Bikram....the why, the reason, and the 'Are you CRAZY?"

Before I go into the reasons and explanations of my Bikram 30 day challenge, I thought I better tell the story of why I do Bikram yoga and a little bit about it.

When I tell people that I practice Bikram, I get one of two responses:  Huh?  What's that? and my personal favorite, are you crazy?  They ask me that because they've heard of it and quite frankly think it's crazy and there's no way they would ever do it.  For the 'huh?' group, I explain Bikram and quite often I get the "Are you crazy and you do this for fun?' response too.  That's ok, because not every exercise works for everyone...


A little background now, Bikram yoga was started by Bikram Choudhury.  He was a weightlifter growing up in India until an accident severely damaged his legs.  Bikram sought out a yoga guru and they put together a plan to heal him using yoga.  The result, a ninety minute class in which you do a series of 26 postures and 2 breathing exercises, with everything done twice in a heated room.  Why the heated room?  It is to simulate India in the summer where Bikram recovered from his injuries.  They found that the heat and humidity allowed the body to warm up faster and move easier.  It is easy?  NOPE, not even close.  I've been practicing for almost ten years, although not consistently and it still kicks my butt.

There is controversy about Bikram yoga, I do admit.  He franchised his yoga practice, which is very controversial in the yoga community; he is an admitted a millionaire with a Beverly Hills mansion and doesn't want a life of poverty.  My response to that is, it works for me, and by franchising the name Bikram yoga, I know wherever I go in the world if it says Bikram yoga on the door of the yoga studio, the instructors have had the same training as the instructors in my home studio.

How did I get into this sweaty adventure?  I was looking for a yoga studio that I liked.  It was that simple.  I had tried hatha yoga and other types, but they were so different every time I went in,  I never felt like I was making any progress.  The Bikram SLC studio was just opening up when I was in this process and I saw an ad in a local newspaper for an introductory special of 10 classes for $15 in 10 days.  I went in and have never looked back.

This is running a bit long, so I'll tackle other things about Bikram later, but if you want any more information, try these links.

http://www.bikramyogaslc.com/index.htm

http://www.bikramyoga.com/

I'm new to blogging, so I hope the links work, if not just cut and paste.  :)

Until next time,
Namaste

Melissa