Introduction and About Bikram Yoga

“Give me 60 days and I'll change your life.” -Bikram Choudhury

I've been thinking about doing the challenge for quite some time now. Then two days ago I saw "Julie and Julia" and it inspired me to finally take the challenge and to blog it all. I got back home from the movie, googled "Bikram challenge blog" and suprise!- there's tons of blogs of the kind. And people are actually bothered in meticulously describing every single posture on every single day and their experience of it. Is anyone reading that? Every day?

So I promised to keep it all short and sweet and to focus more on a psychological side of the challenge. I'm not only interested in what it does to your body, but most and foremost - how it affects your mind and on a daily basis. I still doubt I'll have enough time to do all the necessary classes in this short period of time, life in NYC is hectic!

At the moment of typing this, I believe that I'm doing this to escape my personal problems (and to learn how to deal with them), to lose weight / to tone up and most probably to be special to myself and others by completing this hard challenge(that's my narcissistic side speaking).

So here's some info about Bikram:

Bikram Challenge - to take 60 classes in 60 days.
The Western world has "amended" the challenge and made it into a "30 classes in 30 days" challenge.

Bikram is a series of yoga poses done in a heated room, which is usually maintained at a temperature of 110 degrees Fahrenheit (approximately 43 degrees Celsius). Yoga at this temperature promotes profuse sweating, which is believed to help rid the body of toxins. It also keeps the body very warm, and therefore more flexible.

Bikram yoga works toward wellness, restoration and rejuvenation. The heated studio facilitates deeper stretching, prevents injury, and relieves stress and tension. Bikram yoga was designed to systematically stimulate and restore health to every muscle, joint and organ of the body. Participants are guided through a series of 26 postures during which the heart, lungs, circulation, muscles, brain activity and mental capacity are all affected. There are two descriptions of the 26 exercises and they are asanas (postures) and pranayama (breathing exercises). Both of these rely on each other to deliver positive results. According to Bikram, many people only use up to 50 percent of their lung capacity, and just like any muscle, the lungs must be stretched in order to (through practice) withstand holding more oxygen. When one is practicing the pranayama s/he will eventually be able to enhance oxygen conversion and absorption, as well as improve blood circulation.

It is common for beginners to experience dizziness and nausea. Beginners may feel faint or pass out. It is encouraged to take breaks as needed if a participant is feeling lightheaded.

According to Choudrey: Blood circulation is affected immensely during Bikram Yoga, because of two processes called Extension and Compression. These two dynamics are said to work together to deliver fresh oxygen to every joint, muscle, and organ within the human body. While performing a specific asana, the body is stretching or compressing a certain part of the body; thus, cutting off circulation temporarily. This restriction of circulation causes the heart to pump more blood in reaction to the shortage. The pumping of excess, fresh blood is called extension. Once the asana is complete, and the individual comes out of the posture, then the new oxygenated blood is able to rejuvenate the arteries that were being compressed. It is said that because of the volume change and influx of fresh blood, any infection, bacteria, or toxin can be released.