12/09/2025
Bikram Yoga utilizes 26 of the ancient Hatha Yoga postures in a unique therapeutic sequence, as well as two breathing exercises taught in a heated yoga room. The heat increases your circulation as well as allows the muscles to more easily stretch. Each session is 90 minutes, designed to work through all the major systems of your body. The class begins with Pranayama breathing to oxygenate your body. Then, throughout the sequence you bend the spine in all four directions to encourage proper alignment. You also compress and stretch your spine a number of times to maintain its full mobility and create space between your vertebrae, which is particularly important as we age.
Once your spine is happier, you feel better and that’s not by accident. Since all of the nerve endings coming off of your spine go to your organs, your organs can again function at their maximum capacity and that starts happening just 15 minutes into the start of class.�Everything about the Bikram Yoga series is by design. The postures and their holds create a tourniquet effect in your body. In essence, you are ringing out your organs like a dirty dish rag. Then you stand in stillness to allow fresh oxygenated blood to flood through you like a high-speed irrigation system.
On top of what’s physically happening to your body, there’s also a powerful mental component. Every studio has mirrors. On day one if you don’t like what you see, there is nowhere to hide from that. The self-realization aspect of Bikram yoga can be the hardest to confront but over time that changes as your mind and perspective shift based on what you’ve learned about yourself—that you are capable of far more than you ever believed. You become your own best teacher and you learn to fall in love with yourself.
For 90 minutes you are in a moving meditation as your mind thinks of each body part, freeing it from the outside world. The best part is, the sequence is completely accessible to everybody and every BODY, regardless of size, shape, age or physical limitation. It doesn’t matter if you are the most athletic person on the planet or if you have a severe disability, you can do the yoga.
