Why Bikram?

History

Yogiraj Bikram Choudhury is the founder of the worldwide Yoga College of India™. Born in Calcutta in 1946, Bikram began yoga at the age of four with India’s most-renowned physical culturist at that time, Bishnu Ghosh, the younger brother of Paramahansa Yogananda (Author of the most popular book on yoga, The Autobiography of a Yogi, and founder of the Self-Realization Fellowship in Los Angeles).

The Bikram Yoga 26 postures and 2 breathing exercises work synergistically and cumulatively to restore the body to a balanced state. The yoga builds energy, stamina, and flexibility. It incorporates strength, gravity, and balance, and most importantly, the tourniquet effect. This technique allows the stretching, squeezing and massaging of the internal organs, flushing out the cardiovascular system and stimulating the endocrine and nervous systems in order to release deficient hormones and enzymes. The body is self-regulating and self-adjusting.

Bikram’s Beginning Yoga Class is open to all and no previous yoga experience is required.

Benefits of a Bikram Yoga practice:

• Promotes proper weight
• Increases energy level
• Relieves stress, anxiety and tension
• Detoxifies and cleanses the body
• Strengthens the immune system
• Balances the endocrine system
• Relieves Back Pain
• Lubricates the joints
• Boosts Cardio Fitness Routines
• Improves Endurance, Strength, Flexibility, and Recovery Time
• Increases mental clarity and overall well being

​Reversing the Aging Process in Muscles, Bones, and Joints 

A regular Bikram Yoga practice can prevent many age-related changes to muscles, bones, and joints, and can reverse these changes as well. It’s never too late to start living an active lifestyle and enjoying the benefits.

As we age, muscle loses size and strength, which creates more pressure on the joints, and can contribute to fatigue, weakness, and reduced tolerance to exercise. In a joint, bones do not directly contact each other. They are cushioned by cartilage that lines your joints (articular cartilage), synovial membranes around the joint, and a lubricating fluid inside your joints (synovial fluid). As you age, joint movement becomes stiffer and less flexible because the amount of lubricating fluid inside your joints decreases and the cartilage becomes thinner. Ligaments also tend to shorten and lose some flexibility, making joints feel stiff.

Many of these age-related changes to joints are caused by lack of exercise. Movement of the joint, and the associated stress of movement, helps keep the fluid moving. Being inactive causes the cartilage to shrink and stiffen, reducing joint mobility. Regular stretching, as practiced in Bikram Yoga helps to prevent this gradual stiffening and joint deterioration, and this is why Bikram Yoga has a rejuvenating effect.

Here are other benefits to age-related changes in muscles, bones, and joints.

• Bikram Yoga can make bones stronger and help slow the rate of bone loss.
• Older people can increase muscle mass and strength through muscle-strengthening activities.
• Balance and coordination exercises, as practiced in yoga, can help reduce the risk of falls.
• Physical activity in later life may delay the progression of osteoporosis as it slows down the rate at which bone mineral density is reduced.
• Weight-bearing exercise, as practiced in Bikram Yoga, is the best type of exercise for maintenance of bone mass. There is a suggestion that twisting or rotational movement (where the muscle attachments pull on the bone) is also beneficial.
• Stretching is an excellent way to help maintain joint flexibility.

The result: we look, move, and feel younger!

“A negative attitude is nine times more powerful than a positive attitude”

Bikram Choudhury