000 teachers and millions of followers around the world.
Bikram Choudhury is one of the most recognized master teachers of Hatha Yoga.
The art of his teaching, his personality, and his ability to reconcile an ancient Eastern science with the needs of Western societies, have enabled people of all ages, nationalities and physical conditions to regain their physical, mental and moral health over the past 40 years.