The heat, though overwhelming at first, is important for several reasons. First, it accelerates the warm up of muscles, bones, ligaments and joints for safer stretching, reshaping and proper body alignment. The heat also promotes sweating and thus the discharge of toxins. As your body releases the toxins, you may feel a bit dizzy or nauseous, but this is only temporary and with a consistent practice, you'll look forward to the invigorating feeling you receive after class. In addition, heat speeds up your metabolism and increases burning fat and calories. After a 90 minute Bikram Yoga class performed in 105° heat you will feel liberated and free.
All of our classes are designed for beginner and advanced students alike. The idea is to do as much of each posture as you can to the best of your ability. Our certified teachers will guide you through the process from the start. Take a break when you need and join back in when you feel comfortable. Don't kill yourself (there will be plenty of time for that soon enough!) Nobody is looking at you; everybody is focused on themselves. Try not to feel intimidated. Remember, everyone in the room had their first class at some point. We do ask that you do your best to stay in the room for the full 90 minute class.
Yoga is a lifestyle, so come as often as you can. The more yoga you do, the better you feel and the happier you are. When you first start, try to do the class everyday for two months. You need this time to allow your body to adjust to the dramatic changes that will take place. Try not to make a judgment on the practice or yourself and your ability after just a few classes. Posture by posture, day by day, you are making a commitment to yourself to become a better more fulfilled human being. Starting with the physical body, a strong body leads to a strong mind. Daily practice, (6 or 7 days a week) will improve your body and mind and you will fly very high. After the initial start-up period, continue to practice daily if it works for you. If you are restricted by any medical condition or chronic disease that you need to heal, you should continue to practice daily until the condition is resolved. Practice a minimum of 3 classes per week for life changing, body changing, mind changing results. Practice one day a week or whenever you can because something is better than nothing. The frequency of your practice depends on what you want to accomplish. There are no limits to what you can achieve.
In general, if you have a consistent Bikram Yoga practice and become pregnant, you may continue practicing it in the heat. There are pregnancy modifications that you will do and the best resource for this is Rajashree's Pregnancy Series (a link to purchase the pregnancy DVD here). If you have never done Bikram Yoga before and you become pregnant, you should not choose this time to plunge into the heated room. Come in and talk with us or click here for more info
The following has been taken directly from the Bikram Yoga website www.bikramyoga.com and are the words and opinions of Bikram Choudhury and Bikram's Yoga College of India
It takes more than a hot room and a list of postures to make your Bikram Method Yoga practice a safe, rewarding experience. Bikram Method Yoga is a specialized form of yoga, that requires appropriate training and knowledge to teach it effectively. Bikram Choudhury, the creator of Bikram Method Yoga, personally trains and certifies his instructors to ensure that his methods and philosophy are preserved and properly taught. To be certified as an instructor in the Bikram Method of Yoga, an instructor must complete an intensive nine-week training requiring over 500 hours of study. A studio guided by a Certified Instructor provides the best possible instruction in the Bikram Method. Certified Instructors have a continuing connection to Bikram Choudhury and his training staff, allowing the Certified Studio to draw from all of the resources Bikram's training center has to offer. This includes special seminars, posture clinics, guest instructors, and answers to questions which may arise in a particular student's practice.
Anyone can claim they teach "Bikram Yoga," but unless there is a Certified Instructor supervising how and what is taught at that studio, you are not getting true Bikram Method Yoga. credit--Bonnie Kuykendall
It works by the tourniquet effect: stretching, balancing (using gravity), and creating pressure all at the same time. The blood supply in arteries and veins is being cut off, creating pressure. When released, a lock gate effect is created, causing blood to rush through veins and arteries, flushing them out. Also, pressure is applied to the heart by its relative position to the rest of the body.
Does Bikram Yoga help with balancing the emotions?
Bikram Yoga helps balance the emotions in several ways. Physiologically, regular practice harmonizes the nervous and endocrine systems, two systems which figure heavily in emotional wellbeing.
In addition, practicing Bikram Yoga cultivates the mental faculties of faith, self-control, concentration, determination, and patience. As we become more aware of our inner life, we notice how events, interactions, and even the atmospheric pressure affect us. When we are aware, we can exercise choice in our response. This helps us balance our emotional life.
It is perfectly safe to do Bikram Yoga when menstruating. Inverted postures are normally the postures contraindicated for menstruation. But there are no inverted postures in Bikram Yoga.
So in fact, Bikram Yoga is very good for toning the reproductive system as it directly affects the reproductive organs and the endocrine glands--pituitary, pineal and thyroid gland in particular. The women's cycle becomes regular; complaints of irregularity and PMS decrease.
