Bikram believed that the specific 26 poses he chose would help strengthen every muscle in your body. The heat needs to be at least 100 degrees or higher. Heat also helps the students to become more flexible within the class session, and also helps reduce possible injury. Bikram yoga systematically moves fresh, oxygenated blood to one hundred percent of your body, to each organ and fiber, restoring all systems to healthy working order, just as Nature intended.
To be 'Perfect' in Yoga is to do the best you can do. The only person who you should be comparing yourself to is yourself. As long as you keep this mentality you will consistently see improvement! My whole life I was never able to do the splits, or touch my toes. Now, I can do both! And I have only been doing Bikram's strategy for 6 months now. When I first got involved into Bikram yoga I was really just there to get the exercise. I was unaware of how much of an affect it would have on my self as a whole. Not only that, but it caused me to become more interested in the background information in regards to Bikram. This lead me to information from when yoga began!
Like I said earlier, Bikram yoga was originated from Hatha yoga, but where did Hatha yoga come from? Around 250 B.C.E., an individual by the name Patanjali scribed his system in a text known as the Yoga Sutras. The Yoga Sutras consisted of 4 chapters that are called padas. While written initially in Sanskrit, abundant translations have proliferated to help found multiple systems in multiple countries. The reason why I even bother to bring this up, is because it is amazing how consistent yoga has stayed through out the years. The Sanskrit in the four chapters talk about meditation, not desiring anythings to reframe from jealousy, and of course stretching. Today, forms just like Bikram yoga teach us the exact same things. This is why I love yoga, because of it's simplicity, we can originate different types of yoga, but keep the same ideas back from 250 B.C.E.
I really have been enjoying Bikram yoga, and hope to practice other forms of yoga in the future. So far it has had an incredibly effect on my life in a positive way, and I do not want to lose what I have gained. Not only am I more aware of my surroundings, more balanced, and flexibly, but I feel better. I have so much more energy, and thanks to Patanjali, I have been able to experience a new lifestyle under his discipline.
Here is a picture of Bikram Choudhury himself!
About Bikram Yoga. November 30, 2009. Bikram Yoga Toronto. Retrieved April 12, 2010, from http://www.bikramtoronto.com/about-bikram-yoga.htm.
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali as-it-is introduction, commentaries, and translation. (n.d.). RainbowBody.Net. Retrieved April 12, 2010, from http://www.rainbowbody.net/HeartMind/Yogasutra.htm.
