Bikram Yoga El Paseo

Bikram Yoga is known as the Fountain of Youth because it targets each bodily system providing amazing therepuetic benefit as the student moves through the Bikram series of specific yoga poses (asanas).

Bikram Yoga is always performed in a heated environment. Does the Heat Element Scare You?

Many do not realize the magnitude of the benefits Bikram Yoga provides nor do they understand exactly how it works because the heat factor scares them away. There is a whole education behind the power of the Bikram series and why everybody should be practicing Bikram Yoga as their baseline to cross train with other disciplines.

Why the Heat? Why the SAME asanas over and over again? Why 90 MInutes?

Lets tackle those questions one by one but first lets discuss how the body functions and what it needs to function properly.

Blood is the life force energy delivery system for our body. Our Circulatory System is the engine that keeps our bodies running. Our heart pumps our blood through the main arteries but relies on the smaller micro vessel pumping action that can reach out to even the most remote areas of the human body. Moving blood through stagnant areas farthest away from our heart is critical to keep the body healthy, and prevent and alieviate ailments/disease.

Our Respitory System and our Digestive System aid in providing the nutrients and the oxygen that deposit into our red blood cells and “hitch a ride” if you will, to bring oxygen and nutrients to all of the cells in every organ, every muscle and every gland!

Age and lifestyle factors play a role in how effective our circulatory system is in providing this essential blood flow. As we age and everything slows down so does the vasodilation and vasocontraction (pumping capacity) of our smaller vessels and micro vessels.

Enter Bikram Yoga!

 

WHY THE SAME POSTURES EVERY TIME / EVERY CLASS?

Bikram Choudhury did not invent Yoga. There were 84 Yoga Asanas already in existence before his time. Many provide great stretches, many provide beneficial upper body strength, and many provide a meditation aspect, but only 26 give you the greatest therapuetic benefit for moving nutrient rich, oxygenated blood at high speeds to the most remote areas of your body.

Bikram “plucked out” these amazing 26 postures out of the original 84 and put them all into one series to afford individuals the greatest bang for their buck EVERY CLASS.   The standard of care differs between yoga classes and yoga instructors in most yoga classes out there because the poses are determined by the individual instructor. The classes are always different and while the variety is nice and there will certainly be some benefit, the benefit may not be as great if you are looking to consistently work your body on a cellular level to restore youth. Bikram Yoga is standardized and every Bikram Yoga teacher was trained by Bikram Choudhury himself. Additionally, optimizing Nutrient rich blood flow to stagnent areas is the foundation of the Bikram Yoga series and remains consistent with the standardization of the poses and strategic order. The consistency of the same asanas also affords one the ability to gauge their progress.

WHY THE HEAT ?

Ahhhhh , this is the biggest factor for deterence to a new student. Most people know that heat has been used for centuries for therepuetic relief. Think Heating pads, hot tubs, steam rooms and saunas. But did you know that the heat increases your cardiovascular health? Think about how your heart rate goes up even when you just “sit” in a steam room or a sauna.
The heat causes Vasodilation of the blood vesses so that a greater amount of blood can move through them accelerating the therapuetic benefits.

This gets even better. The specific 26 yoga asanas that Bikram picked out of the original 84 are all based on a tourniquet effect of compression and release. First by COMPRESSION (cutting off the blood supply ) – then RELEASE  (opening up the floodgates to allow the nutrient rich oxygenated blood supply to flow in an explosion like fashion right back to the area just compressed.)  Think kinking a hose to stop the water but leaving the water on. It continues to flow but gets backed up by the kink. That backed up water becomes highly pressurized, hense comes out more forcefully once you unkink the hose.

WHY 90 Minutes, Isn’t a 60 Minute class sufficient?

A 90 Minute class gives you the full prescription and while a 60 minute class is better than nothing, in the 90 Minute class you get BOTH sets of every posture. The first set warms the body and moves you into proper alignment, the second affords one to move into depth and gain the most benefit .

The standing series itself is a full 50 minutes and by the end of that 50 minutes ones heart rate, metabolic rate, and core temperature are at ideal levels for enabling healing and physiological and mental changes.

The Floor Series is a full 40 minutes and continues the healing process which is accelerated because of the heat. Our core temperature remains the same even though the heart rate and the metabolic rate lowers.

Included in the floor series are Savasanas after every set of every pose. Savasana means stillness. Stillness of the physical body and stillness of the mind. The 90 minute class allows for ample timing of this “rest” period. It’s based on the Tabata formula. Its in Savasana where one releases out of the tourniquet posture giving the body that new oxygen supply that it needs so desperately to keep the body systems functioning properly as we age.

Think of the 90 minute class as medicine. While you will get benefit from taking part of your penicillin prescription, you get the greatest results from finishing the entire prescription. Here’s what the entire 90 minute class provides over the popular water downed version of 60 minutes:

First off, I still hear Bikram saying, “I hate lazy people” and while many opt for the 60 minute version based on time restraint, many, as Bikram would say are just lazy.

I do recommend the 60 minute class for very new beginners to give them a taste of the postures and an understanding of the benefits, but regular practitioners who practiced the 90minute class for years should only be opting for the 60 minutes on occassion due to time restaints.

Hope the heat seems less daunting now that you understand the huge benefit of doing specific yoga asanas (Bikram Yoga)  in the heat. After a few classes I assure you that you will begin to embrace the heat and even crave it!

Hope to see you in the hot room soon!

Namaste`