Hot Yoga's Rejuvenating
Potential
By Danna
Schneider
Bikram yoga is a unique experience, to say the least.
We've all thought of yoga as a body-bending, flexibility and
mind-relaxation exercise, but what's Bikram yoga all about,
and why is it supposed to be such an intense experience as
so many say?
Bikram yoga is a specific
style of yoga founded by Bikram Choudhury. Otherwise known
as "hot yoga", Bikram yoga, named after it's founder, is
fairly advanced yoga moves done in a one hundred and five
degree room with humidity at fifty percent, so you will most
definitely be sopping wet when leaving.
The origin of this type of
yoga is spiritually derived from Hinduism and regionally
from Yoga College of India. Bikram yoga consists of 26
asanas or postures and two breathing exercises.
The word asana translates
to the word "seat" which refers to the spirit in relation to
the divine. Asanas are intended to lead back to sitting in
meditation. Asanas are meant to improve your muscle
flexibility and strength.
These moves, called asanas,
are supposed to be practiced together with pranayama, or
slow breath work for maximum benefit. Your breaths should be
through the nose, not the mouth, and should be slow, not
forced, and totally natural. To receive maximum benefit from
practicing asanas, all tension and tightness in the body
should consciously be let go.
A glass of water before
practicing asanas enhances the experience and asanas should
not be done on a full stomach. The practice of Bikram yoga
is meant not only to improve muscle strength and
flexibility, but also to establish a balance of our physical
beings in relation to the divine.
Yoga is a path to attain a
balance of the body, mind and spirit. Yoga can, if done
correctly, be a means to control the ongoing complaint in
all of our lives, stress. Optimum health is the ultimate
goal for everyone of us. Health does not just refer to our
physical beings but also to our mental attitudes and
spiritual growth.
When you perform hot yoga exercises, you are required to be
in a room heated to temperatures of around 100 degrees
Fahrenheit. When you are inside this room, you perform
specified postures. The workout is vigorous and aerobic.
When you experience internal heat from the yoga exercises as
well as the external heat of the room, you sweat.
Bikram yoga addresses all
of these factors of our well being. When I visited my
daughter in California, she signed me up for my first
experience with hot yoga. Being in my fifties, I was a
little concerned about the prospect of being a complete
amateur at any kind of yoga and the possibility of being the
oldest participant in the class.
Well, I wasn't the oldest
in the class and the instructor was patient with his
teaching. I was happily surprised at my ability to do so
many of the postures. My self realization during the hot
yoga class was my need to "stress" or hurry up at all times.
I needed to remind myself
to relax, breathe slowly and through my nose. The heated
room was something I thought I would not be able to
tolerate. It did add to the yoga session and is probably one
of the reasons I did not have aching muscles or pulled
tendons the next day.
During some of the
postures, I was keenly aware of my need to improve my
balance and my sense of my physical position in space. For
ongoing achievement of balance, I have been practicing the
art of yoga via an instructional DVD in my home.
Particularly useful to me,
in addition to the improvement of balance is the yoga
reminds me to slow down and relax the tension in my body.
The concept of the heated room in Bikram yoga is to diminish
the risk of injuries and to allow you to go deeper into each
posture.
The perspiration
experienced during hot yoga enhances the release of toxins.
The postures consist of warm up poses that can be done prior
to a yoga class. There are standing poses and seated poses.
The twist yoga poses have the purpose of strengthening your
back, toning the abdomen and helping with digestion.
Inverted poses help you
with your circulation. There's supine and backbend poses and
finally the finishing poses to end your yoga session with
relaxation.
Bikram yoga is designed to
assist you to lose weight, tone muscles and increase blood
circulation. Since this form of yoga helps lower stress
levels, it can improve mental clarity and focus. This, in
turn, enhances our overall levels of performance both on the
job and in our personal life pursuits.
About the
author:
Danna Schneider is the cofounder of
http://www.dietingmagazine.com, where you
can find information on weightloss products, fitness
equipment and diet reviews, and dieting tips for losing
weight. She also founded
http://www.fitnessnewsmagazine.com, a site
dedicated to the latest offerings and breakthroughs in
weight loss and fitness, updated constantly with news and
tips on fitness equipment, accessories, and the hottes
fitness trends.
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I wish you all the best on your yoga adventure!
To your health,
Thomas T :)
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