A conversation with Bikram Yoga instuctor, Stevan Falk:
Sarah: What is Bikram yoga?
Stevan: 26 Postures, 90 minute class, 105 degrees
Sarah: How long has it been around?
Stevan: Yoga has been around for thousands of years. Bikram started heating his yoga rooms when he was teaching in Japan and it was cold in the winter which wasn't an issue in India. The students loved it so much that he continued to heat the rooms.
Sarah: What is the benefit of the heat during yoga?
Stevan: ...elevates heart rate making it more aerobic, burns more calories, elevates core temperature, increases sweating and detoxification through sweating. The heat makes it easier to stretch.
Sarah: Is the temperature the only real difference between Bikram and regular yoga?
Stevan: There are many different styles of yoga and many different posture - I don't know of other styles that use Bikram's 26 postures.
Sarah: Are there any studies that show how yoga is helpful? -
Stevan: yes
Sarah: How does Bikram yoga help with other sports?
Stevan: a low impact workout but very aerobic, great for beat up athletes who can't train with the frequency they are used to, improves flexibility and mobility, improve recovery
Sarah: Does Bikram help prevent muscle overuse injuries, like what you might get from cycling/running/weights?
Stevan: Many overuse injuries occur when the muscles used in the repetitive movement shorten and tighten. Re-lengthening the muscles and improving and maintaining their elasticity and pliability makes a healthier muscle.
Sarah: How beneficial is all this stretching, in general?
Stevan: Very beneficial. Flexibility is the number one physical trait that we lose as we age. The ability to move pain free is paramount. Mobility is youth. Children have no problem with deep squats, bending over, reaching behind them, etc. This loss of mobility IS aging.....The top reasons elderly are put in nursing homes is because they can no longer get off the toilet and they have lost the mobility to rotate and wipe. So, if you want to avoid the nursing home, maintain your flexibility and basic squat ability (which is one of our yoga postures as well).
Sarah: How often are your classes?
Stevan: Daily, multiple times per day. Our schedule is on our website here: http://bikramyogasa.com/class-schedule
Sarah: What does it cost?
Stevan: Intro special for brand new customers - $20 for 10 consecutive days. Drop ins for $14. Several other packages. obviously the cost per class decreases with the bigger packages.
Here is more information on Bikram Yoga. Stevan Falk added this from the Bikram International Headquarters site at bikramyoga.com.
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).
Bikram practiced Yoga at least four to six hours every day at Ghosh's College of Physical Education in Calcutta. At the age of thirteen, he won the National India Yoga Championship. He was undefeated for the following three years and retired as the undisputed All-India National Yoga Champion. At seventeen, an injury to his knee during a weight-lifting accident brought the prediction from leading European doctors that he would never walk again. Not accepting their pronouncement, he had himself carried back to Bishnu Ghosh's school, for he knew that if anyone could help to heal his knee, it was his teacher. Six months later, his knee had totally recovered. Ghosh was a celebrated physical culturist and the first to scientifically document Yoga's ability to cure chronic physical ailments and heal the body. Bikram was asked by Ghosh to start several Yoga schools in India. The schools were so successful that at Bishnu's request Bikram traveled to Japan and opened two more. He has since brought his curative methods of Yoga therapy around the world.
