As you might know, there are a lot of types of yoga, all of them interesting and challenging. Let’s see now what Bikram yoga means. Firstly, we’ll create the scenario: a guru, very polite, spreading love and peace, smiling.
Then the atmosphere: hot, approximately 43 Celsius degrees. People are standing at an arm distance, are crossing their fingers behind their hips and are breathing as if they had to move furniture.
After 90 seconds men are wringing their T-shirts and women are raising their tops in the limits of decency.
This is Bikram yoga, which has become very popular nowadays. According to the latest statistics, about 3 million people all over the world sweat ant stretch during Bikram yoga training, paying about 10-12 dollars for this privilege. A Bikram yoga room is cool and scented by perfumed sticks, and everything seems so quiet.
Bikram yoga does not mean to move your body and to twist it in impossible positions, standing on your head or in lotus. Bikram yoga has only 26 positions, and some of them are not more complicated than the exercise “head on your knee”, which is performed before football matches.
Besides, you don’t have to perform long exercises in such positions, only 10 – 20 seconds. The only thing which is a will test is heat. Imagine, at 37.5 Celsius degree the guru may ask: “Is anybody in here cold?”
Beginners groups may perform at 52 Celsius degrees. The only sound which is heard is the sound of sweat drops on the plastic mattress. Students are usually extremely focused on what they are doing. After a few warmer positions, they usually stand on their toes, with their arms forward and they have to bend their knees until their hips become parallel with the ground. In this position they have to keep their balance on their toes. The next step is to lift the heels, and so on, the training may continue, until the next exercise begins.
This kind of yoga may sound tough but anybody can succeed if they keep trying. In fact human nature is always bored of too easy things, isn’t it?
