Bikram Choudhury (*1946) was a student of B.C. Gosh (a brother of Paramahansa Yogananda), who was primarily an internationally renowned bodybuilder. As an Indian “strongman”, he practiced strength training and hatha yoga exercises as a kind of sporting discipline. Bikram was his student from an early age and he won the Indian national yoga championships three times in a row at the age of 13.
Gosh sent him to Bombay and he began to design a scheme for his lessons there: The series of 26 exercises was created there. In 1973, he went to California in the USA and patented the sequence as “Bikram Yoga” in 2003. His book was published in 1978 and was translated into German as“Bikram Yoga: Das Praxisbuch” in 2005.
The foundations of this yoga come from India, but nothing more is known except that it was influenced by B.C. Gosh and was mixed with bodybuilding
The practice:
The second name for Bikram yoga is hot yoga, as it is practiced in a warm room at 35-40 degrees Celsius. The sequence begins with a special pranayama exercise, followed by a fixed sequence of 26 classic physical exercises and ends with “breathing fire through the mouth” (Kapalabhati).
The high room temperature is intended to promote mobility and detoxify the body through heavy sweating. Naturally, the heat is very demanding on the circulation – you have to try it out and decide for yourself whether it’s right for you. Here is an authentic impression:
In line with his background, he sees his training as a sport and has committed himself to making yoga acceptable as an Olympic competition discipline with compulsory and freestyle exercises. Here is an example of the “compulsory” part:
Continue to the next yoga style: Iyengar Yoga
