Bikram Yoga Tip: Avoid eating two to three hours before the session and dont wear green clothes or carry green coloured items in the class as Bikram dislikes the colour. Also, make it a point to reach on time as late-comers are not allowed to enter the class.
Bikram Yoga is a system of yoga that Bikram Choudhury synthesized from traditional yoga techniques and popularized beginning in the early 1970s. Bikram Yoga can be learnt at fitness chain True Fitness, which opened its spacious 60,000-square-foot fitness club in Mumbai in 2008 – the only place in India where it is taught.
Born in Kolkata, Los Angeles-based Bikram opened his first US school in San Francisco in 1972.
What sets it apart from normal yoga is that it is done in a hot chamber which instructors pleasantly call “Torture Chamber” where one pays to undergo the heat and sweat.
According to Joseph Encinia, instructor of Bikram Yoga, the session aids in building a connection between the mind and body.
“It makes muscles more flexible. The sweat helps in detoxification and the yoga helps in blood circulation, muscle-toning and internal body healing,” Encinia told IANS.
“We are not trying to teach meditation here. We want people to focus and concentrate on asanas. That is why Bikram Yoga instructors all over the world talk in a dialogue format, which is the method of teaching,” he said.
“The dialogue helps in focussing because after attending a few classes you get used to them and focus more on poses and stretching,” he added.
Newcomers are advised to keep their mats near the door so that in case of dizziness or nausea, they can leave the class.
The warming up starts with breathing exercise. Then come the standing poses which are the most difficult ones in terms of balancing.
Such is the impact of these exercises that one can hear the thumping of the heart and see a rush of blood to the face, making it red with radiance.
Then there is a set of floor-exercises, which are popular because they are relaxing and are easier than the standing exercises.
The instructor tries to pep up the session with witty lines like, “Do you think you are having a heart attack? Dont worry, no one is so lucky to die in a Bikram Yoga class. It just shows that you are doing it the right way.” Or else, “Keep your issues in tissues during the class.”
Tony Parrish
TEAM: San Francisco 49ers
POSITION: Safety
HEIGHT: 6 feet
WEIGHT 210 pounds “The first class was hard — I’ve never been in a room so hot for so long,” says Tony Parrish, about his introduction three months ago to Bikram yoga, in which students assume 26 poses in 90 minutes in a room heated to 110° to promote flexibility. Parrish stuck with it, and hot yoga became a staple of his core training regimen. “We tend to bend forward on the field but never do any real backward stretching to counteract that,” he says. “To get into and hold each [yoga] position works your abs. My lower back and spine have also gotten stronger and more flexible.” Until the start of training camp, Parrish practiced three times a week at the Bikram Yoga center in Santa Clara, Calif. “I kept coming and got accustomed to it,” he says. Parrish, who broke his left ankle and fibula in a game against the Bears last November, says yoga helps him “trust” the injured leg, delivers a “great aerobic workout” — and builds his core: “I had abs that looked decent but weren’t strong. Now there’s strength behind them.”