Consult your doctor, use common sense, and don't push hard in any of the poses the first three days. The poses in which high blood pressure patients must continue to exercise caution until their blood pressure checks out normally are these: the backward bending portion of Half Moon, the Standing Bow Pulling, Balancing Stick, Cobra, the third part of Locust, Full Locust and the Camel.
Depending on the severity of your condition, the above should be done for a count of no more than five at first, building to ten counts only after two weeks. If you are supple enough to do the Fixed Firm fully the first few days, limit that to five counts as well. Be absolutely sure to rest between each set. It is also essential for heart patients to breathe normally during the postures. As for the Bow Pose, (on the floor) a beginner with high blood pressure must never perform the pose without a qualified teacher present.
It is because these backward bending positions create pressure in the chest, and so on the heart, that high blood pressure patients must use caution. Do not eliminate them though--with the exception of Bow Pose. They are the very friends you need to control your ailment.
Many people think arthritis occurs because of an overabundance of calcium in the body. But there is really no overabundance. The problem is that the calcium is deposited as a form of calcium phosphate in the joint-tissue, including the spine. At that point, the calcium phosphate deposit begins to build layers in the joint--spiky crystal formations like a cactus--until no room is left for the joint to pivot smoothly in its socket. And these spiny needly irritate the surrounding muscles and nerves, and the agony of arthritis begins.
Rheumatism? It is closely related to arthritis, but you have only to do your Yoga and you will be free of rheumatism.
Gout is also a problem that attacks the joints. And again and again in my series of exercises, you find me addressing myself specifically to exercising the joints. If I seem to be reducing some of the oldest, most painful, and perplexing diseases to lack of exercise, you're right. But that is what they often seem to boil down to.
Sadly, the theory seems to be that with advancing "age" one should "slow down," "take it easy," don't exert oneself or do too much exercise. And if you get something like arthritis, take it even easier, don't move, except to open your mouth to swallow the latest pill being offered as a cure. This advice is simply more nails for an earlier coffin. Exercise--meaning daily Yoga--is the cure.
Without knowing the cause of your asthma, we can tell you that Bikram Yoga will be good for you in several ways. It is done in a warm room which promotes relaxation of the muscles and nerves, and is the type of exercise that you can do with as little or as much intensity as appropriate for your needs. In other words, you can do each posture with less effort if you're concerned about overexertion triggering an attack, or you can sit down and rest whenever you need to during the class.
It will relax your mind and help let go of tensions, toxins and negativity. It also strengthens your heart and lungs, improving your lung function. You will breathe easier and deeper than you ever have before.
Picture your spine as a series of ball bearings (vertebrae) one on top of the other, each separated from the next by a cushion (a cartilege disc). When the spine in shiny and new, all the ball bearings are smooth and round, moving freely in all directions, and the cushions are strong and thick. Now picture your daily activities. In one position after another, probably ninety-five percent of the time, that spine is leaning forward.
What is happening, then, is that each vertebra of your back is compressing its cushion in a frontwise direction. This goes on year after year until there is no resiliency left in the front of the cushions, while the two sides and back have grown weak and slack from disuse. In addition, lack of movement has made the bearings rusty and barnacles have developed. The result: backache, stiff neck, headache, and countless other complaints.
The cure: exercise! Make the spine work so that resiliency and strength are restored to each cushion, so that the rust and barnacles are worn off the ball bearings, so that an X ray would show them smooth and round, sitting snugly on their fat, renewed cushions.
Beginning with Half Moon, my series of exercises is designed to make your shocked and shriveled spine work to both sides, to the back, and then to the front. Only by exercising in all directions can your spine be healthy; and only with a healthy spine can you have a healthy nervous system.
If your chronic problem is something such as sciatic pain, lumbago, sore back muscles, whiplash, vertebrae out of line, shoulder trouble, radiating pains down the arms, tension headaches, swayback, spinal curvature, pinched nerves, or "something not quite right that the doctor said I ought to watch," stop watching. Act! Get to work on these exercises. Even those who have had spinal surgery should get to work--with their doctor's okay and a qualified teacher who can lead them in my particular series of exercises.
People with slipped disc are often in such pain that yoga seems further torture. However, in numerous slipped disc cases, determined yoga can save the day. So endure the pain. But please note that those with slipped disc should also work under the supervision of a qualified instructor using my exact series of exercises and the safety rules laid down in the body of this book. (add a link here to Purchase Bikram's Books)
As you can see, the best thing is to adopt a Yoga regimen before any of these troubles develop--for if you do, they probably won't develop.
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